I was just reading this article by Tim Gunn and it made a lot of sense to me. It was about what he calls "vanity sizing". The article was in response to a comment made by Kirstie Alley who has been publicly battling her weight for quite a while. Recently due to her time on DWTS, she lost a lot of weight and announced that she's wearing a size 4. Timmy initially told me about that comment. He didn't believe it. He did not believe that she was a size 4. She looked good but she wasn't that small. So, Tim Gunn responded saying a very similar thing - Kirstie looks great. She's lost lots of weight but she is not a size 4. That's when he talked about vanity sizing. He did a little experiment where he took size 8 dresses from 1980, 1990, and 2000 and compared them. The difference between them was 2.5 inches in the waste.

That's a huge difference!

I'm been doing a bit of shopping the last few weeks. I'm not going crazy. I still refuse to do my big shopping until I reach my goal weight. However, I also refuse to buy all my new clothes at full price, so I've been buying summer shirts at clearance prices :) What I've noticed is that it depends on the brand and the store whether I wear a small, medium, or a large. Really? Now, I know that fabric and cut make a difference but I'm also drawn to similar types of clothes so I am not entirely sure why this was the case.

I especially noticed it with the Sonoma brand at Kohl's. I love Sonoma. It's casual but nice. It's comfortable, but not shorts and a tshirt comfortable. All my new Sonoma shirts are a small. Their medium looks huge on me. (One of my shirts is actually a petite small.) Do I like buying smalls? Of course! Do I actually believe I'm a small? Not really. Then yesterday while filing through the clearance racks, I found a pair of pants for $3.20, a Sonoma size 8. I decided for three bucks I would try it on and they were huge. They would fit me for a couple of weeks with a belt and then I wouldn't be able to wear them again. Is Sonoma telling me to go to size 6?! Because that's definitely not right!!

So, Tim Gunn must be right - vanity sizing. Sonoma knows their clients. They know how to make their clients feel great and how to make money off of it. "What? I'm a small shirt. This is so much fun! Let me buy more."

Sometimes I wish women's shopping was similar to men's. Measurements. They are great. They don't change. But then I remember Timmy complaining about his 34 pants aren't always 34 inches. It annoys the crap out of him - 34 inches is 34 inches. Grab some measuring tape!

Anyway. Nothing huge and profound. Just something that helped make sense of something I've been thinking about it. Maybe I'll try to post something soon about something important :)