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Vanity Sizing: Just Another Fashion Industry Shaming Tool

Ready-to-wear clothing has become bigger over time. In the 1937 Sears Catalog, a size 14 dress had a bust size of 32 inches. By 1967 those sized boobs snagged you a size eight frock. In 2011, you and your little B cup breasts get a high five from the girls at the gym because you wear a size zero. I think Vanity Sizing is just another marketing/shaming tool.
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Did you even know this was a thing? Ya, news to me too. Listen up to this crap:

Mostly in the U.S. and the U.K., the standards for clothing sizes have changed over the years. So when your friend says "Oh I have been a size 6 since I was in my 20s" you can passive aggressively send that bitch this post. A size six isn't what it used to be, honey.

You see, ready-to-wear clothing has become bigger over time. In the 1937 Sears Catalog, a size 14 dress had a bust size of 32 inches. By 1967 those sized boobs snagged you a size eight frock. In 2011, you and your little B cup breasts get a high five from the girls at the gym because you wear a size zero. Yes... zero.

This from Wikipedia:

"Some argue that vanity sizing is designed to satisfy wearers' wishes to appear thin and feel better about themselves. Designer Nicole Miller introduced size 0 because of its strong California presence and to satisfy the request of many Asian customers. It introduced subzero sizes for naturally petite women. However, the increasing size of clothing with the same nominal size caused Nicole Miller to introduce size 0, 00, or subzero sizes."

Sub-zero sizes? What is THAT shit now? So women are chasing the elusive skinny jean and the size is being altered like a fun house mirror to make them feel better. On top of that, a study in 2003 said that the more expensive the jeans are, the smaller they are cut. So rich women have to pay trainers more to fit into small sizes, and fat women are easily fooled? Is that how this works? Is it that rich women are more focused on their size? That would be a great chapter in a psychology book.

So which is it fashion industry? Are you trying to make us feel good about ourselves or ashamed of ourselves? Oh wait... that is it. The fashion industry is trying to make us do stuff. They keep moving the sizing around because they KNOW people will do shit like this to wear a particular size number:

So when somebody says they don't get on the scale they just go by how their clothing fits, the could conceivably outgrow a size 10, go to the store, buy a size eight that fits perfectly and be happy. Which makes them want to buy more size eight stuff. Maybe I am on to something here?

On the flip side, for me anyway, the idea of going shopping for an evening dress is so daunting, because in the designer racks, I am easily three sizes larger. And why am I upset? Because I am buying into a number that isn't real. Why am I, an intelligent worldly woman convinced that sometime between my home and the store I gained 20 pounds and THAT is why I look like a sack of potatoes in a dress that is supposed to be my size?

I don't know about you girls, but the whole thing pisses me off.

Am I fat, am I thin? I feel healthy but apparently I am supposed to take up running or some bullshit to keep fit yet my pants will magically change sizes regardless. My jeans don't look like they used to but I am going to assume that has something to do with my ass. Also some of it goes to the people who are trying to sell me pants that will counteract gravity.

And finally there is Lululemon. Their dude says that maybe the problem of fabric pilling is because women whose thighs rub together dared buy pants designed for thigh-gap women. Maybe they should have security people at their store entrances making sure that women with thighs that touch can't come in.

This may not be a popular view, but I think Vanity Sizing is just another marketing/shaming tool. The fashion industry and the magazines they feed hate women, they really seem to anyway.

If I could sew... I would starve them out.

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