Sizing-Up Clothing

Most people I know have a complex relationship with clothing sizes.  I have clothes in my closet that used to fit properly but now don’t. It’s a constant struggle as each new season starts, trying on clothes from last year to realize that they no longer fit. For years I used to beat myself up over this. Why didn’t my body stay the same from year to year? I was trying to make my body fit into my clothing, instead of finding clothing that fit me.

Bodies Are Supposed To Change

Being unable to wear clothes that once fit nicely, feels like a failure and something to admonish myself for. But the fact is, no one’s body is ever static. Our bodies are always changing. Situations like a pandemic or menopause can create sudden unexpected shifts in fat and muscle.** All animals experience body shifts (think of hibernating bears) and we are part of the natural world too.

Problem Started With “Off The Rack” Trend

Historically, it’s only with the advent of industrialized clothing, that people were forced to choose clothing from a limited selection of sizes and styles that may, or may not, suit them. When your family or a tailor made your clothes, the clothes were made to fit the person and not the other way around.*

During the Great Depression, “industrial techniques were improving, making it cheaper for companies to mass-produce clothes. By the end of World War II, those factors—alongside the rise of advertising and mail-order catalogs—had sparked a consumer revolution, both at home and abroad. Made to measure was out. Off the rack was in.”*

Any Size Can Work

During the pandemic, a local clothing shop began selling their clothes in live Instagram auctions, and this started to shift how I thought about clothing sizes. They would try on the clothes for the shoppers and encourage us to explore different sizes than we would do normally. (Let’s face it. Clothing sizes are not standardized, at all!)  If we liked a looser fit, we’d order a larger size than normal. Sometimes an item came in a generous cut and a smaller size would do. Suddenly there was flexibility in how I thought about sizes. I was not a size 8, I was any size that worked for me. 

Clothes That Serve Me

I’m banishing the idea of trying to fit into clothes that “should” be my size. Now, I make the clothes fit me.  I try on a wider variety of sizes for each piece of clothing.  I’m not afraid to have a jacket with longer sleeves tailored for a few extra dollars. I have fun adjusting crocheted sweaters to fit me. When I try on the clothes in my closet at the start of a new season, I’m finding it easier to let go of the things that “shrunk in the wash.” My clothes need to fit me. Made to measure is back!

Would you like to see a future, where technology would allow us to have affordable made to measure clothing? Comment below.

*https://time.com/how-to-fix-vanity-sizing/

**https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003998.

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