Written 2 years ago because I really don’t post these promptly… ever…
Clothes sizing isn’t going to fit your body.
See, standard sizing for clothes is based on what the average body is, which as the American Airforce learned in the 1940s, ‘average’ does not fit anyone from the sample size. (If you would to read more, check out this article from the Toronto Star.)
Ready-to-wear clothing, which is clothing that you buy already sewn and ready to wear, became popular in the 1920s thanks to catalogues. (This is according to research I did for a high school paper like ten years ago, so I don’t have attribution.) That’s 100 years. So surely the fashion industry must have noticed that clothes don’t actually fit people and done something about it?
Well, yes. Brands might take the industry standard sizes and change them, coming up with their own standard body, which they then grade up and down to make their own sizing system. This is why you should always check the numbers in online shopping. The sizes are not universal. This is also why you might hear people talk about brand loyalty—sticking with this particular brand because it makes clothes that fit their particular body better.
In this current age of increased drop shipping, it’s getting harder to trust brands are doing the work of designing and customizing their patterns. The best way to tell is the size chart. You want to see the numbers of what the size actually means. What is the measurement around the chest, the waist, the shoulders, the hips? What is the measurement between those three? If those measurements are proportionate to you and your body, that indicates they may be designing their clothes for a body like yours.
If you have a body which has a larger difference from society’s standard, it may feel larger than just a frustration. American standard sizing, for example, is based off of the average of a survey conducted in the 1940s on white women. For example, bodies that fall outside of stereotypical expectations of gender, ability, ethnicity, and size are rarely accommodated. If there is a country where people of your ethnicity dominate the market, it might be really helpful to buy your clothes there. For example, I had a friend of Mexican heritage tell me about how American jeans never fit her, but Mexican jeans were perfect. Fat people may struggle with how underserved they are by the clothing options available, and how bad their options are. Generally, if you can find clothes that fit the largest part of you, you can alter or tailor them. But that only works if you can find clothes that fit you. The sexual dimorphism of our species complicates this for trans people, who may also find tailor’s shops dangerous—especially during the anti-transgender legislative wave that is still going strong. Disabled folk consistently struggle with the fact that there are so many different ways that bodies can be in this world, and it is so frustrating that our body is rarely commercially viable enough to make clothes shopping easy. Accessible clothing is difficult to find and often more expensive, on top of needing further adjustments. The time and energy that is required to find clothes that suit the needs of our body, our situation, and our selves can turn a simple task into a Herculean feat.
While in many ways, these differences cut, and remind us of the systemic oppression, we already face, we can redirect it. Rather than taking it personally, if we reframe this pain as something the market uses to reinforce our dependence on consumerism, we are able to liberate ourselves of the responsibility of fitting in clothes that were not made for us. So let’s explore some fitting solutions outside of off-the-rack.
Because of this, brands might adapt their standard size to whatever audience they want to serve. For example, if a brand wants to serve older women who might be grandmothers, maybe they’ll add design features to accommodate a larger stomach than a woman in their 20s or 30s might have.
Unfortunately, most people don’t understand this. For example, one time at an event, I met a woman who was selling nice, white button downs for large chested women. I asked her how she got the pattern, and she said she bought it from Joann’s Fabrics. This frustrated me, because the standard size of female patterns is typically for a B cup, which means +2 inches circumference on the chest.
If you have a body which has a larger difference from society’s standard, it may feel larger than just a frustration. Systemic oppression insists those it others to live up to unrealistic, often conflicting expectations.
For example, your ethnicity is unlike that of the dominant culture’s expectations, you are Black, Brown, disabled, and/or trans—those frustrations may feel bigger than just frustrations. They might feel like reminders of how the world doesn’t make space for you. And while yes, the fact that you cannot find clothes that fit you is a reminder of that, and your difficulties with it are larger, thank god it isn’t that this time, right?
In embracing that clothes we buy off-the-rack will not fit us, we release expectations on ourselves and our bodies which are outside of our control. In acknowledging that sizes are just a number made for somebody else, we give ourself permission to explore what could work for us. So how might we find clothes that actually fit?
- Go see a tailor
- Make your own clothes
- Make your own alterations
- Advocate for fashion companies to diversify their pattern blocks
Writ Works 