A DECEPTION OF GARMENT SIZES

A previous blog entry discussed the epidemic of obesity that exists now in America. Concurrent with this is an unspoken but accepted agreement betwen suppliers to "benevolently deceive" the American market.

The original article was reported by CBS News in 1995. Click here for the full text of the article. Salient points follow:

A common way of making overweight people feel smaller is by expanding the world around them. Architectural designers call it “framing.” What is its relation to garments? Well, clothing designers “frame” constantly. Garment sizes depend heavily upon perception so fashion designers frame sizes to project the image that consumers want.

Garment sizing is a major topic in fashiom design. Over the past 20 years, the American fashion industry has manipulated clothing sizes to accommodate its widening public, especially women. To show how sizing has changed over time, size-eight dresses from the 1980s, 1990s, and today were compared. The waist circumference on a 1984 dress was 25 inches. On the 1995 dress, it was 26 inches. And on a 2004 dress, it was 27-1/2, a two-and-a-half inch difference from 1984 to 2004. Furthermore, “the sizing deception is a product of American ingenuity. Sizing standards in other parts of the world have remained constant. The Europeans have an entirely different view of fashion and their sizing hasn’t changed.”

The deception is intentional, because although the woman has gotten bigger, her garment size stays the same or gets even smaller.