this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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Sort of a naive take but it seems like you could mandate objective measurements on clothing like we have ingredient lists on food.
Even in men's sizes where the waist is explicitly stated in a numerical measurement. And the manufacturers still manage to fuck it up!
I may be an outlier cause I'm 6'6 ~265 lbs., but I certain brands I know 34 inch waist will be fine, but most others are a complete crap shoot.
Its more a problem with women's cloths, but there are 2 factors in play. You make them bigger than the listed size and someone can suddenly squeeze into a smaller size. A 14 fitting into a 12 is a big dopamine hit, and so a powerful selling point.
Counter to that, reducing material usage can add up. 1/2 an inch off every pair of trousers adds up. For cheap clothes this is a noticeable saving.
Most men tend not to try clothes on in stores. This makes us dependent on the numbers. We react strongly to errors. This kept clothing makers fairly honest. That seems to be breaking down. They are trying the same tricks they use on women, and it's annoying as hell!
That’s because most companies cut the patterns out in bulk, so given how fabric wiggles you end up with an inch or two of variance across the group.
I'm 5' 11" and 175lbs, I wore 34" pants for most of my adult life. Recently, the past few years, I need 33 or 32 inch pants or they're falling off my hips. Same with shirts, I've been a medium my entire life, finding myself buying smalls lately.
I’ve found the opposite. I have older pairs of jeans that are a smaller waist size that still fit and newer jeans that don’t. Shirts, too. I’ve been “L” for decades, now it’s “XL” or the sleeves and shirt are too short.
IMO manufacturers used to pre-wash/pre-shrink their fabrics more regularly. Now they don’t. They can make more clothing by the yard with non-shrunk fabric. So as soon as that ”L” shirt hits dryer it shrinks. The XL shrinks to L. I verified this by placing two shirts, pre- and post-wash, and the size difference was obvious. Maybe some “vanity” sizing is going on, too, or just being cheap. I haven’t gotten taller, but the L size is too short now.
I've had this issue too. Always wore large, now they're too short. I've had friends take little jabs, cause I'm a little bit heavier than I was, but that hasn't elongated my torso or spine. My middle didn't get longer, and I don't think my shoulders are 3-4" more beefy than they were. Now, I get a Large and it fits like I expect for a wear or two, and then it's immediately a medium. It sucks, cause I don't buy clothes often, so I'll go to a sporting event and get a shirt, buy a L, and then it shrinks to unwearable size.
All true.
That's fair. Especially fast fashion places like H&M. I bought a shirt I really liked there and after the first wash it was exposing my midriff. I do miss the pre washed and pre shrunk era. There's a chance I may have just gotten skinnier as I aged, but I don't objectively have a 32" waist. It measures about 33.75". So I guess the main problem is lack of a standard. [Insert relevant XKCD meme for more standards]
Ironically I bought some Old Navy clothes literally 20+ years ago, size “L”. Old Navy is definitely fast fashion. Just basic T-shirts and a couple pairs of shorts. They see semi-regular wear, still fit and are in good shape, good material, sized correctly. That wouldn’t happen with anything I could buy there today.
I've noticed that sizes are bigger on men's clothing, and I'm of the opinion it's for the dopamine boost of fitting into a smaller size than you expect. If you normally wear a 36 inch waist and all of the sudden that's actually too large, and a 34 fits, that feels good.
Marketing is all about subtle psychological tricks like that. It's disgusting.
They have started to, kind of. Some brands of jeans I buy have inches on the size. Saying that, there is still variation even within brand. Jeans may be a size 4 and a 26 inch waist but I’ve also seen a size 6 as a 29. On top of that, if you know your measurements and you try these on they all fit differently which is confusing. Understandably there is some variation, but I mean by entire inches on supposed same sized pants. I don’t want to wear a 28 inch when I buy a size 4, but sometimes that’s how they feel. So trying everything on is still obligatory.