What’s in a Number? Getting rid of labels

The most formative years of a young girls life in developing her self-image is adolescence. From a young age most girls are surrounded by unrealistic proportions in dolls, teeny bopper icons and glossy magazines. They compare themselves to girls and women who represent less than 5% of the population. The impact this has on girls is apparent when 80% of 10 yr. olds are on diets and 1 in 10 women have eating disorders. As girls become women they fall into the same trap but only this time relying on clothing to define them.

In the retail world each designer has the liberty of deciding what measurements they want to use in producing their clothes. Higher end brands like Prada, Gucci and Dior tend to stick to smaller number in measurements while brands that are mass produced like H&M, Gap, and Forever21 are more inclined to size up or stay true to numbers. This vanity sizing takes away from what we should be focusing on, our health, education, confidence. The average model is a size zero the average women is a size 10-12, yet we are told that we cannot be average we must be perfection.

What is this mislabeling telling young women? Is the size of their clothes what is important or is it how you feel about yourself regardless of the clothes? Do you need to be a size 0 to be attractive or can you be attractive at a 12 or 14? If we cut out the labels and ignore the numbers will what we are wearing become less relevant letting us pursue other interests?

 To show girls how sizing in skewed in the fashion industry around the world I want to create a blog documenting  how two garments of the same “size” can really be different. I want to take real women aka me and my friends or strangers if willing, and  try on clothes from different stores on a rolling basis. I want to see how and if they fit differently from stores. I also want to include women look like at all different sizes and measurements and how they feel about themselves.