#and EVEN IF they are all expecting a tall-side-of-avg skinny gender-conforming person | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

distractionactivated · 4 months ago

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As a long-time shopper in both aisles, unfortunately the grass is not very green over in the men's either lmao.

Your waist is 30 inches? Okay, well, our 30 inches aren't your tape measure's 30 inches. Also, we've perfected the technique of making trousers that are too tight for movement but that also fall off. You're welcome. Also, do you have legs shorter or longer than our standard inseam length for that waist? Fuck you, trip over your own trousers/enjoy your cold ankles.

Or take shirts. Your chest is 40 inches so you're a 40, right? Well, yes, sort of. But your shoulders are now too broad or too narrow, you're fat, and you've got too thick/thin a neck so ties won't sit right. Some shirts are sized by neck! So you're a 16.5 neck size. Now it's falling off you because you've got a broad neck on a slight frame. Go down a size and you're choking.

The answer is, just like with women's clothing, to find the one shop that has a pattern block you fit and hope they don't change it. Which they probably will.

Sure, there are usually okay pockets. But that's the only bit of proper, unalloyed green. Solidarity across the clothing aisles, folks.

#in some ways i think the problem is less 'inconsistent sizing' and more 'inconsistent sizing that's sold as consistent'#like especially women are encouraged to *identify with* their dress size #while men are told 'these measurements are Objective so you should always fit this'#but the thing is there is no such thing as an average human body #every single brand every pattern designer has to make decisions about the body shape they expect to be wearing their clothes #and EVEN IF they are all expecting a tall-side-of-avg skinny gender-conforming person #there will still be differences #clothes sizing came out of military biometry but what also came out of that was the perfectly engineered fighter pilot cockpit #that was produced to the average measurements of american pilots - a small group of men with very similar body types #and pilots *died* because they didn't fit the cockpit right and someone did the maths and found NOBODY was average across even a fraction #of the variables they were taking into consideration #we do actually *need* clothes brands to all cut their clothes differently otherwise it would - with lower stakes - be like that #and if you diverged from the average a lot you'd be out of luck forever #so imo what we need to do is: 1. brands should cut with more variety and be more transparent #about the measurements and body type they're cutting for #2. nobody should be telling anyone to identify with a dress size or expect it to carry across brands #or stigmatising measurements; 'oh yeah clotheshop1 does big hip big belly masc clothes so i shop there' should be a normal sentence

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