For this genre I did a lot of research on standard clothing sizes and vanity sizing. Being a female consumer, especially one who loves buying clothes, I’ve been privy to America’s ridiculous clothing sizes for awhile. Typically I’m a medium but at Forever 21 I can sometimes squeeze into a large. I wear size 10 jeans but I’ve been able to fit in a range from size 8-14 depending on what store I’m in. Although I think I’ve always realized there’s something wrong here, I really became cognizant in the past few years of how asinine sizes truly are, how frustrating it can be to shop for things like jeans or a bathing suit. Sizes vary store to store and even by finding the correct size of a garment it’s almost impossible to find one that’s 100% perfect. Pants are either too big but just the right length or just the right size but a tad too short. I love buying clothes but sizing makes it such an annoying process to find good garments. It irritates me to no end that such an inefficient system is used and it seems everyone just takes it. It’s pretty clear there’s a problem to any woman who’s ever gone shopping, but it’s something I seldom hear brought up, and I definitely don’t see anyone trying to change this. This is an issue I’ve been wanting to make a statement on for awhile but never had the right platform. Even though I’ve been frustrated at the sizing system for awhile, doing research on how it all works made me realize just how convoluted it has become. I read a great article from Slate that gives a brief history of sizing. Since the olden days sizing has been against women. At first the numbers would mean your age. Clothing was sized by age assuming that each woman had an hourglass figure. From there, clothing was measured only by bust, and still made for an hourglass shape. Even though these methods were sexist to assume every women will have the same body type, at least they were simple. The next step was a survey of women to find averages and create the basis of the sizing system we know today. As designers continued to fit every woman they continued to add more arbitrary numbers to address any situation. I found Women’s Size Chart and their Men’s counterpart to look at the standard sizes today. The men have a way simpler system, only having about 3 charts. The women’s page however has so many different charts for different height, or age, or measurements. All of the charts only make the process more confusing as many of the sizes contradict each other. (As a side note I would like to point out that the men’s page was blank sans the charts, but the women’s page is riddled with ads for “tight dresses” and “revealing costumes"). Worse than that there’s a large amount of vanity sizing at popular stores, where brands will intentionally mislabel garments to make their consumers feel skinnier because they fit into a smaller size. Who What Wear and Racked had some great charts on how certain brands vastly differ from standard sizes.
In actually creating this genre I wanted to have a bit of fun, take a more satirical stance. I wanted to create something that looked like a genuine how to list from a magazine or something, and have it slowly devolve into confusion and madness, much like sizing when you really start to try and find your true size. I’m really happy with this genre. I think it achieved the tone I was going for. It’s funny but still points out how ridiculous sizing is. I think the bottom turned out really well, as it gets more confusing. The look of it captures the confusion and chaos. I’m really happy with how it looks and the feeling it gives, it’s exactly what I was picturing when creating this concept.