Size matters… and you shop some more
The Times of India
Garment sizes vary from store to store and vanity sizing is a fact of life for shoppers.
If you’ve suddenly slipped from a dress size of ‘medium’ to ‘small’ at a new retail outlet, don’t get ready to throw a party just yet. It could just be a case of different sizing.
Abroad, garment manufacturers are sizing down apparel just to make their consumers feel happy about themselves. Vanity sizing, as the concept is called, is about marking down the size of a garment so that the buyer will buy up an entire line of merchandise, thinking she has lost weight.
In the West, US garment sizing is different from the European ones and conversion tables are available for travellers. The coveted size 6 is the hardest to get into and vanity sizers try to mark down their garments to get close to this figure.
In Bangalore, no-one can pin down the vanity sizers because there is no standard sizing system that is strictly enforced. But it is a fact that you can never figure out your right size in most outlets. This can lead to unrealistic ideas about yourself which can sometimes become traumatic.
