A Wren Says

If you are a standard American woman, looking to see what size you’d be in European sizing is humbling, to say the least. I was window shopping designer clothing and could tell that I would be on the much higher end than I thought. That is if they even carried my size. Some may see those sizes and assume that designers are being discriminatory and refuse to be size inclusive. Maybe there is another reason.

I don’t want to be that person, but as global corporations, surely messing with your mind can’t be the sole basis of their business decisions. Here are some other reasons that may be at the heart of sizing:

1. The sizing is what it is to meet the needs of their established target market. When brands put together their profile of their typical shopper, they determined that on average they tend to be smaller. Therefore, they offer smaller sizes.
2. As they look at their sales figures, larger sizes didn’t sell well. Therefore, they don’t offer larger sizes.
3. There is some kind of cost involved in improving the size range that is just not palatable.
4. They really are doing this because they are not promoting luxury but thinness.

(I doubt the last one is the full story.)

I’m curious about this issue. As a natural skeptic, I feel the need to push back on the idea that brands have small sizes just because they want to sell the thin ideal. I might be naïve, but that can’t be the full story. That just doesn’t seem to be enough to make sales. There is a greater business case here. I’ll keep digging.