Vanity Sizing, or when the measures (not) count: do you know what we are talking about?

Women and sizes of clothing: always a very complicated relationship in which the phenomenon of Vanity Sizing. What is it about?

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Let’s start from the fact that it has been widely documented as sizes in women’s clothing are as constant as the marriage status of Jennifer Lopez. It is certain, however, that anyone of us (and who says the opposite, mind – clearly, of course, of being wrong or not) He prefers to buy clothes labeled with small sizes Because this would increase self -confidence.

Thus, starting from the increase in the average weight of American women, who went from 62 kg in 1960 to 74 in 2014, The brands have adapted their parameters to help them slip into more desirable sizes (and push them to buy more clothes). Because, as the Time In an article in 2014 entitled The Bizarre History of Women’s Clothing Sizes, “With the increase in the American abdominal circumference, the ego also increased.” Towards the end of the 2000s, the standard sizes had become so permissive that the stylists have introduced new ones (XXS, or triple S) to compensate for the difference.

All this bears the name of Vanity Sizing, a kind of inflation for which the nominal size (the one that is printed on the label) has become bigger – in terms of centimeters – over the years. For example, today a 70 cm waist corresponds to a 42

A Woman Use a Tape Measure to Measure The Bust of a Beside Woman Her at An Atelier, about 1955. (Photo by graphic house/Archive Photos/Getty Images)Graphic House/Getty Images

The Vanity Sizing It was introduced in the 80sbut it spread very much starting from the next decade when marketing found that Customers were more inclined to purchase if they managed to enter a smaller size. The fashion houses, realizing this, tried to turn it in their favor.

The fact that the fact that The system has always been quite arbitrary to determine the sizes. If in the 1940s a special commission was created from National Bureau of Standards To periodically measure various thousands of women and statistically processing the data collected to determine the types type, which also came from the United States in Europe, from the ’70s their adoption is no longer mandatory, so much so that the dedicated research commission was later abolished.

Today, they are private institutes like Astm International To collect the data relating to the anthropometric measures of the population and to process them in tables that then become the base to create the clothing sizes. Even if, then, In the end, each brand has its own measurements and criteria. We all certainly have noticed that the size of the same size can vary considerably from one brand to another. And so it often happens that a “s” size of a brand corresponds to one “l” of another. In short, The Vanity Sizing He made most of the meaningless labels. And about this also talks about Tiktok.

The mass production of clothes, however, is not destined to disappear: how to find a solution in this numerical chaos? Artificial intelligence comes into play: Companies such as True Fit and Kiwi Sizing, which collect the measures from thousands of labels and then recommend size according to these results and a short survey, are now used by thousands of brands. Amazon also recently developed its own algorithm for sizes; Google, who launched its measurement tools based on artificial intelligence in 2023, and Walmart, who purchased Zeekit, startup of Camerini Virtual, are trying to start a revolution in the retail trade.

Rule of 7 points: if you know it, you dress (well) in a whale

Has mathematics have never been more feminine: ready to make style calculations? Don’t panic, nothing complicated. Let’s talk about the 7 -point rule: the idea is that each garment of the wardrobe has a value in points, and the ideal outfit is worth seven, and in any case never less than six or more than ten. The result? Crazy

The real avant -garde? Would be work collectively on self -esteem, As if it were a bit of a group therapy exercise.

Finally, forgive sentimentalism. But, whoever is reading this article, on the other side of the screen, is certainly beautiful. Regardless of the number indicated on the jeans it is wearing.