Beauty is not a dress size
When I have some time, I've been reading those books on fashion. Well, my recent book has been giving me the history, the true lowdown (as seen through the writer's eyes) of modern fashion and the modern ideals for thin beauties. The book is from the 90s, so it is a bit outdated, and boy, is she on a campaign in support of larger women, and against rail thin "beauties" who in her estimation is about 5-10% of real people.
One interesting tidbit from that book.. that dress sizes for Misses, was originally the "standard" sizes for a young miss, or young woman, of AGE x. So a size 12, was originally a dress that would fit a young woman at AGE 12!! These standard sizes then would go up to about AGE 20, at which time, 21, it was deemed that there was such a much larger variety of women's real sizes that standard shapes would not work well. Also, Miss sizes were developed for a Miss frame, which is more "boyish" since puberty was only starting around that age. Real Women, with Real Curves, would be larger, and often required a more custom fit. But the size numbers would jump from a 14 to a size 38 or something, since then it was based on some other measurement (bustline? I don't know).
Now things have changed in many ways from that point on. But consider that when a woman says she wears a size 0! With that old way of sizing things, the lady is wearing garments made for a newborn! {grin} I know, size numbers have changed since those original times, but it does put a few things into some clarity. Now, we just have vanity sizing numbers, just so we don't feel so bad being a size 22 vs a size 38 or something, or an 8 when it used to be a 12 or 14, depending on the company.
Another thing on clarity... here's a movie from the Dove people, (the Campaign for Real Beauty). It shows exactly what goes on with models from behind the scenes. While I knew most of it already, done in time-lapse really does have an impact. Well, view it for yourself.
How Did Our Idea of Beauty Become So Distorted.
One interesting tidbit from that book.. that dress sizes for Misses, was originally the "standard" sizes for a young miss, or young woman, of AGE x. So a size 12, was originally a dress that would fit a young woman at AGE 12!! These standard sizes then would go up to about AGE 20, at which time, 21, it was deemed that there was such a much larger variety of women's real sizes that standard shapes would not work well. Also, Miss sizes were developed for a Miss frame, which is more "boyish" since puberty was only starting around that age. Real Women, with Real Curves, would be larger, and often required a more custom fit. But the size numbers would jump from a 14 to a size 38 or something, since then it was based on some other measurement (bustline? I don't know).
Now things have changed in many ways from that point on. But consider that when a woman says she wears a size 0! With that old way of sizing things, the lady is wearing garments made for a newborn! {grin} I know, size numbers have changed since those original times, but it does put a few things into some clarity. Now, we just have vanity sizing numbers, just so we don't feel so bad being a size 22 vs a size 38 or something, or an 8 when it used to be a 12 or 14, depending on the company.
Another thing on clarity... here's a movie from the Dove people, (the Campaign for Real Beauty). It shows exactly what goes on with models from behind the scenes. While I knew most of it already, done in time-lapse really does have an impact. Well, view it for yourself.
How Did Our Idea of Beauty Become So Distorted.