Sizing up womens clothing
by Associated Press
9/14/2006
NEW YORK (AP) The sight of all those size-0 models on the Fashion Week runways recalls an oft-quoted line from the film The Devil Wears Prada. Happy to be a size 6, the impressionable young fashion assistant Andy Sachs is soon brought down to size:
Six, her mentor declares, is the new 14.
But for the rest of us folks, the question may be even more basic:
What is a 6, and what is a 14?
As any woman who tries on clothes frequently can attest, a 6 in one place can indeed be a 14 somewhere else or an 8, a 10, or a 2. Which makes you wonder: Is there any logic to sizes, or are they just a random jumble of numbers?
The question might not matter, if the whole issue of size didnt matter. But as the fashion industry has long known, a womans size certainly does matter to her. Call it the psychology of size: We care deeply about the number on that tag, even though its likely no one else will see it, save the person manning the cash register. Perhaps no one else will know, but we know, and thats enough.
Just ask Andy Steiner, a mother of two in St. Paul, Minn.
I hate to admit it, says Steiner, 38, cause I know size is just a number and I like to think Im too smart and feminist to fall for that. But I certainly have a size I consider myself. Of course, Ill buy smaller and maybe one size bigger. But Id never buy two sizes bigger. Way too depressing!
Steiner recalls a particularly rash fashion decision three years ago, when she bought a pricey, too-short designer dress in hot pink, a color she dislikes. But it was a size 2, and she was literally flattered into buying it.
And that feeling, of course, will directly affect whether you make the purchase.
Which is why some clothing lines engage in so-called vanity sizing skewing sizes down to make the customer feel better. Its the reason you might be able to pull an 8 out of your closet from 10 years back, but now, in the same label, youre a 4. (Or, in a spin on that Prada line, your 6 is your old 14.)
I can be a very happy 8 at the Gap, but just squeeze into an angry 12 at Club Monaco, says Berett Fisher, a New York mother and creative director. Naturally, she adds, I dont go to Club Monaco that much anymore.
Gap is owned by Gap Inc. and Club Monaco is a retail division of Polo Ralph Lauren Inc.
And yet vanity sizing doesnt explain most of the disparity. The larger picture is that every designer uses their own silhouette, or fit model, based on their target audience, says Dan Butler of the National Retail Federation. There were once government guidelines for sizing, he says, but they were abandoned decades ago, and were never mandatory. Maybe thats a good thing, says Yalof Schwartz: Everyone would be depressed. Id rather feel skinnier.
Theres some science to back up our fixation with size: In a survey conducted last spring by Talbots Inc., the national chain, 62 percent of women said theyd only consider clothes in their specific size when shopping. Asked whether theyd go up from that size, 46 percent said theyd go one size larger; only 24 percent said theyd go up two sizes. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percent.
And, this is for women in "normal" sizing...no wonder nothing fits off the rack for "big girls."
by Associated Press
9/14/2006
NEW YORK (AP) The sight of all those size-0 models on the Fashion Week runways recalls an oft-quoted line from the film The Devil Wears Prada. Happy to be a size 6, the impressionable young fashion assistant Andy Sachs is soon brought down to size:
Six, her mentor declares, is the new 14.
But for the rest of us folks, the question may be even more basic:
What is a 6, and what is a 14?
As any woman who tries on clothes frequently can attest, a 6 in one place can indeed be a 14 somewhere else or an 8, a 10, or a 2. Which makes you wonder: Is there any logic to sizes, or are they just a random jumble of numbers?
The question might not matter, if the whole issue of size didnt matter. But as the fashion industry has long known, a womans size certainly does matter to her. Call it the psychology of size: We care deeply about the number on that tag, even though its likely no one else will see it, save the person manning the cash register. Perhaps no one else will know, but we know, and thats enough.
Just ask Andy Steiner, a mother of two in St. Paul, Minn.
I hate to admit it, says Steiner, 38, cause I know size is just a number and I like to think Im too smart and feminist to fall for that. But I certainly have a size I consider myself. Of course, Ill buy smaller and maybe one size bigger. But Id never buy two sizes bigger. Way too depressing!
Steiner recalls a particularly rash fashion decision three years ago, when she bought a pricey, too-short designer dress in hot pink, a color she dislikes. But it was a size 2, and she was literally flattered into buying it.
And that feeling, of course, will directly affect whether you make the purchase.
Which is why some clothing lines engage in so-called vanity sizing skewing sizes down to make the customer feel better. Its the reason you might be able to pull an 8 out of your closet from 10 years back, but now, in the same label, youre a 4. (Or, in a spin on that Prada line, your 6 is your old 14.)
I can be a very happy 8 at the Gap, but just squeeze into an angry 12 at Club Monaco, says Berett Fisher, a New York mother and creative director. Naturally, she adds, I dont go to Club Monaco that much anymore.
Gap is owned by Gap Inc. and Club Monaco is a retail division of Polo Ralph Lauren Inc.
And yet vanity sizing doesnt explain most of the disparity. The larger picture is that every designer uses their own silhouette, or fit model, based on their target audience, says Dan Butler of the National Retail Federation. There were once government guidelines for sizing, he says, but they were abandoned decades ago, and were never mandatory. Maybe thats a good thing, says Yalof Schwartz: Everyone would be depressed. Id rather feel skinnier.
Theres some science to back up our fixation with size: In a survey conducted last spring by Talbots Inc., the national chain, 62 percent of women said theyd only consider clothes in their specific size when shopping. Asked whether theyd go up from that size, 46 percent said theyd go one size larger; only 24 percent said theyd go up two sizes. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percent.
And, this is for women in "normal" sizing...no wonder nothing fits off the rack for "big girls."
