why size matters

Anyone who has ever purchased clothes knows that size isn’t consistent.  In fact there is no such thing as a size ‘standard’.  Each manufacturer sets their own sizing and, usually, tend to stick with them.  As a woman, you’ve undoubtedly learned who ‘fits small’ and who doesn’t.  

And if you haven’t been living in a cave you’ll also be aware that over the last ten years of so, you know that sizes have been increasing, but while staying the same – which is to say that the size 10 you bought a few years ago is the size 6 you bought recently. 

If you’re like me you don’t weigh yourself very often but instead use your clothes as a gauge of your weight gain or loss and mostly was a decent way to judge.  When things start to feel a little tight it’s time to lighten up a bit.  And this is why I’m currently in a bit of a conundrum about the role the clothing manufacturing industry has in the management of my waist line.

Now realistically, nothing, but somehow that doesn’t sit so well with me.

For some reason I am pretty good at maintaining my weight.  Over the course of my adulthood I’ve pretty much been the same size.  As I’ve mentioned before, my office moved away from the more populated area of the city and in so my habit of running a few errands over the lunch break wasn’t possible anymore.  The reason I mention these facts is that I seem to have added a few pounds over the last year, unwanted ones   However, I have also seemed to have reduced my clothing by a size.

I’m no math wizard, but that does not add up.

Weight is a ‘massive’ issue in North America, one that I’m not going to go into beyond my own experience. And this is where I start to question if it is reprehensible that clothing sizes continue to grow in girth but stay the same in name – giving us all a false sense of the facts.

Recently I tried on pants at a store where I shop in a regular basis.  They manufacture their own brand so the sizing is relatively standard year to year.  But this time, some of the garments I tried on where two sizes smaller.  I had not lost the estimated 20 lbs required for that much of a size difference.  And I was stunned.  So stunned I mentioned it to the store manager.  Fortunately this seemed to be an isolated incident but it still makes me wonder how much the recalibration of sizing affects the weight of North Americans.

In the end there’s probably nothing to be done except maybe uses the scales instead of the waist band to gauge my size.