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Measurements vs Standard Sizing
NEWSLETTER
8/19/20261 min read
For years I was a size 6. When I started needing to size up to an 8 I felt embarrassed. I felt I was no longer in that magical size sweet spot of a size 6 or less.
I know I’m not alone in this experience. You may have had a similar experience, of feeling some shame around the size of clothing that you’re trying on at the store. It’s practically a universal experience for women.
Standard sizing is rigged against us. The sizes are inconsistent from store to store and based on a single measurement that doesn’t take into account all the dimensions of your body. Societally, there is an arbitrary size cut off for what is acceptable that doesn’t align at all with the actual sizes women come in. These sizes get tied to our worth and often make us feel ashamed of our bodies.
But what about when you measure your waist in inches? What do you feel then? For me, it feels mostly like a number. I don’t hear chatter in my head of what an acceptable number of inches is. I think most women don’t even know off the top of their waist measurement. It’s a number, a measurement of size, just like a pants size. But it doesn’t trigger instant bouts of shame. So the number isn’t really the problem.
When I take measurements for a custom piece I request a minimum of 20. This isn’t a signal of custom clothing being more complicated; body shapes and sizes are much more diverse that standard sizing leads us to believe. Off the rack sizing has been misleading women about what “normal” bodies look like.
If it takes a minimum of 20 measurements to fit a garment well, how can just one clothing size be enough to tell us if our body is acceptable?
