Is anyone else out there getting really annoyed at the vanity sizing? For years, I have noticed that every time I come back to the States (usually every other summer), I’m down a size–without losing weight.
At first, I admit, I thought this was swell–not because I was fooled, but because it is fun to grab smaller sizes. Now, though, I’m just plain annoyed. I have a closet full of clothes that don’t really fit because I never know what size I really am. Yes, I do try things on, but I personally am not fond of staring at myself in mirrors, and I tend to try something on, glance to see that it fits okay, and then move on. So now I’ve got a drawer-full of shirts that make me look frumpy–they are supposed to be fitted but they hang a bit. I bought them, in my size, last summer at Old Navy. They are so loose that I can really only wear them to the gym. But I have a t-shirt, in a larger size, bought the summer before, that fits really nicely, and is basically the only t-shirt I can wear out in public.
And really, do they think we are that stupid? If you need a new shirt, are you more likely to buy it because it’s a size 8 instead of a 10? All it means is that, in any given store, you never know what sizes to take into the changing room.
What prompted this? Our 3 days of warm weather (we are back to cold and grey now. Not that I mind–I’m off to sunnier climes soon enough). I realized how badly I need shirts, but who has time to go shopping? Not me. And given the weird shape-shifting nature of sizing these days, I don’t want to risk online guessing shopping. Guess I’ll be making that one t-shirt really work, all the way to California. How many days in a row do you think I can make it last?
Planet Nomad 
17 comments
May 23, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Kelly @ Love Well
Hear, hear!
Thanks to vanity sizing, I had to try on every article of clothing I bought this spring for my post-baby body — whilst simultaneously dealing with said baby and her older siblings.
It was a nightmare.
I really think most marketers (and TV station execs) think the majority of American women are idiots.
May 24, 2008 at 4:33 am
Lonie Polony
Yes! I am very annoyed about it! Bra cup sizes are getting ‘bigger’ and clothes sizes are getting ‘smaller’, and now whenever someone says they are a size 10 it’s completely meaningless. Some of my clothes are supposedly a size 10, but if I went into a shop catering mostly to teenage girls, the size 10 wouldn’t fit over my big toe.
Let’s have some reasonable and consistent sizing, please!
May 24, 2008 at 5:08 am
Antique Mommy
So. Annoying. I ordered a bra on line in what has been my size since 1974 . I will be passing it along to an 11-year-old.
May 24, 2008 at 9:02 am
angie
And here I thought I had actually gone down a size. j/k.
May 24, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Jolyn
I have had the same problem, and am so confused.
May 25, 2008 at 12:18 am
Linda
You should live in France if you want size shock. To fit my less than size 10 body, I have to get the largest size the have, a T5. There are a few shops that sell clothing for real sized people not the size of a fetus, but I gotta tell you that it is depessing.
May 25, 2008 at 5:16 pm
shannon
The vanity sizing trend drives me nuts. I need to be able to order clothes online. Indonesian are generally very petite, at 5’6″ and around 140 lbs I feel like a fat amazon. Clothes shopping here is a nightmare. You can spend hours hunting through the racks to find something to fit and end up with a XXL shirt that is tight but cheap. Ummmm, I lost 25 pounds over 2 years I don’t want to wear anything that is labeled XXL! No thank you! The other choice is to go to the big shiny marble clad mega malls, to Debenham’s or one of the other European stores, but then you get to pay European prices plus the import mark up, Ouch! I tried ordering by the web only to end up gifting my petite maid with new clothes. I have been wearing the same clothes for 2 years, most of which are too big now. I plan to shop till I drop as soon I hit the states this summer.
May 26, 2008 at 5:26 am
meredith
Well, I definitely prefer buying clothes in the USA. In France, my pant size is my age whereas in America, I can wear my youngest daughter’s age in pant size. How’s my reasoning?
May 26, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Carrie
I thought maybe the problem is Old Navy, where i have bought shirts that fit, and they get stretched out and frumpy after one season of wearing them. Cheap Gap t-shirts do the same thing. . .only, the ones I bought last year didn’t make it through the summer! I like companies like LLBean, whose clothes actually seem to last.
BTW, my wedding was GREAT! I’ll send pics soon!
May 26, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Inkling
I agree on the t-shirt thing–you can buy the same size in three different stores and have them fit three different ways, but it doesn’t really matter because none of those t-shirts will last you more than a month or two before they start to lose stitching, turn funny shades, and get stretched out. And you know, I am so tired of being subconciously accused of obesity wherever I go, by billboards and magazines and TV and whatever else. They don’t think we’re idiots, they think we’re prey. Rgh.
May 27, 2008 at 9:34 am
cce
They ain’t what they used to be…clothes I mean. Even when I buy high end brands, my clothing doesn’t seem to last very long. Stretching, fading, seam unraveling, it’s clever business. Sort of the razor blade model…if things are made too sturdily then the company sells less quantity.
May 27, 2008 at 11:10 am
Becky
For years it has frustrated me to no end that I would never know what size to select from one store to the next. I was excited to find that shopping in London was fairly easy, since they list US sizes along with British and EU sizes, but soon figured out that they weren’t always…shall we say…accurate according to my recollection of what my size was. And I had lost 15 pounds since shopping in the States, too!
I’ve gained a TON of weight since then, and have recently discovered Lane Bryant – you know, the company that understands that just because you’re fat doesn’t mean you’re tall, too? Unfortunately, their jean sizing method doesn’t improve things – they start at size 1 and go up….but their size 1 at any other store is going to be somewhere around a 14. And there we have it – the vanity sizing.
I say we start some sort of revolution – all of us (not dumb!) women who have the media and the clothes companies figured out. Whoever wants to lead out – I’m behind you!
May 27, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Sue
I don’t mind vanity sizing, because I’m fat. Sometimes I’m a 14, sometimes a 16, sometimes an 18. Sixteen is the magic number after which you usually can’t shop in “regular” stores like the Gap. With vanity sizing, voila, the 16 still fits, even when it probably “shouldn’t” fit. So I benefit. Now, if they would make the sizes consistant, but also carry larger sizes in “regular” stores? That would be the perfect storm of goodness.
May 29, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Jane @ What About Mom?
I HEART vanity sizing. You skinny people can just go TRY ON SOME CLOTHES.
dang it.
Good point on the “regular” stores stopping at 16. I’m a 10-12-14, and I would hate it if the “normal” fashions weren’t stocked in my size. Though it was almost equally sad when I saw some cute looks in a LB store, and went in to find that everything was too big. Couldn’t they all just get along?
June 3, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Caffienated Cowgirl
My husband and I have long conversations about this. I wear anywhere from a 6-14 in US clothes…how insane is that? Husband, who can walk into a store and pick up a size 36 jean every time, wonders why womens clothing manufacturers can be so cruel…and he’s hit the nail on the head. I met a woman who was a size model for a few companies. She said she was there size 6…and frankly she was tiny…she was not the size 6 that I used to be.
June 9, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Veronica Mitchell
I am a very large woman currently, but even my vanity would happily take the hit if manufacturers would actually sell clothing by our measurements rather than arbitrary size numbers. Today I went in search of maternity pants, and within the same store I wore three different sizes.
June 16, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Nicola
Im average height 5’5″ and average weight 120 pounds. I have always worn a size 4/6 but now a size 0 is too big for me. I literally have to have clothes made/tailored which is pretty ridiculous considering im at the middle of healthy weight for my height (according to the Dr.) If I buy designer or European clothes I wear a size 6/8 but I cant really afford them so buying pants that fit happens few and far between for me. AND if I complain at a store that they no longer carry my real size they roll their eyes and I can just tell they are going to talk sh*t about me being thin and a B**** – which I am not – im healthy. God bless the USA.