Text/Chen Haoxing

Women's sizes are getting smaller and smaller, and it seems to be a common phenomenon.

Recently, the owner of a clothing store posted a video complaining: S size women's clothing can't be sold, 88-pound girls can't wear S size women's skirts, and letting the 50-pound son try it on is just right. There have also been bloggers who posted that some merchants' sizes were too outrageous, and they bought an XL top, which was recommended by the store for people of 115-130 pounds, but they were surprised when they arrived, and they were nearly half smaller than their other clothes of the same size.

If the examples of ordinary people are not intuitive enough, actress Zhang Xinyu, who is officially 169cm tall and weighs 51 kg, also recently said on social platforms that she can't wear plus-size clothes from an adult clothing brand. Netizens unanimously believed: even female celebrities have been "rolled" into the size, and there must be a problem with the size of the clothes.

Enjoying "freedom of dressing" should be a basic right of women, but why should the design of women's clothing deliberately create an atmosphere of body anxiety? Women's size is as small as children's clothing, what is the reason?

"White and thin" and "fast fashion" are the triggers of size chaos

From the current situation, the smaller and smaller women's clothing size causes body anxiety, which is mainly caused by two situations.

First, women's clothing sizes are getting smaller and smaller, resulting in women not being able to wear their favorite clothes, or even buying clothes, and body anxiety is born.

The second is the clothes purchased last year, and after repurchasing clothes of the same brand and size this year, they found that they could not be worn, which will also cause body anxiety.

Xu Dong, a designer of the Jingpai cheongsam, president of the Qiao Niang Association in Dongcheng District, Beijing, and the fourth-generation inheritor of the Na's cheongsam, said in an interview with China News Service that behind the small size of women's clothing is the constraint on women's "freedom to dress", and some women's clothing designs are extremely inconsistent with health standards, and do not match the height and weight ratio of most women. Some merchants and clothing designers blindly pursue small-size women's clothing, which will create an unhealthy aesthetic concept.

From the data point of view, the official "Report on the Status of Nutrition and Chronic Diseases of Chinese Residents (2020)" shows that the average weight of men and women aged 18 and above in China is 69.6 kg and 59 kg respectively, an increase of 2015.3 kg and 4.1 kg respectively compared with the results released in 7.

For example, Xu Dong said that women's aesthetic standards should be diverse, such as slim, round and plump, graceful and luxurious. The single aesthetic standard of "white and thin" will only cause more body anxiety and increase psychological burden.

In an interview with China News Service Guois Direct Train, Dan the manager of Thyco's clothing brand believes that some clothing online stores focus on "fast fashion" of "fast on, fast sales, and fast clearing", and that they only pay attention to the sales of single products and ignore the benign development of the overall brand. Some online store merchants deliberately design clothes that are too small in size in order to make their clothes look better, but they do not care about the overall needs of female consumers.

Should the apparel industry standardize sizes?

Image source: Sanlian Life Weekly Weibo

Sanlian Life Weekly recently launched a vote on the phenomenon of women's clothing sizes getting smaller and smaller, in the voting of about 2,<> people, nearly <>% of netizens believe that the clothing industry needs to unify the size standards, and businesses must compete benignly.

Should the apparel industry standardize sizes? Many experts interviewed believe that the unified setting of size standards will reduce the frequency of returns and exchanges and reduce costs to a certain extent, but there are difficulties and limitations in actual operation. There are many uncontrollable factors in clothing size, and different styles and designs of clothing have different size needs, which cannot be simply solved through unified standards.

Zhao Zhanzhan of Beijing Jiawei Law Firm said that there are indeed national standards for clothing size, and there are three independent standards for men, women and children, but all three are recommended standards and are not mandatory standards. Apparel online stores and companies can choose to enforce recommended standards or set sizing standards based on their fit. However, he reminded that if the merchant deliberately tampered with the size of clothes in order to clear the inventory is suspected of fraud, consumers should legally defend their rights.

Dan also gave an example, even if there is a uniform size standard, different clothing styles will still differ in specific sizes, such as waist cinching, silhouette, ultra-short and some special details. And there are also differences in people's wearing preferences, some consumers prefer close-fitting tight clothes, while others prefer loose styles. Therefore, even if there is a uniform sizing standard, it still cannot meet the needs of all consumers.

In addition, the standardization of clothing size will also be influenced by manufacturers and brands. Each manufacturer brand may have its own size standards to suit the body characteristics and aesthetic preferences of its target consumer group.

To sum up, clothing size standardization is a complex issue, involving clothing style, consumer demand, brand preference and other factors, in the short term to achieve a unified size standard may be more difficult, but the gap between the size of each brand of clothing and the national standard is too large for the correct purchase of clothing brings great inconvenience, should be based on the national standard reference, around the national standard reasonable setting.

How can women get rid of body anxiety?

Lack of uniformity in sizes can lead to body anxiety, but a completely uniform size cannot meet the needs of all consumers. How can women get rid of body anxiety and buy their favorite clothes?

Dan made some suggestions for online store merchants to provide clear sizing information to solve the sizing problem.

For example, provide detailed data such as the range, length, waist circumference and other groups of people that clothes are suitable for, and provide more size information, such as suitable people and pants length, so that consumers can clearly understand when shopping; When taking photos of models wearing clothing, more attention should be paid to the use of standard sizes to avoid misleading consumers, especially for those who aspire to build their brand image and continue to operate, and maintaining the long-term development of their brand requires social responsibility.

At the same time, consumers can also focus on the size information, distinguish key clothing parameters, and consult shopping guides or customer service to obtain accurate size dimensions. If the "wrong size" situation is encountered, consumers should provide feedback to the merchant to urge the merchant to correct the size standard. Such actions not only help consumers themselves, but also drive merchants to optimize sizing standards and provide a better shopping experience.

In Xu Dong's view, the aesthetic concept of the current society needs to be revised, and we should not simply use whether we can wear smaller clothes as the standard for measuring the quality of our figure, nor should we blindly follow the trend that does not match our own conditions.

"It should be recognized that a truly mainstream aesthetic should be based on health and self-confidence. Therefore, consumers should re-examine the definition of beauty and get rid of the anxiety caused by size, and put health and confidence at the core of aesthetics. She reminded.