I’ve been gone for a while. While I’ve been gone, I’ve somehow managed to lose a decent amount of weight. I’ve been working out more than I have previously in my life, but not so much that it should really have made an impact on my size.
Yet when I go shopping, I’m fitting into extra-smalls when I used to wear large or mediums for tops and I’m pretty consistently Smalls on the bottom. I even own a pair of pants right now that are labeled as a size 2! In full disclosure, these pants are from the Gap, which typically runs a bit big, but even knowing that, they are also skinny jeans.
You’re probably thinking now that I’m going to say that there’s something wrong with my body for me to be losing weight like this.
NOPE!
What I actually believe is wrong is the sizing in these clothes. Now, these are clothes from a few different stores that I’m wearing, so it’s not just one particular store, but rather it’s a sizing trend in general.
I’m 5 feet 7 inches (since I’m trying to stand up straight lately) and while I am getting close to very skinny for my frame, I do not have a small frame by any means. By that I mean that I have shoulders and I have hips. Call me crazy, but I wouldn’t say that 5’7 is terribly short for a girl, nor is it terribly tall. This to me indicates that if I am a small 5’7, then I should be wearing small or medium clothes.
I don’t understand how a girl who is 3 or 4 inches shorter than I am and has a similar build could possibly shop in the same places that I have been. If I’m wearing an extra small (today’s shirt that I bought yesterday happens to be labeled XS, but it’s actually a bigger fit than I would have liked) how could someone with smaller shoulders possibly find anything in that store to wear?
Something that I do understand is the growing waistlines of Americans as a whole. I’ve wondered a bit lately if that’s where this sizing issue is coming from. Is everything now being cut bigger so as to fool us into believing that we are smaller, therefore nudging us to buy more as a self-esteem boost?
I have to admit, I’m not a fan of this practice, though I have fallen victim to it.
I don’t meant that to come off as some sort of diatribe against bigger sizes, I just find it ridiculous that not only do clothing companies seem to be duping us into buying “smaller” sizes, but also that we seem to be falling for it.
I know this is a little whatever coming from a semi-size 2, but my size is not what gives or takes my own self-esteem. It’s things that I do that make me feel better and give me confidence, and to be honest, I was better with that when I was a size 8, a real size 8.
I don’t have a solution to this, and since I’m still buying these clothes I guess I’m part of the problem, but hey, at least I can blog about it, right?
