Commenting responding to several people - sorry, I haven't kept track of who!
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You are correct according to the chart, a 26.5 inch waist is a 4-6 today in most things, 10 years ago was a 10-12.
Puts a whole different spin on the information that Marilyn Monroe wore a 12/14 doesn't it? It's not that what is desirable has changed *that* much; it's that the sizes have changed.
I used to work for a clothing manufacturer in the Women's Wear development department and Kaplods is totally right in her description of how sizing works. When I worked where I worked, the company was in the middle of a huge sizing reconfiguration. One of the things we did was bring in over 400 women to be measured (a series of over 150 measurements per woman) to create an "average". The average size of all of the women across all size ranges had gone up in the 15 years since the project previously.
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I think that's kind of sad - the "average" woman is that much larger than she used to be?
Now, see, I don't think it's "sad". I think it's a good thing. Part of the reason that we're larger (and it's not just women, but men, too) is because of better nutrition. Also because women are not expected to wear foundation garments (girdles, bras, etc.) that distort their true shape. Now obviously, we in America (and some other countries) are larger due to obesity rates, but taking obesity out of the equation, people as species are larger due to better nutrition and so forth. Anyone who has ever looked at historical costumes in a museum or toured historical homes can see that beds, chairs, clothing, etc., all were MUCH smaller 50 or 100 years ago.
Here's just one source for you:
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http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/F...iceIsRight.htm
In the U.S., statistics for students ages 18-20 entering New England colleges show a remarkable gain in body size from one century to the next. The average height of men entering Amherst College increased from 66.8 inches in 1861 to 70.5 inches in 1957. (The share of freshmen 6 feet or taller increased from 4 percent to 33 percent.) For women entering Vassar College, average height increased from 63.5 inches in 1884 to 65.1 inches in 1957. For the Amherst men, gains in weight outpaced gains in height during 1910-57.
It wasn't until later in the 20th century and the introduction of processed foods (as well as the reduction of physical jobs) that height increases began to be eclipsed by weight increases.
Also keep in mind that "ideal" and "average" are two different things. Again, drawing on my experience working in structural design (not fashion design), we designed clothes across a range of sizes based on the AVERAGE (as measured by real women from the community) NOT based on the fashion model ideal. Clothes used for fashion shows and shoots were custom tailored and often custom sewn in house specifically for the models chosen - but the clothing in the LINE that was sold in stores was manufactured by patterns based on the average.
Just some info from the inside (albeit 15 years ago inside).
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