With a cursory “scan” in the closet, I determine the clothes by size XS up to L. If you do not look at their tag and do not see them “by eye”, you can swear that everything above and below is the same size – but by no means that they are separated by three numbers. I also found myself walking out of a well-known clothing chain almost with a sense of delight that I was wearing characteristically comfortable trousers. size 34, but also leave another chain like a loser like jeans number 38 he forced himself to get up and zip it up like hard work.

I do not pretend to be a personal exception, but a reality that, one way or another, happens to every woman who buys ready-made clothes – first of all fast fashion, second of all smaller brands that are not made to order for her. Anyway.

“You don’t fit in anywhere”: number 8 in 1967, number 00 today.

Question “What size am I wearing?” looking for an answer chronically unstable. Maybe every time we go shopping we feel like we don’t fit in, but the numbers have “grown” over the decades.

This may seem counter-intuitive from the above, however, in order for the market to satisfy the need for consumers to feel like they fit into a smaller size (no matter how much we strive for body positivity, generally speaking, we always feel better when we feel better. ). more stylish) what he did was increase his size.

OUR twiggy, the model that revolutionized the catwalks in the 60s with the introduction of the skinny concept, which has been the fashion norm for decades now, 1967 It was number 8 – which even then was the smallest size of women’s clothing. Today he will wear 00.

What changed; In other words, gradually, over decades, the proportions of each size have increased, thus making room (mostly) for smaller sizes to enter the market and for female consumers to feel that way not just thin, but almost webbed – to be not just a zero, but even a double zero to achieve a double small win .

This so-called phenomenon vanity size which is “basically a marketing gimmick because ‘we should be smaller’ – if I see myself hitting a lower number I’ll be more relaxed about it” as explained in a very simple way Margarita Gurgurini, fashion brand strategist and on his Naked King podcast. Of course, this reminds us of the obvious that “no woman’s body is like another”, which turned out to be “the biggest problem in a patriarchal society when it had to industrialize products for the female body.”

Certainly, From where vanity has infiltrated for decades, it is now infiltrating brands. Every great chain is built own story in clothes, something that is strongly reflected in its size. The chain, which targets mainly women over 40, will be very generous with clothing sizes. Another who wants both the 20th and 50th as a client will have the widest size grid. And the one whose clothes “scream” from afar, Gen Z will have sizes that are better suited to teenage rather than female bodies.

Another thing to consider is how production in international fast fashion chains is almost impossible to fully control at every stage. “Except for very small brands, no one can claim absolute transparency in clothing production, especially large companies,” confirms Margarita Gurgurini.

Big chain, she also has many different suppliers in its raw material, which in turn processed and cut in various factories -Some of them may belong to the respective company and some may not. For some reason, one cannot be sure that the cotton he ordered has exactly the processing that he was told, for example. And then, if the clothes that will be released, for example, on the European or US market, are made in a factory in the Far East, there will be a problem, since the bodies and, therefore, the sizes are much smaller there. – European 36, say XL by Asian standards.

Do you understand what’s going on when we buy clothes online, which is why, as you have already seen, in many cases online clothing stores have size charts next to their numbers. Not that it always literally worked. If one day you’re standing in line at the post office, count how many women have returned clothes they bought online. Simply put, even a trouser belt attached in a slightly different way can completely change the fit of a garment. Just as every woman’s body is different, so is every piece of clothing, in fact, at least slightly different from what is next to it.

We’ve been talking exclusively about women’s clothing for so long, since that’s where the sizing issue mostly comes in, but it’s not like we don’t run into it in menswear as well. As Margarita Gurgurini says, men with fuller bodies often have difficulty finding clothes which fit well. The noticeable difference, however, lies in the perception of the body and clothes: if you tell a man that he is not wearing an M, but an L, he will probably be delighted, maybe even feel “more manly” than a woman. who, if she sees that instead of 38 she suddenly wears 40, she will feel like a failure.

Clothes for bodies, not bodies for clothes

Any attempts to contact fast fashion chains proved fruitless, so I turned to two small brands which each with his own philosophy tries to embrace more correct size like clothing—whatever “fits to fit” means in an industry that for decades hasn’t decided how to measure it, but only wants to measure it according to the times and the market.

OUR Caravan clothing – one of the domestic clothing brands, which in recent years has been loved not less than for its colorful and printed patterns, but also for comfortable loose lines that comfortably fit every female body.

As explained Argyro Kouluri, production manager and member of the Karavan creative team, it’s not easy to make sure that clothes are both XS and XL and fit equally well in both cases. However, the concern of the brand’s team of 15 women is to make clothing in which all bodies feel comfortable.

“To do this, clothing must be technically differentiated.” explains the manager. First, there is a lot of rehearsal when making clothes, “clothes need to be worn in many sizes so that you also understand what the needs of the bodies are, which is what we call ‘real’ bodies.” The garment may then look the same in its S and XL versions, but in order to work in both cases, the pattern has technically changed. For example, a pleat that gives volume can be used on a small size garment, but not on a larger garment.

As part of this process, which Argyro Couluri does not hide that it is not always easy, there are many factors that a brand must consider, such as: clothing fabric. The caravan follows a specific size chart, in which S, for example, corresponds to 68 points. “But for denim, which is a stiffer fabric, 68 points is not indicative of an S, so we need to give it more points so that a woman in size S feels comfortable in it.”

Elina Magafosis, again, urges us not to pay attention to clothing sizes and to give a basis for their conformity. After all, this is what she herself tried to do as the main designer of the collection. Temeno from Lucky Gavalas.

As the designer explains, “Every brand and every designer defines the identity of a product and a company not only based on design, but also through the lines and volumes of clothes. So every company is different. But even in clothes of one brand, you can wear S in one collection and M in another, because of this another application.

With Temeno, an attempt was made to eliminate stereotypes related to size and gender in clothing as much as possible. This is a sexless collection that is worn from morning to evening, and consists of two different lines: miniature And ordinary. Thus, a sweatshirt, for example, in the petite collection may be L, and in the regular collection it may be M, but practically it has the same size, which is logical. fit > size.

Elina Magafosi also notes that in recent years, fashion has shown, among other things, “shift towards comfort and authenticity” and for those who accept it, it is also “written” on their clothing number. So a person who wears size S may have adopted a style that leads them to choose size M or even L, which fits more loosely.

“Size is just a number”

Finally, how should we solve the size problem? Margherita Gurgurini suggests asking yourself a very specific question: “If you want to help yourself, the planet, your wardrobe, every time you see a piece of clothing, you should ask the question: “Can I marry you?” That is, to buy “with conscience and feeling” those clothes that, as we think, will accompany us for a long time.

All we have to do is focus on our strengths, highlight them and accordingly hide the ones that make us feel insecure, in a way that makes us feel confident. This is also emphasized by Elina Magafosi with one more note: “Fashion will always change. From all these offers, we choose what he does with us.”

Let’s remember that the next time we enter the test room without paying much attention to what is written on the card.