I’m not in retail anymore, and I never did clothing retail, but working in theater costuming has really changed my ideas. Like, I know I am fat because at my height and weight my bmi puts me well in obese territory. But measuring people a few inches taller has put an interesting spin in my head. I know someone with the same bust size who is three inches taller and now I understand why some “large” sizes will fit both of us even though by size my cup is several sizes larger than her.
People have been telling me for years that I’m “not fat”. I know they are delusional because of the numbers, but seeing other people with similar measurements does actually put it into perspective.
Kagi (the search engine) recently launched pretty cool T-shirts in their merch store, and to their first 20k paid subscribers they gave one away for free. What struck me is that the measurements were so off: I’m usually somewhere between a medium and a large, but according to the size guide I needed a size small. So I warily selected small and sure enough, when I received it I found that the height and waist are the right dimensions for me. However, it is way too small around the shoulders.
Kagi is an American company and I’m Swedish. I’m kind of fed up with people bashing Americans for their weight and that’s not what I’m trying to do, but I found it interesting how the difference between countries has become ingrained into the very shape of the clothes. There apparently exists no size of an American T-shirt that will fit me because not only are Americans bigger on average, they have completely different body proportions.
There’s no doubt that US sizes have become more generous. Size measurements have increased over the years by about 2 inches. A size 10 from the 50’s fits like a size 8 today. A medium shirt is closer to a large from 70 years ago.
Working in clothing retail probably did some, but not as much as playing sports with other women and seeing a diversity of bodies kick ass. I played a sport with a very wide band of body type variability needed: giraffes, speed demons, bruisers, immoveable brick walls. An appreciation for the beauty of an athlete doing their thing did extend some to bodies in general. And it helped shape my own perception of my body in a positive way. But never enough to erase the negative lessons taught to girls/women from other pressures.
Shout-out to Ilona Maher, US Olympian in rugby, hella good social media poster including excellent dialogue on this very topic. If a person does the social media thing of following celebrities, I highly recommend her.
More than anything, working in clothing retail further confirmed for me that clothing sizes are inconsistent and arbitrary and should not be used to make judgments on anyone’s health.
I love her account! I’m so happy for all the success she’s having, and I appreciate when she shares her vulnerability too. Such a good human.
Thank you for sharing your insights!
Looking at all the top female athletes for different sports is really interesting too
I always wondered if seeing real people and sizes would have helped or hindered someone’s self image.
every woman (especially cis, but also basically evrry transwoman) looks better than me, so it more likely hinders mine (I’m a transwoman)
I’ve worked retail where clothes were a component and the most frequent returns are for clothes too small, like a large exchanged for an XL or an XXL or the largest available size returned for store credit. There are a lot more of the very small sizes than there are very small people, anyone who fits into an S or M has a lot of options and not much competition. This is also more true of women’s clothes than men’s.
Also, clothes aimed more at an older, like 60s 70s years old consumer will have more reasonable size distribution in my experience, but the clothes will be extremely frumpy and odd.
Also, shop the clearance rack, especially when it’s been recently filled with new stuff, there is so much decent cheap clothing out there for like a couple bucks a piece.
I worked doing returns frequently and a lot of women doing returns clearly had the idea they would get clothes that would be fun and racy and it didn’t work out the way they saw it in their mind’s eye, which makes me happy they at least tried. Chase that dream!
I feel like I should mention something about fast fashion and slave labor producing so much clothing today. Also, quite a bit of what is produced doesn’t sell and where does it go? They have to make room for the new stuff.
I dont know if any of that is what you are looking for OP but those are my thoughts on the matter.
That’s so interesting about the returns. And I never thought about the stuff that doesn’t sell. Thank you for sharing!!
Thanks! I’ve done office work too but retail always has this appeal where you get to work directly with the random public and provide an actual, immediate service of value. I really wish it paid better but its frankly incredible to get such a broad view of your regional community if you can figure out how to get people to open up. Having good coworkers that support one another in an active environment is so great too.
Of course, many complaints and concerns about how the industry is changing currently, with AI and election time anxiety, corporate weirdness etc but the site I’m at runs well and has it’s own community that serves the larger area. Amazing stuff, I hope I find a job with a thriving wage that has at least some of those qualities someday.
That sounds refreshing ❤️
I guess this largely depends on the country. Different laws and regulations in different places. I’ve done a bit of clothing retail and it has changed my mind but not with regards to sizing and body image.
Im in retail, but we dont sell clothing…
Thanks for the insight
