Now I both understand and don't understand...

[orangerful]

If you've ever been in an American clothing stores, staring at the pants sizes, wondering WHY GOD WHY ARE THEY ALL THE SAME SIZE YET ALL DIFFERENT - turns out it was the Department of Agriculture's fault

Here's Why Clothing Sizes are the way they are

*sigh* I wish they could just go to actual inches, save everyone the hassle and humiliation of trying on 5 different pairs of the same pants to figure out a companies sizing for that season in that fabric on that day.

Comments

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Wow, that article was a wild ride. Thanks for the link!

[rhoda_rants]

Oh man, this is fascinating!!! And makes both more sense, and less, at the same time. This is like when I found out all celebrity clothing is tailored and that's why they always look good. (And other reasons, but still.)

[yourlibrarian]

The thing that jumped out at me the most about that article was actually in the comments section. It explained why I've had this experience when ordering two different colors of the exact same pants:

"I'm not sure this will be interesting to you, but it is actually possible that due to the way jeans/pants are manufactured in bulk with huge machines cutting through a huge stack of fabric all at once and then piece sewn with little quality control, it is very likely for a stack of pants in the store all of one "size" to vary vastly even from one to another. I have picked up a stack of 4 size 12s of the same design of pants and had each one fit me differently!"

I've come across the same style pants with one having an extra 2 inches at the hem and others with differences in the waistline. I'd no idea that fabric was cut in stacks though it makes sense given the quantity of production.

[orangerful]

Never even thought about that! *sigh* I guess that is what we get for demanding cheaper clothing. Machines don't care about our sizes! They are trying to drive us mad!

[yourlibrarian]

It's certainly a very expensive problem for online retailers. I always check the sizing guides but they are often very limited or just plain off, especially when you get into larger sizes because body differences just become more extreme in that case.

[rahirah]

It's maddening. Even the places with weird plus size systems like Torrid and Chico's all have different ones!