Trying on clothes is a nightmare. If you’re anything but stick thin, you’re going to have a hard time finding clothes that fit. You can think that you’re a certain size, and try on clothes in that size, and then realize that stores are all liars that want you to feel bad about your body.
Forever 21 is probably the worst offender. A Forever 21 large is the equivalent of any other store’s small. I’m typically a medium/large at most stores. I have a booty, and hips, and boobs. So many times, I’ve gone to Forever 21 and tried on a shirt or dress, and realized that it wasn’t going to fit over my boobs or my hips.
Then, there are stores like Brandy Melville, with “one size fits all” branding. But bodies come in all different shapes and sizes, and there is no way that one size could ever fit all bodies. For items such as pants or skirts, this is even less realistic. Some women have butts, some women have hips, or thighs, or they don’t. Clothing that fits a woman with a booty is not likely to fit a woman without one. Clothing that fits a woman with smaller boobs isn’t going to fit a woman with bigger boobs. That seems like common sense. So why don’t clothing brands understand this and operate their stores accordingly?
Kellie Anderson, a Western U grad, said that she’s “learned to never trust a size on a label. It’s sad that those numbers can be so misleading and skewed and make you feel terrible about yourself. I use to obsess about that number, and I never want to feel like that again. To be honest, that’s why I typically wear leggings.”
Jeans are probably the hardest thing to shop for. Denim sizes aren’t universal across all retailers. At some stores, like Forever 21, I would never attempt to shop for jeans unless I was in the mood to be disappointed. Often, jeans will fit one part of my body but not another—for example, they would fit my thighs, but wouldn’t button. Or they would be tight in the thighs, and then gape around the hips. This is honestly one of the biggest reasons that I don’t wear jeans often (aside from the fact that jeans are leg prisons).
Younger girls are especially susceptible to feeling shameful about their bodies when stores market this way. Kara Waites, a student in 4th year MIT says that she “remembers how traumatic it was in high school when I was trying on a pair of jeans at a store a regularly shopped at and asked for a larger size. One of the people who worked at the store informed me that they no longer carried any larger sizes. As a teenage girl who’d always been concerned about my weight, I was traumatized; I was fat.”
Sizes have also changed over time: what would have been a size 0 in 1970 is now a size 8. Over time, being thin has become the trend, and stores have changed their sizes to reflect that. So women think that they are fat, or that there’s something wrong with them because stores are increasing their sizes.
2 pairs of shorts from @GarageClothing ..one from 2012 (size 3) & one 2016(Size 7). I KNEW I HADNT GONE UP 4 SIZES pic.twitter.com/8rAkyxzmYt
— Alexie Evans (@AlexieRE_Evans) January 4, 2017
Some jeans, such as Levi’s, display the size on the outside of the jeans, on the leather patch on the back. This displays your size for everyone to see, which seems like an unnecessary marketing ploy.
Alexie Evans, a Western U and MMJC grad says that now, she “tries not to stress about what size I have to find in the store. If I try on a 7 in one store and need to go up to a 9, who cares? That 9 is probably a different size somewhere else. As long as I like the way I look in it, and I know that I’m a healthy size, a number ain’t no thang!”
At the end of the day, clothing sizes don’t matter, and they don’t define who you are. Whether you’re a size 0 or a size 10 doesn’t determine whether or not you’re a good person.
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