Recently I decided to re-vamp my wardrobe. So I took all the money I received for Christmas and hit Birch Run’s outlet mall for some after-Christmas sales.
Being a former ballet dancer, I already knew it would be hard to find jeans that fit right. My legs are very muscular and long. Trying to get skinny jeans over my calves is a struggle, whereas my waist is fairly small in comparison.
Knowing this, I was already prepared to try on several pairs of jeans before I found even one that fit. What I did not expect was the disparity in sizes.
I walked into a store where I know that I usually wear a size six or seven in regular length for pants. So when I go to the racks, that’s the only section I look in. At one store, a size nine had gotten mixed in with the size sevens. I grabbed them without checking the size.
In the dressing room, I had five different pairs of jeans: four that were a size six and the size nine I had accidentally grabbed. I bought the only pair that fit, which was a size six.
Remember that size nine that I didn’t realize I had grabbed? When I went to try them on, I couldn’t even get them all the way up. I took them off to check the size, assuming that a size three had accidentally been mixed in. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I couldn’t even get a size nine on!
And yet, the size six that I bought fit comfortably, maybe even a little big around the waist. So why couldn’t I fit a size nine?
I understand that every brand fits a little different. But that is more than a little. On average, I wear a six or seven but in that brand, an 11 might have still been a little tight. Also, they were boot-cut jeans, not skinny jeans.
With rumors going around that the fashion industry is considering making sizes six and up plus size, it’s no wonder why girls and women can have such negative self-images and the prevalence of eating disorders has grown.
It’s annoying that a size six in one brand is not the same as a size six in every other brand. It’s even worse that as the number gets larger, the fit is smaller. I stand at 5-feet-6-inches and weigh 145 pounds. I am by no means a larger person and yet that day I felt like I had gained twenty pounds because of a number on a pair of pants.
This is also why I never buy clothing online. You never know if the size you’re buying will actually fit because they’re all different. Why can’t the fashion industry regulate sizes? Why is it that one brand can say that a size three is one set of measurements, while another brand can say the exact same measurements constitute a size nine?