So, I've been in Manhattan for a few days now on holiday and am noticing all isn't as I thought when it comes to American sizing. Over in Blighty, we're constantly led to believe that in America, everyone is some kind of supersized, McDonalds-addicted heffalump. But in New York, at least, the women are slim, groomed and gorgeous. I've only seen two branches of McDonalds in four days. And when it comes to restaurants and corner shops, it's less Ginsters sausage rolls as we have in England, and more 100 varieties of salad and wholemeal Peruvian wrap.
Doubtless all this healthiness gets reversed as soon as you head for the midwest, but from where I'm standing, New York women look a lot healthier than your average Londoner.
Let loose in Bloomingdale's yesterday, I decided to buy a swimming costume and spent two hours trying on just about everything in the swimsuit section. The 'Magic Swimsuit' came with a label promising to make you look 10lbs smaller, but frankly there ain't no swimsuit in the world that can do that. A sales assistant told me that an American 10 is a British 12 - I had thought a British 12 was an American 8 (as does Natalie Cassidy - see my earlier post). Can anyone clear this up for me?
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Why do we rank ourselves according to rigid, fashionable dimensions? And how scientific are they? Welcome to my blog about the history and politics of clothes sizes. I'm a journalist and I'm starting this blog to discuss comments, memories, anecdotes and social history about clothes sizes past and present for the book I'm writing on the subject.
Anecdotes, experiences and opinions wanted!
If there's a size-related issue you can comment on, or would like me to write about, please email me at size@oliviagordon.com. It could be a memory of how your great aunt Maud kept her minuscule waist, experiences you've had with different sizes in different high street shops, or an insight into how size has affected your life.
Which is the most attractive size?
About this blog and my book
Who invented sizes zero to 32?
How did we get from loose robes to metal corsets to size zero, obesity and the epidemic of vanity sizing?
How do businesses use size to make money?
What was considered large, medium and small in the eighteenth century, medieval times and the Roman Empire?
How are sizes changing and were we bigger or smaller in the past?
What really are the natural dimensions of the human body?
Why does size control millions of women's lives today and are we more or less obsessed with it than ever?
I hope you will join me in my investigation.
For information about my book, please contact my agent Andrew Lownie
How did we get from loose robes to metal corsets to size zero, obesity and the epidemic of vanity sizing?
How do businesses use size to make money?
What was considered large, medium and small in the eighteenth century, medieval times and the Roman Empire?
How are sizes changing and were we bigger or smaller in the past?
What really are the natural dimensions of the human body?
Why does size control millions of women's lives today and are we more or less obsessed with it than ever?
I hope you will join me in my investigation.
For information about my book, please contact my agent Andrew Lownie
About Me
- Olivia
- London, United Kingdom
3 comments:
In the Gap (as close as I have been to actual America for some time), it's two sizes different, so 8=12. So the whole size zero thing would be size 4 for us, which makes me wonder if it's possible to be that teeny? But then I read the other day that Katie Holmes is 5'9" and under eight stone, which might make it a bit easier?
Of course it is possible to be that tiny if you are seven years old or dead thin with dead being the operative word. That phrase 'size zero' makes me want to puke. As far as I am concerned it is a swear word and I cannot believe how it has been glamourized and now used in every day language. If you were a size zero you would be in hospital and quite rightly so.
Olivia, if you really want to feel like an elephant, I suggest you visit Singapore or Hong Kong! Years ago I went on holiday to Singapore, and the women are tiny, and the clothes in shops match: all designed for very slim, very short women.
I strongly suspect that sizes vary from brand to brand, let alone between the US and the UK. Have you ever measured the waistband of a Next skirt and compared it to, say, a Top Shop skirt? (I haven't so I don't know - am just guessing.)
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