Clothing Sizes Aren't What It Used To Be

Sizing charts for clothing can come with their fair share of discrepancies from store to store. This sizing chart put together by The Washington Post and Metrocosm only further demonstrates how sizes can vary, as if thumbing through the tags in your closet wasn’t evidence enough. Collecting size information from 1958 until 2011, the chart shows how “vanity sizing” has played a major part in the sizing standards in place.

According to her measurements back in 1958, Marilyn Monroe was a size 12 with her 34-inch bust and 25-inch waist. And with those measurements today, she’d be anywhere from a size 00 to a size 8, according to the chart. So, as time goes on, sizes get smaller to make people feel tinier than they actually might be. What’s even more confusing is that the system varies from brand to brand.

My only question (besides who cares what size you are?) is how much longer until the fashion industry gets this whole sizing issue under control? One uniform system would be nice. I vote we just go with measurements like in menswear. I mean, wouldn’t that just be easier? Maybe seeing laid out in chart form will help companies realize how ridiculous this all is. Get a load of these numbers:

Good luck trying to determine your size, right?

Image: The Washington Post, Metrocosm