american clothing sizes

i hear this alllll the time, that marylin monroe wore a size 14, 16 whatever...

so anyway i'm gonna burst some bubbles here.... if anybody does has an eating disorder, this might make them feel worse so do NOT read on....

okay, i'm chunky now as all can see from my gallery, but i wore a dress from the 40s or 50s for halloween when i was 11 and i was a short, but still pretty average 11 yr old (probably around 4'10" and under 100 lbs) and the dress was an 8. so anyway, i KNOW that sizes have changed and marilyn monroe was not fat or even very large (by today's standards) when at her largest..... which was about 140 lbs at 5' 5 1/2" according to snopes. anyway i looked it up and found some stuff on the web... i know others might not care but my teacher brought it up in class yesterday and ppl were talking about eating disorders and stuff and it was getting on my nerves.. i know the ideal woman looks different today than in the 40s but models and actresses were not fat back then either.

anyway here's the snopes take on it: http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/mmdress.htm

and some old dresses with sizes and measurements:
http://jabotsboutique.com/wdresses.html

Americans today ARE fat.... as i'm sure we all know already
http://www.thebudgetfashionista.com/archives/shopping/petite_no_more.php


i also found this article from a viatnamese american girl talkign about sizing differences in american and asian stores... thought it was interesting that at 5'7" and 130 lbs she was wearing mediums in american clothes and extra larges in the viatnamese stores. http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/dialogue_opinion_letters/pns_american_size_0605.asp

so... there ya go, do not use marilyn monroe's (or any other 1940's model's/actress's) dress size to talk about the differences in ideal body type, please.

 

yea, i think all sizes should be standardized based on actual dimensions.

 

Oh yeah, I knew that, because I've worn my mom's clothes from the 70's I guess and sizes were different then too. I've wondered why they change sizes the way they do, is it to make people feel or worse or better about themselves, I don't get it.

But yeah, I didn't click on any of these links, but in my mind I've always thought of it like she was close to what would be an 8/10 today, and yeah what was most popular then was a bigger size than it is now, but it was still not large. Today I don't know what the popular size to be is, but it's smaller than it was then, even though the majority of people now are much larger than they were back then. It's very odd.

I like to get clothing that is sized by inches, but that rarely happens. I do like to keep track of my measurements though, because I can't just go somewhere and think I wear a size whatever and it's actually going to fit.

 

I have to admit that here I have to buy size 0 or 1 clothes... and back in Europe (or if shopping at H&M for example) I buy size 3 or 4... not a big difference but still...

When my mom first came to the U.S, she was gonna buy some clothes in the large section as she would do in Europe, but the clerk was shocked and brought her to the small section.

Another thing I noticed: pants here in the states are NORMAL LENGHT. That is normal average women's height. In Europe pants are way too long for the average woman... why because most of them are done in Scandinavian countries (best example still H&M, from Sweden) where women are all super tall.

 

dangermoose, (too lazy to go back and quote you)

yes like men's clothing with measurements as sizes... it would make it so much easier to find clothes too and not ranging between 4 sizes depending on brand.

penny, i didn't realize that there was a big of a difference between european countries and us too... interesting

 

The sizing is done on a curve (no pun intended) because Americans as a whole have gotten larger. If they hadn't a medium would be a size 20 or larger.

 

And then I'd have to say I'm an xtra, xtra, xtra small, and that would be fucking annoying.

 

um, i'm 5'5" and at 140 i'm pretty chunky. mind you, i LIKE it, but i'm not thin by anyone's measure.

 

oh, and when i was that weight, i wore a 12 long.

 

they just keep making clothes bigger to a smaller size thats why smaller people like myself 5'2 102lb have such a hard time finding pants that fit right.

 

well, it's they're going by measurement in inches, i'm fairly certain that an inch is still and inch. i think some of the problems come in the cut and shape. for some people, a 36" hip is mostly in the bottom, for others it may be on the side. depending on the cut in the style, the fit may be all whacked out. my hips flair out quite a bit, but my butt isn't what anyone would call round. so the ass sags, while for some reason the hips are baggy. i'm also short waisted, so buying low-rise jeans mean that i buy jeans that come up to my natural waistline, instead of right up to my tits (which would be a classic cut). the problem with that is that my waist is a good 10-12" narrower than my hips, so the fucking things don't stay up at all. i hate buying pants. 'm considering learning to make my own.

 

I love H&M, especially their stella line....sigh

 

My roommate and I were talking about something very similar, yesterday...

People are NOT built like they used to be. I mean, you look at my mom, and then you look at me. My mom is 5'11 and around 170lbs. I'm 5'3 and 105. Not built like they used to be.
The roommate and I decided that, if we had to pick the "ideal" body type, we would choose my husband and our friend Alison. My husband is around 5'9-5'11 and 160-170lbs. but he's also pretty well built. He's never worked out in his life, and under a very thin "jiggly" layer, he's quite solid. Alison is just a bit taller than me, and most people consider her "fat" because she weighs around 130-140... the way I see it, she isn't fat at all. Women are SUPPOSED to be cushy, they were built to bare children and breastfeed and care for the men in their family when they got hurt hunting.
But these days, most people consider my husband to be fairly well-built for a guy that's never worked out in his life, and most people will say Alison is "fat" or "chunky" because she's short and perfectly curvy. I think it's ridiculous.

Sometimes, I WISH I wasn't as small as I was. Even women were built for survival... not so much, these days.
I don't pay attention to sizes, just hold it up and guess whether or not it fits, try it on, etc. And then I cut the tags out of my clothes so I don't have to look at numbers varying from 00 to 14 (yes, I'm serious) and letters varying from XXS to XXL.

 

depending on the cut, i range from a med to xxl, or from a 10 to an 18. it's fucking sickening.

 

Thats why I like Silver Jeans. They are kind of expensive, but they run like guy sizes...by waist and inseam.

Never have to try them on either. I love it.

 

that's something i'm going to have to look into. i'm losing my mind. though i'm really happy that skinny/straight leg pants are coming back into style.

 

Thank you for that. It bugs me when ppl say women are suppose to be chunky cos then I'm looked at as some anomoly as I naturally have low body fat, women come is all shapes and sizes and ALWAYS have. BTW both of my doctors say my weight is perfectly healthy for my frame and my low body fat is nothing out of the ordinary, just may seem very low in relation to today's obesity epidemic.

DeathRowDisco the trend has been to larger sizes so your experience contradicts the trend. Besides genetics, trends are so complicated AND we don't even have much data on body types of the pass so it's hard to say ppl are not built like they use to be. Make sure the tags you cut are not the ones with care instructions, I often get second-hand clothes and the tags are cut off so I have to guess at how to care for it

I've read these stories long ago how the same clothing size has gotten more generous... suppossedly to keep up with the increasing body girth to make the wearer not feel so fat, it's a business tactic.

I really don't care about the stated size as I bring 2 different sizes into the changeroom. I would never buy anything without trying it on first as I like to fully check it out, squat in it, see how my skin feels in the fabric (I have sensitive skin), make sure it's not too tight in the neck, cuffs, etc (I've bought pants that fit everywhere but was too tight in the ankles , never made that mistake again).

 

well, the medical experts have a general agreement on what makes a healthy body. if i'm unhealthy with too high a body fat percentage, then someone with too low a body fat percentage would be, also, and should be treated as such. not that they should be hammered unto death for it, but it should be addressed, and not glorified. nor should any unhealthy body images, either too fat or too thin, be put forth as a stylish standard. if i gotta hear my doctor complain about where i am physically, if i gotta hear my family complain and make incorrect assumptions about my eating or lifestyle habits, then it's only fair that my poor brethren on the other end of the spectrum should hear it, too. there's a difference between making the best of what you are while trying to achieve good health and glorifying it.

 

You have no idea how normal this made me feel. Especially since you're only a few inches taller than me. Aaaah, bien.

Odd though, I tried on a size large skirt and it was actually too big. First time that's happened in like five years. Medium was way too small of course.

Anywho... I usually wear a 12/13/14, depending on the fabric and find. But I have pants in a 10 I fit comfortably and pants in a 16 that feel almost too small. I have small tanktops I can still wear, and yet some new shirts I buy are xl. It's ridiculous how random sizes are these days. Even when I worked in clothing... the jeans all fit similarly for size but the pants or capris made from other material fit sooooo differently. I was contemplating size 14 jeans after buying a size medium pair of capris that are almost too big for me.

 

It is interesting you mention the sizing in Asian stores. My brother in law is living in China now and for the next couple of years. When he comes home to visit he brings us gifts. Jewelry is pretty inexpensive there, actually everything is, but that isn't the point. The point is, that he has to buy everything in the largest sizes they have for everyone. He asked if they had bigger sizes than what he picked up and they said no. They aren't big people, so they just don't make things as big. He said that everything in Walmart is so small that he couldn't buy anything. He is a big boy like tall and muscular, not fat by any means. They all love him though because of it. The women swoon and the men are in awe. But it sucks for me because I have a beautiful pearl and emerald necklace that doesn't fit around my fat American neck too well.

As far as Ms. Monroe, first of all, duh, who doesn't know that she really wasn't fat. And people who want to still believe she was, are in denial. But really who cares. People should stop comparing themselves.