A few years ago, I wrote a post to a cycling list I'm on about women's sizing. Unfortunately I can no longer put my fingers on the magazine article I mentioned....

"If anyone REALLY cares, I have a great 4 page article from a recent edition of Gear Trends magazine, which I'd be happy to share if asked. Some brief
tidbits:

Ladies, ever wonder exactly what "size 2" or "size 12" actually means, and why its called that? Well, women's sizing was originally age-based. A size 16 was to fit an average women (for that time - 1800's) of age 16.

On into the early 1900's, more clothing began to be purchased rather than made at home. Still sizing wasn't much of an issue, because almost all clothing and department stores had alterations departments.

Mid-1900's, alterations started to be phased out and the real trouble began. In the 1940's the USDA and the US military attempted a comprehensive survey of body measurements. They manually measured 8,000 subjects, mostly white and of military age. To quote the article "Not exactly an ideal survey sample of a national body-type".

ASTM (American Society for Testing and MAterials) actually has a set of measurements and standards, but they are very outdated (based in part on that 1940's survey) and no manufacturer currently adheres to them.

Currently, there is no uniform standard for sizing among apparel manufacturers. Two updated surveys have recently been conducted, one using about 5000 Americans and Europeans, another using more than 10,000 Americans (this one called SizeUSA, see http://www.tc2.com/what/sizeusa/index.html ) . The results reveal that women, on average, are becoming hippier and thicker through the waist, relative to their bust measurements. That is, more pear shaped and less hourglass shaped.

All of the above hasn't even begun to address "fit preference" ie. Loose, snug, etc. or the issue of "vanity sizing", the process by which manufacturers make clothing ever larger so that ever larger americans can still fit into the same size clothing.

I could go on, but I'm sure I've lost most of you already."

Susan