It's nothing new: Clothing sizes are bogus.
Across different brands — and sometimes, even within the same brand — the actual measurement in inches of, say, a pair of jeans may not be the same measurement for another brand's jeans in the same size.
Even among plus-size brands.
To prove it, we looked at 14 different brands that carry plus sizes to show the range of measurements for the same size. In this case, we looked at the hip and waist measurements for jeans in a size 18 across these different brands and plotted them on a chart. (Where brands didn't list 18, we went with 2X, or whatever the equivalent of an 18 is for those brands.) Here's what we found:
Uniqlo, at the very bottom-left corner of the chart, lists its size-18 measurements at 41" hip, 34" waist — the smallest measurements of all 14 brands we looked at. Uniqlo launched larger sizes for US customers in 2014… but in three years, still remains the outlier among other brands that offer plus sizes.
Zara isn't too far behind, but we've already revealed how up and this brand's plus-size offerings can be.
Forever 21's size-18 measurements clock in at 52" hip, 42" waist — the largest of all the brands we examined, but only an inch larger than plus-size stalwarts ASOS, Torrid, and Eloquii.
In all, there was an 11" difference in hip measurement and an 8" difference in waist measurement — for what all these brands market as the same size.
Men's jeans and trousers, by contrast, are already measured in inches (waist and inseam), which takes into account that while two men might have 33" waists, they might not both have 34" inseams. One could buy jeans in a 33×34, and the other could buy jeans in a 33×32, and yes, these are two different sizes of pants, because these are two different men.
If men's fashion treats its customers like individuals, where no two are exactly alike, maybe it's time for women's fashion to do the same?
Cover image: Instagram/gabifresh
