Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Everyone knows that women's clothing sizes are nebulous and change over time.  But men's pant sizes are also lying to you.

I wonder how this has changed over time.  Would old pants from thrift stores be more honest?

1 comment:

Esther Rimer said...

I always go up several sizes when I look at vintage clothing. Women's size 18 in the 1950s is about equivalent to today's size 10!

These clothes sizes were equivalent to sewing pattern sizes too (though this is not the case in the present day.) If you look at womens' sewing patterns, you can see sizing ranges stay constant across pattern companies from the 1930s to 60s and jump up a size in the 60s. Sizes go up again in the 1970s or 80s to the present day. They no longer truly correspond to ready-to-wear sizing.

Not sure about guys' patterns. Would have to look and see if the same thing occurs.