Over the past 20 years I’ve been aware of how they have gradually changed the size of clothes so that bigger women were wearing smaller numbers. Men don’t have this issue since the size they wear is not a random number for them but their waist size and inseam. I find it really annoying that the media bombards us with images that most women don’t resemble and then manipulate things like clothes sizes to try and boost the self esteem they just bashed into oblivion.
We all know women who will say “oh I wear the same size I wore in high school”, well guess what honey, in case you don’t own a mirror that means you are about 20 –25 pounds heaver or 4” bigger in the hips and waist. Before my thyroid went haywire I had gotten to 118 in 2002. I didn’t buy any new clothes because I thought I would still lose more and get down closer to what I consider my normal weight around 100 pounds. I knew the clothes sizes had changed but since I was wearing leggings I had no idea what my actually number was or what it would be at my normal weight.
This time around now that I am healing I speculated that perhaps I would wear a size 4 if I were at the 100 pounds of my youth. Imagine my surprise when I found a Wal-Mart clothing size chart a couple days back and found the actual measurements of different sizes.
In my late teens and through to about the age of 26, I weighed between 99 and 103 and I wore a size 7-8 and depending on the designer sometimes a 5-6. I measured about 331/2 bust 23 1/2 waist and 34 hips. So I look through this new chart and the shock of how much they have changed sizes sets in as my measurements in some categories make a size 2 the size I would be wearing by today’s standards!
A woman’s size and woman’s petite size 2 is 32 1/2 bust 24 1/2 waist and 35 hips my bust was bigger than that and that is still an inch bigger at the waist and hips than what i was.
So I scroll down to the juniors and a size 3 on that chart is exactly the same. Then they have something called Metro 7 women whatever the hell that is, and it is my old bust size of 33 1/2 for a size 2, but the waist is 26 and hip is 35 1/2 WTF! Then one last thing on the chart is junior Elite where a size 0 yes that right ZERO has my old waist and hip size but a bust of 31 1/2.
SERIOUSLY??????? can this be for real I was not the thinnest girl in Seattle when I was 20-25. I had some fat on me in fact, (that’s why I had boobs apparently) not a lot and it likely would not have been there if I had worked with weights but still I had some. I always thought back then that I should be a size 5-6 and I didn’t think my body was good enough! I actually thought my waist should be 22” LOL
Back at that point there was no such thing as a size zero and a size two was someone who had anorexia, extreme hyperthyroid disease, or was dying of cancer. Joan Collins starring in Dynasty was a “perfect size 8” The designers loved her because if they made their designs for the exact measurements of what a size 8 was anything they made would fir her perfectly. Now a women’s size 8 is 35 1/2 – 27 1/2 – 38. What happened to the hourglass the 34-24-34.
The last few seasons watching biggest loser there have been times when a contestant was really excited in the makeover show to fit into a size 8 and i always thought looking at them ok things have gone terribly wrong. They have lost a lot of weight but that aint no size 8 in my mind. My mom had the same reaction I recall one season where she just blurted out “EIGHT you’ve got to be kidding me”. The smallest size she wore back before the size changes was a 9 and she was looking at a women much bigger than she had ever been.
You have to wonder if these changes in sizes have actually contributed to the overweight of America. Are women just in denial of how much they weigh because they can fit into a number that they are OK with? I do feel I can get back to my normal weight around 100 pounds now that I have discovered what my thyroid needed but I really don’t know how I feel about going out to buy a size 0-3. Do I really want to be headed for zero, that sounds so absurd LOL I want to head for absolute health and I know that 100 pounds is a reasonable healthy weight for a 5 foot woman of my build but really I would like that weight to still be my size 7-8 and occasionally fit into a 5-6.
Perhaps they are trying to get the average Hollywood starlet to be a zero as time goes by and so we think the zero represents perfection or something equally insane. At the rate we are going though Americans will keep getting fatter and so the sizes will be adjusted further and the Hollywood hotties will be have to go into negative sizes. I can see it all now the new ideal with be to get into the minus sizes.
I really have very few pictures from when I was younger that show my body at all in most I am wearing a big sweater or something that doesn’t show what a 7-8 was.
Ok just for fun here are a couple scans of old Polaroid’s from 1978 LOL That is me at the age of 15 a size 7-8 and the pants are a little baggy at the butt. The second is me on the right and my friend Sandi on the left she was a 5-6
I’m probably 21 in this pic still a size ummmm 7-8!
Tatiacha Bhodsvatan 