Dear Vanity sizing
 

I hate you. You are terrible. You are deceptive and ugly. You made me think my butt was getting smaller when it is actually the same size, maybe bigger. You have a tag that tells me you are a size 18 (which I still hate) but when I measured you, you are 2 inches bigger than the size 20s I have worn for 5 years. You suck and I want you to go away.

Ah vanity sizing, my love/hate relationship continues.

The best explanation I've heard is that a company matches the middle of its size range to their average size sold, and then size up and down from there. This has to do with creating patterns and ordering fabrics. So I think it's not necessarily vanity sizing (although I'm sure that happens also) - it's just a reflection of America's average measurements going up, up, up.

But still frustrating. I am wearing size 6 pants today, that I KNOW are about the same as 10s I wore 10 years ago. I never thought of myself as size 6 even when I was at my slimmest (which is my goal, 130 - not counting any teenage stuff :o), and here I am wearing them while 10 pounds over goal.

Less law abiding, but my my neighbor says he used work in TX close to the border and his job wass putting tags on things. Including removing the "Made in Mexico" tags so companies who think the quality will be less from mexico will still buy from them Not enough mediums? Take off those large tags and put mediums on!

This is a major pet peeve of mine as well. I have some beautiful size 10 dress slacks that are more than 10 years old and barely worn, waiting patiently in the back of my closet. I'm not going to be seeing THOSE 10s for quite a while longer. Fer gawd's sake, just do like the men do, and say - it's a 32W and a 43H. Spare me the need to take 3 or more sizes to the dressing room!!! GRRRRRRR!!!!

That would be so awesome! I would love it if they would size women's clothes like men's clothes. Think how much easier shopping would be! Some still might have trouble finding pants that fit in the thighs or butt right, but still, so much easier!

When I was a teenager, my friends and I would sew a new dress for every formal dance and I have one of them tucked away. I was never smaller than a 10/12 pattern yet my niece who is a 0/2 tried my dress on 30 years later it fit her perfectly. Hmmm...

LOL yep vanity sizing makes life interesting!

As for patterns, since I began sewing the pattern sizes have never matched off the rack clothing sizes, not even close. No clue why.

When I was growing up in the '70s, there was a store for slender people called the 5-7-9 shop. Everyone wanted to be able to shop there! If you wore a size 5, you were way thin. Size 5 was as low as adult sizes went in stores. If you wore a size 3, you had to special order. And below a size 3 meant you wore kids' sizes. There were no 0-2 sizes. Back then, the "average" woman was a size 12. I wonder what the average woman today would be in yesterday's sizes! Perhaps if we all still had to face the sizes of clothes back then, we might have watched what we put in our mouths a little more carefully along the way! Also, I think that's why I still get confused when when someone tells me they wear a size 8 and I know there is no way they are as thin as I was, at 5'8"-5'9", when I weighed 125 and wore a size 7/8. I still look at them and think, "There's no way you are smaller than a size 12." I guess my brain doesn't adapt well to today's sizes. And a size 0? What IS that?! That doesn't even make sense! It's almost like the food industry with their bigger portions and the clothes industry with their smaller label sizes got together and made it acceptable for us to get bigger!

As a teenager, at 5 ft 5 inches and 132 lbs, I was a size 11/12, and sometimes a 13/14. Today, I'm 5 ft 7 inches and 175 lbs and a size 11/12 and sometimes a size 10...
Hmmmm....
:D
Kira

Yeah. As a teenager I was 5'7", 120#, and size 6-8 (mostly 8). Now I'm 5'7", 140# and size 6-8.

I have from size 4 to size 10 in my closet and some of every one of those sizes that fit and don't fit??? And also have junior sizes 5 to 9's and same applies???

What I hate is when your BMI says you are overweight, but you can wear a size small shirt...LOL Why doesn't clothing size match the scared BMI charts. When I was in the obese range I could wear a regular large...does that mean that obese is the new "large"?

Oh and if vanity sizing isn't bad enough, now they add the "W" to 12's and up. So you have a size 12 and a size 12W, (which is the same as today's 14) Oh brother.

I can't stand vanity sizing. It doesn't make me feel better to know that I 'm wearing extra smalls, size 2's and 4's. And even the occasional ZERO. It makes me feel like a fraud.

And it really, REALLY makes me wonder where the real skinny girls are shopping. You've got your plus sized stores. Your regular sized stores. And what - your NEGATIVE - sized stores??????

Obviously no company HAS to follow "rules," but in general, W signifies a different cut, not just size. So a 12 Ladies and a 12W would fit differently. I haven't personally seen this with size 12s, but I can definitely vouch that a Ladies 16 and 16W fit me very differently. The W had a much longer rise in the front to make room for more belly.

I JUST pulled out my vintage "Canadiana for the family by BEEHIVE" knitting patterns from 1962. My mom gave it to me. Here are the sizings for these knitting sweater patterns.

Measurements:
Size 6 -- bust 26 inches (garment finished size is 28 inches).
Size 8 -- bust 28 inches (garment finished size is 30 inches).
Size 10 -- bust 30 inches (garment finished size is 32 inches).
Size 12 -- bust 32 inches (garment finished size is 34 inches).
Size 14 -- bust 34 inches (garment finished size is 36 inches).
Size 16 -- bust 36 inches (garment finished size is 38 inches).
Size 18 -- bust 38 inches (garment finished size is 40 inches).

:fr:

Kira

Yes, a friend of mine who wears size 4 at a place like Banana Republic reports that she's really into vintage sewing patterns...and in a pattern from the 1950s she'd be a size 14.

I have all of my measurements from 20 years ago, and I know I was always a size 8 then (maybe a size 6, when I was really skinny). Today I wear size 4 jeans and they're getting kind of loose. I have a size 6 skirt from before I had kids: it's tight. A recently bought size 4 skirt is quite loose.

It's ridiculous. I know it's not "vanity" -- it has to do with the average size of the population, which has exploded in the last 10 years. But the change in clothing sizes is really crazy.

On the W and misses sizing, it really does fit differently. In misses I wear an 18 and in W I wear a 14 top 16 bottom. The 14/16Ws fit me way better than the 18 misses. The 18s don't have enough differential between bust/hip and waist for me, they are more straight up-and-down.

I find American sizing fascinating. As soon as I got off the plane I dropped 4 sizes ha! I had the best time ever shopping! You see, never in my lifetime in Australia will I see an 8 (a US 8 is a 12 here)! But I also found a HUGE disparity in sizing over there. In one store I was a 14 in another a 6 and on average an 8.

When i was a teenager (43 now) I weighed 115 lbs. I wore a 7/8. I remember borrowing a pair of my friend's size 5 jeans for a date. I still remember that date vividly because I couldn't breathe the whole night! lol!!!

They wear couture! :dizzy:

Oh Gawd, I sure HOPE NOT! Lori, that's a nice idea but BMI can be very misleading. How about if you have a lot of lean body mass? That does not necessarily mean you are large. I find BMI rather useless.

Speaking of sizes .... just the other day, I watch a re-run on one episode of X-Weighted - we had a discussion about the girl in that episode last year - she was a former plus size model and wanted to return to modeling, and she succeeded. However, the fashion industry considers size 14 the Plus Size.

Hi there! Size 14 is where the Addition-Elle and Penningtons sizes start. It IS considered a plus size, and alot of the plus-sized models are size 12, too. But rarely a 4x...sizeism in the plus-size industry? You can be big, but not TOO big...sigh..

Kira

This is pretty much it, W sizes are cut differently and the ratios are different, basically they are made for rounded people. I really cannot wait for the day when I cannot fit into them anymore.

RR, I have often wondered this myself! Where on earth do they find clothes tiny enough--juniors or little girls I am guessing.

oops ... I somehow posted the same reply twice .... deleting

I used to think that was strange too. Until I realized - regular-size models are much thinner than regular-size women, and in the same way, plus-size models are thinner than plus-size women.

Not that I think models should be smaller than the women they're modeling for. But it makes sense given the way the industry is.

That was one of my wake-up calls - that I was not only needing larger sizes, but the W sizes started to fit better because my shape changed.

Notice how men don't have these sizing issues. I agree with the poster who said we should be sized as men are. Men gain weight, go from a 32 waist, to a 42-no big mystery.
The industry is just messing with the minds of women.
Regardless of weight, just look at the different sizes of womens chests. How do we tolerate a sizing sytem like S, M, L or 2, 4, 6...? When clearly our shirt sizes should be 32; 34; 36; ect (or something to that effect.)

For goodness sakes, men even have their neck size accounted for in their sizing!!!

I actually shop at the Juniors stores. But since I'm 45, I'm pretty limited to the few items that are age appropriate. Some of that stuff is really - out there - and I'm only partially out there ;). I have gotten some nice blouses, jackets, skirts and pants though from time to time.

does that mean I'm a 10?!? wow. Why are they so horrible to me in Australia? ;)

Can't wait for my trip to the US next year, I might be shopping in single figures... oh happy days.

Clothing sizes are really ironic for me. For YEARS I complained that I could not find cute clothes in my size. The plus sized clothing that was appropriate for my age was AWFUL!

Now, 95 lbs later, I have a similar complaint. I live in a small town, and not one store had shorts that fit me. Junior clothing fits, but I'm not fond of low-rise pants or large embellished pockets that scream "look at my backside" (this 50+ old chickie was raised in a different era).

I finally ordered some shorts online. I have a few stores that carry small sizes that I order from. It took me a while to find the right size, but once I did - I am so thankful for online shopping!

When I was 200+ lbs, if I found something I liked and it fit well, I bought one in every color. How sad, that with some clothing items (shorts in particular) I'm doing the same thing now.

The truly frustrating thing is that I'm really not very small. In vintage clothing I wear a 7/8 or even a 9/10.