VANITY SIZING
For my third project I wanted to explore the women's clothing industry. During the beginning of my research I found the term "vanity sizing". Vanity sizing is defined as, 'the practice of assigning smaller sizes to articles of manufactured clothing than is really the case, in order to encourage sales'. This really intrigued me because I've experienced this before. I don't wear the same size jeans throughout brands. Wanting to learn more about what vanity sizing really is and how it affects other people I decided to create a project about it!
ART
This piece is called "Ideals". I researched what the world believes in the ideal body for women in America. The most desired shape as of 2018 is the pear shape. This would be a lady with a large chest around a c cup, a small waist, and big hips with a larger butt. I really wanted a figure to be the center piece of this painting. So while thinking of people who generally have that body type Kim Kardashian came to mind. Come on now, the Kardashians are in the limelight. They have to have the perfect bodies and the perfect faces, she was great fit for what I was trying to achieve. Showing symbolism for her body type I painted a pear. I also included an hourglass because thats another one of the top desired body types. The hourglass also reference that times are always changing. In a few years there will be a different ideal body type, and different body trends. But, the hourglass also means this body is timeless. For a while now the pear/hourglass figure has been the most desired.
Social studies
Wanting to know how body ideals affected people around my age I created a survey. Here are the questions on my survey.
From my results I created a infographic. I explained vanity sizing and showed diagrams with my results.
english
I created a claim explaining why I believe vanity sizing should be abolished. Its unfair and unnecessary here is why I think so...
For this project I decided to study vanity sizing and how it affects a woman’s life/shopping life. Vanity sizing is the act of putting a smaller size on a label than what the actual clothing item may be. Vanity sizing affects the amount of clothing day to day women get to choose from. I’m a firm believer that all brands should have a size inclusive clothing line.
Vanity sizing makes clothes shopping hard for a large amount of people. Because the label says something smaller than what it may truly be, there is no quick in and outs of a store unless you take the risk of something not fitting. A study by writer Abram Sauer tested common brands of pants. The study showed that these brands were downsizing the pant size by 2-3 inches. While the jeans may say their a size 30 waist they could actually be a size 32-33. Vanity sizing does not help consumers. It only helps companies gain more revenue.
Self confidence plays a huge roll in vanity sizing. Say a woman goes into a clothing store thinking she’s a size 12-14. She tries on a pair of 10 jeans for the fun of it and they’re a perfect fit. That women is going to show some sort of emotion, and most of the time it’s going to be happiness. She may believe she lost some amount of weight. Or she may just generally feel a little more confident. This is because of today’s beauty standards, and in most eyes smaller is better. The happiness a person feels when this happens is only a short term release of endorphins. When the same person goes into a different place and tries on jeans and the size ten suddenly no longer fits that bit of confidence they just gained is going to shatter. Everyone deserves to confident in themselves!
All together vanity sizing will only help companies, not consumers. Most people will never know their true size. A blogger named Katy Hamilton tired on two same size pairs of jeans from Express. When she put on the first pair they fit so clearly the second pair will fit, because they are the same size. But, to her surprise when she tried on the second pair to see how they looked she couldn’t fully get them on. So how are women/girls ever going to find their true size when two same size pairs of jeans in the same store aren’t actually the same size! Wanting to know things like this affected my age group I did a study among my peers. The questionnaire asked about self confidence and range in their clothing sizes. 12 out of 16 people said that they did not wear the same size jeans from brand to brand. This goes to show that average sized teenagers struggle with vanity sizing.
Big companies use this tactic to sell more clothing and that is all it does for them. It only long term damages people’s views on themselves. I feel as though vanity sizing shouldn’t be allowed. It affects people never knowing their true size and not feeling positively about their self. Everyone should have the right to know their universal size, and feel confident their size will be represent equally.
Vanity sizing makes clothes shopping hard for a large amount of people. Because the label says something smaller than what it may truly be, there is no quick in and outs of a store unless you take the risk of something not fitting. A study by writer Abram Sauer tested common brands of pants. The study showed that these brands were downsizing the pant size by 2-3 inches. While the jeans may say their a size 30 waist they could actually be a size 32-33. Vanity sizing does not help consumers. It only helps companies gain more revenue.
Self confidence plays a huge roll in vanity sizing. Say a woman goes into a clothing store thinking she’s a size 12-14. She tries on a pair of 10 jeans for the fun of it and they’re a perfect fit. That women is going to show some sort of emotion, and most of the time it’s going to be happiness. She may believe she lost some amount of weight. Or she may just generally feel a little more confident. This is because of today’s beauty standards, and in most eyes smaller is better. The happiness a person feels when this happens is only a short term release of endorphins. When the same person goes into a different place and tries on jeans and the size ten suddenly no longer fits that bit of confidence they just gained is going to shatter. Everyone deserves to confident in themselves!
All together vanity sizing will only help companies, not consumers. Most people will never know their true size. A blogger named Katy Hamilton tired on two same size pairs of jeans from Express. When she put on the first pair they fit so clearly the second pair will fit, because they are the same size. But, to her surprise when she tried on the second pair to see how they looked she couldn’t fully get them on. So how are women/girls ever going to find their true size when two same size pairs of jeans in the same store aren’t actually the same size! Wanting to know things like this affected my age group I did a study among my peers. The questionnaire asked about self confidence and range in their clothing sizes. 12 out of 16 people said that they did not wear the same size jeans from brand to brand. This goes to show that average sized teenagers struggle with vanity sizing.
Big companies use this tactic to sell more clothing and that is all it does for them. It only long term damages people’s views on themselves. I feel as though vanity sizing shouldn’t be allowed. It affects people never knowing their true size and not feeling positively about their self. Everyone should have the right to know their universal size, and feel confident their size will be represent equally.