Sizing Up Vanity Sizing
By Lauren Law and Chelsea Lu Nov. 13, 2024
Piles of jeans are scattered across the dressing room floor, each one boasting a different size label—yet somehow, all of them fit the same. In the bewildering world of vanity sizing, the fashion practice of assigning smaller labels to inflated clothing sizes, one can feel as if they have stepped into a carnival mirror that has shrunk and distorted their body.
Many brands started using vanity sizing to boost their consumers’ self-esteem and overall fondness for products, as it appeals to customers’ self-admiration by presenting a facade of being smaller. The smallest size available in the 1950’s was a size eight, whereas today, it has dropped to a size zero, as per Time Magazine. Ironically, as the average body size expanded over the years, clothing tag size paradoxically shrank. This allows people with larger builds to fit into smaller sizes, while petite individuals find it increasingly harder to purchase clothes.
Brandy Melville, a popular Italian fast fashion line, adopted a system of selling only one size to create a specific aesthetic targeted at young women and to reduce production costs. Notoriously known for only catering towards slim figures, the brand has faced controversy for incentivizing weight loss and body shaming. However, smaller women stood their ground that it is fair for Brandy Melville to mainly produce smaller clothes, as companies like Torrid only carry sizes for plus sized women.
The documentary “Brandy Hellville and the Cult of Fast Fashion,” released by HBO on April 9 exposed issues of misconduct, a toxic work environment and fatphobia within the brand. In spite of the negative stigma surrounding their practice, Brandy Melville continued their one size standard. However, Brandy Melville reportedly increased their one size to be more inclusive as customers pointed out noticeable size inflation, according to an article from In the Know, a subsection of Yahoo.
“Vanity sizing is just a poor attempt at fixing an issue that brands created themselves—valuing a specific body type over others. If companies really tried working on inclusivity, there would not be a need for vanity sizing,” Sophomore Alexa Liu said.
Ironically, while Western shoppers have been quick to criticize the saying “One Size Fits Most,” the East has excitedly welcomed this fashion style. In China, where the societal pressure to view thinness as a currency of attractiveness is ubiquitous, a sub-style of Brandy Melville nicknamed “BM style” emerged, influencing young women to embrace tight and cropped fitting items to show off their slim figure. The hashtag for BM racked up over 37.44 million views on the microblogging app Weibo, as reported by Dao Insights. As yet another way to boast thinness, the phrase “adults trying on Uniqlo kids clothes” circulated on Weibo with over 680 million views, as per The New York Times.
At its core, unrealistic beauty standards from social media and the pressure to conform to a certain physical ideal has plagued the lives of women, fueling vanity sizing and other outrageous trends, per the American Psychological Association. Fashion Law Journal adds that clothing brands and fashion often worsen body image and one’s confidence in their weight, outlining the complex relationship between societal standards, fashion branding and individual body image perceptions.
“It is considered the norm to be a size zero or two, and girls who do not fit these slim requirements are devalued. These stereotypes are too outdated, and we must push back by building a positive sentiment around accepting and appreciating all different types of appearances to ensure that everyone feels confident and valued,” Freshman Aliyah Castillo said.
Although vanity sizing can uplift some customers’ confidence, it causes smaller women to lose sizes specific to their body type. As sizes continue to increase while maintaining the same labels, larger sizes start to see more diversity whereas smaller sizes are short ended. In essence, the social pressure to appeal to customers has transformed the measurements in many stores, leaving many shoppers deceptively thinking they fit a smaller size, while others hunt for clothes that fit.
About the Contributors
Lauren Law
staff writer
I like to listen to music and hang out with friends. My favorite artists are SZA and Drake.
Chelsea Lu
staff writer
Chelsea Lu is a staff writer and this is her first year in Journalism. She loves hanging out with friends, building legos, and rotting in bed. She also loves writing stories.
Yunseo Kim
artist
Yunseo Kim is an artist. She enjoys trying out new art and this is her second year in journalism. Outside of school, she likes to do Taekwondo, and experiment with cooking.
Comments