Weighing In On Fashion
We've all been there–the dreaded dressing room. With its direct lights and full frontal mirrors, it can be the perfect set-up for 
an emotional breakdown.Why is it nothing fits!? You have always been a size 6 at Banana Republic, but nothing in size 6 is fitting you when you shop at your neighborhood boutique. You move on to size 8 and the zipper barely closes. You look in the mirror and think of a stuffed sausage, something wrapped so tightly in its casing that it bulges indiscriminately. This is followed immediately by a feeling of self-loathing and possibly tears.
an emotional breakdown.Why is it nothing fits!? You have always been a size 6 at Banana Republic, but nothing in size 6 is fitting you when you shop at your neighborhood boutique. You move on to size 8 and the zipper barely closes. You look in the mirror and think of a stuffed sausage, something wrapped so tightly in its casing that it bulges indiscriminately. This is followed immediately by a feeling of self-loathing and possibly tears.Let me see if I can help–as early as 1921 the National Bureau of Commerce and large pattern companies agreed to give uniformity to a standard of sizing through the 60s, or until some smarty-pants discovered that consumers bought more clothing if they were a smaller size. According to the Standard Classification and Corresponding Body Measurements, a size 16 comprised the following measurements; Bust 34, Waist 28, Hip 37. In today's mass production market those measurements are comparable to a size 6. That is a difference of 5 sizes without so much as doing a single sit-up.
What to do?
The next time a sales person asks you what size you are, just say, 'the one that fits.'