To understand Vanity Sizing and the current state of sizing (ie. why it's so hard to shop for clothing), we must first start at the beginning of the invention of standardising sizes. We'll keep this short, we promise, but at the end we hope you'll understand why it's so complicated today.

Men's standard sizes were developed during the American Revolutionary War in the late 1700s and were in regular use for Army ready-made uniforms by the early 1800s. As this approach was largely successful, it was replicated in the early 20th century for women, using the bust as the only measurement. Understandably, this failed and for the beginning of the 20th Century, women's clothes were mainly tailor made.

In 40s, 50s and 70s, several other individuals and accredited institutions tried to standardise women's sizing without any success. The issue was and always has been that women's bodies are so diverse and you cannot create one sizing system to accommodate all. 

Thus began the birth of Vanity sizing in 1980s. Vanity sizing is a common fashion industry practice used today that enables brands to establish their own sizing based on their target market. It ensures they remain brand-centric however it can also involve labelling clothes with smaller or larger sizes than their actual measurements size. As there is no one to police this, brands can essentially do whatever they want, which is why consumers don't wear the same size from brand to brand.

It's important to remember this when shopping online and in-store. You are not the problem, you don't need to change, the subject of sizing is simply too complicated to standardise.

At Cherry Bobbins, we try to put as much sizing information in the chart and on each product. We also use models who are the same shape and size as the metrics we state in our chart, so you can see what they look like on a person who is similar to you. 

If you have any questions about sizing, fits or styles, please email: info@cherrybobbins.com