One of my biggest pet peeves in life are women who say they are one size yet they clearly are another. Or, gals who feel the need to go on and on about their current size, yet we come to find out they shop in the tall section or wear cold water creek clothes. I always want to say…YOU KNOW I CAN SEE YOU, I’M NOT BLIND.
You have probably heard that Marilyn Monroe was a size 12. It’s no rumor, back in the 1950’s Marilyn was actually a size 12. But by today’s standards, Marilyn would be a size 6.
According to Wikipedia Vanity Sizing also known as size inflation is used to refer to the phenomenon of ready-to-wear clothing of the same nominal size becoming larger over time. Vanity sizing tends to occur in places where clothing sizes are not standardized, such as the United States, although within the United States it occurs far more frequently in women’s apparel than in men’s, partly due the widespread and far earlier adoption of standardized measurement for men’s apparel for military uniforms (where, for example, a pair of trousers with a 32″ waist and a 32″ inseam must be labeled as such regardless of who made it).
It is generally acknowledged that clothing of the same nominal size has become larger over the years.In 2003, a study that measured over 1,011 pairs of women’s pants found that more expensive brands tended to be smaller than cheaper ones of the same nominal size.
So I’m going to put it out there, I’m 5’8″ according to the Biomachine that my company pays for that measures weight, height and body fat. At my last Weight Watchers weigh in I weighed 195.8. I am currently a size 16. I wear size 16 from the Gap and Banana Republic. I fit into a size 16 skinny jeans at both stores. When I get to my goal weight of 150 I will be a size 10 (based on what I wore when I was in my 20’s and the last time I saw 150).
In comparison, a woman who I work with is 5’7.5″ (also according to the Biomachine at work) she is 140.3 pounds, she is a size 8 from Banana Republic.
I don’t know why this bugs me so much but it does.
Maybe I’ll go boost my ego this weekend and go to find a pair of Vanity sized pants..I can’t buy them, but I’m sure squeezing my size 16 ass into a pair of size 10’s will make me feel svelte. Then I’ll find some rose colored glasses and try on a bikini.
I’m with ya. I’m the same height as you, measured the old fashioned way. I wear a solid size 14 (so I look sorta like Kate Dillon in your pic). Ugh.
My colleague at work is a good 1.5-2 inches shorter than me, but calls herself 5’8″ and weighs 230 lbs (we’ve gone to weigh-ins together). And wears a size 16. Yeah, sure.
This bothers me, too.
I’m Tammy’s friend…oh wait. I wear a size 20.
I always thought the expensive clothes ran big…like I could wear 12 in INC, but wore 16 in Eddie Bauer, back when I was 175.
I took it because INC was more $$ than EB.
Sizing bugs me. I wear somewhere between a W14 and a W20.
So very true. I am wearing Size 8 jeans now at 5′ 10.5″ and 178 pounds, but back in the mid ’90s when I was 25 pounds lighter than I am now I wore a Size 10. Go figure.
And with all the stretch fabric in so many jeans nowadays, they only fit you for an hour before you “magically” become a size smaller. Amazing!! LOL.
Nicole you seem to have hit the mother load of vanity sized jeans. I know my cousin was 178 and wearing a size 14 and she 5’11.
You should frame them and put them in a museum somewhere.