Why is it so hard? Hard for women to buy clothes. I’m not talking about women of a certain size, though some do have it harder than others. But overall, women’s fashion makes buying clothes more difficult than it needs to be. Sizes are not consistent, lengths are tailored for shorter people or taller people rather than those stuck in the middle. Larger sizes don’t have the same designs as the smaller sizes, and there is a major divide between small and large.
This reality is troubling. The fact that fashion, meant to make individuals confident and show off their individuality, has been making them feel insecure and neglected.
Like I said before I don’t just mean the segregation between larger and smaller sizes, though that is a big issue that needs to be solved is the fashion industry. I’m referring to how women in general always find clothes shopping difficult. Designers seem to make clothes, no matter the size or material, for a specific body type. Whether that be for short girls, tall girls, skinny, curvy or anywhere in between; there’s never enough variety. I know it’s a tall order, but there are so many different body types that one set model simply can not suffice.
Other than designers making clothes for a set model, specific clothes, like jeans, have sizes that are never correct or set. By this I mean, I could buy two pairs of jeans by the same company, in the same size and one could fit perfectly and the other could be too big or too small. Sizes are not regulated. Not within nor between companies. The size is never the same, though stated to be. This is a root issue causing many body issue problems in the world.
I should not dread shopping for a dance or everyday clothes. I should not have a panic attack in the dressing room or leave a store hating myself because nothing fit properly. However, this has become "the norm" in our society, accepted by girls all around because fashion has not changed with our changing world.
We all want to be able to be comfortable in our own skin, being continuously told that fashion is a tool to make us comfortable, a form of expression. How can we express ourselves when that form is simultaneously tearing us down. It is time for designers to own up to their sizing issues.
