Blue Jeans Blues
What the hell is up with jean sizes? I understand that you can expect differences between brands but how can there be inconsistencies within the brand itself? I own several pairs of L.E.I. jeans in different styles and cuts. I have a pair of L.E.I.’s in every size from 12’s to 5’s due to my various weight loss capers. Currently, I have been wearing a pair of stretch denim L.E.I. jeans in a size 10 because the 11's (which are the same cut) were so big I needed a belt to keep them up. Yesterday I went into my closet to see what other jeans fit me now in the hopes that I could put some of the bigger sizes away and see how far I had to go to get down into some of the smaller sizes. So imagine my dismay when I tried on a pair of L.E.I. classics in a size 11 that were hanging in my closet and I could not even button them! Forget buttoning them, I barely got them over my ass! (You really shouldn’t break a sweat trying to get into a pair of jeans!) Evidently, in an L.E.I. classic, I am still a size 12. So then I tried on an L.E.I. dark denim straight leg also hanging in my closet and they were a size 9. Granted, they look like they’re painted on but I could get them buttoned and they’re about a five pound weight loss away from being very wearable and very flattering. So now I’m confused. What size am I? I’m going to keep wearing the 10’s until I lose enough to get into the 11’s. (Doesn’t that sound weird? Trying to lose weight so you can move up to the next size of jeans?) I have this crazy urge to drive to the nearest mall and try on every brand of pants that I can find and then by taking some statistical calculations and finding the mode I will be able to determine my actual, official jean size. The only thing stopping me is that I’d like to think that I’m a 10 going on a 9 and don’t want to find that I really am a 12, effectively gaining two pants sizes in a day! I have a feeling that this would happen because some of the Levi's in my closet are size 10's and they look like they're much smaller than the 10's I'm currently wearing. (I didn't even want to start trying those on at that point!) I know that it makes no difference what size I am wearing and that it’s all about how you feel and look but once again sometimes the silly little things can motivate or can bother me!
posted by Lynne @ 11:01 AM
5 Comments:
The frustrating thing is that brands keep changing their own sizes! I grab the same kind of Dockers I've always worn in the same size, get them home, and find that they fit vastly differently than the EXACT same brand and style I bought one year earlier. It's enough to drive me completely bonkers. As for buying pants from a catalog or online...no way no how.
It's weird, isn't it? You'd think there would be some kind of standard guideline. Even weirder when it varies so drastically within one brand!
Ahh yes, alea, the thighs rubbing together wearing through the seams! I've lost many a wonderful pair of jeans to that horrible fate!
The pant-size could be mis-labeled on the one pair, I've had that sort of thing happen before: tried on a skirt marked 22/24 on the tags and couldn't get it past mid-thigh. Turned out to be a 14/16.
Then, too, depending on how long it's been since buying them, the manu. may have changed how they make things. Which is a stupid thing to do. I agree with Jennifer - there should be standard guidelines.
I think women as a whole have gotten totally screwed up about what their proportions ought to be. The clothing folks mark pants and dresses in an arbitrary size instead of actual inches (like men's clothes are) to make us feel smaller, except when it comes to bras, which they tell you you need a 48 band instead of a 42, I guess so you think your boobs are bigger than they are, except they're telling you 48AA instead of 42DD.
Almost enough to get me to take up sewing. Almost. ... Not really.
At any rate, the nice thing about being fat the way I'm fat is that I can wear 24s or 22s and be comfy due to my squishability.
washed in hot water, maybe?
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