Vanity Sizing - Size Chart For Different Stores

**pinkbunnyslippers** · May 31st, 2012, 05:01 PM

One Size Fits Nobody: Seeking a Steady 4 or a 10

It’s a familiar problem for many women, as standard sizing has never been very standard, ever since custom clothing gave way to ready-to-wear.
So, baffled women carry armfuls of the same garment in different sizes into the dressing room. They order several sizes of the same shirt online, just to get the right fit.
Now, a handful of companies are tackling the problem of sizes that are unreliable. Some are pushing more informative labels. Some are designing multiple versions of a garment to fit different body shapes. And one is offering full-body scans at shopping malls, telling a shopper what sizes she should try among the various brands.
“For the consumer to go out and navigate which one do I match with is a huge challenge, and causes frustration and returns,” said Tanya Shaw, an entrepreneur working on a fit system. “So many women tie their self-esteem to the size on the tag.”
As the American population has grown more diverse, sizes have become even less reliable. Over the years, many brands have changed measurements so that a woman who previously wore a 12 can now wear a 10 or an 8, a practice known as "vanity sizing".

A woman with a 32-inch bust would have worn a Size 14 in Sears’s 1937 catalog. By 1967, she would have worn an 8, Ms. Zulli found.
Today, she would wear a zero.
The full article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/bu.../25sizing.html

**witchcurlgirl** · May 31st, 2012, 05:16 PM

The only way you'll ever get uniform sizing is if there is only one fit model in the world, and every designer uses her.

and the part of the article about the difference between Banana, gap and old navy hip sizing is nonsense. I wear the same size bottoms from all three stores. Clearly the writer doesn't know the difference between high hip and low hip, which is how she mut have arrived at her conclusion.