If you’ve been around for a while, you know this isn’t the first time I’ve written about this, but I’m writing about it again because it’s so important to remember and because it’s so connected to the patriarchy.
Did you know that men’s clothes are designed with the knowledge and recognition (assumption) that all men’s bodies will be different in shape and size? Pants are often sold unhemmed because it’s assumed that the ratio between men’s waists and their inseams will vary. I learned only recently that men’s clothing is also made with fabric allowances to let out or take in to fit to the body of the person buying the garment. It’s almost as if they know that no item will fit every unique person.
Imagine if women’s clothes were made like that, to acknowledge the fact that EVERY single person buying the item will need to make changes to it to have it fit their body.
Not only are women’s clothes *not* made with a diversity of bodies in mind, women’s clothing manufacturers will actually design clothes to fit a mythical body and then search for the one human on earth who fits those dimensions to be their fit model. If they have a hard time finding one person to fit into their clothes, how are the rest of us supposed to do it?
And don’t get me started on the inconsistency of sizing (skip to 1:05 in this video for the history).
I wish there was a better solution to this problem than trying on a ton of items to try to hit the fit lottery, making your own clothes, or blowing up the entire fashion industry and starting over, but at the moment, there’s not.
So, just a reminder: your body isn’t wrong, your clothes just weren’t made for you.
