Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will always hurt SMDB.
My son is really big for his age (almost 8), but he’s not really fat-- he’s not skinny, like he was when he was little, but his BMI is in the normal range. Right now, he is between sizes, and I buy him either 12H, or 14R. The 12H is the right length, but it has to has those elastic tabs in the waist, so I can take it in a little. The 14R fits, but it bags a little at the cuffs. I can turn it up, or hem it, or just wait-- he’ll grow into it pretty soon. 12R is uncomfortable for him, but he can suck in and squeeze into it; I don’t make him do that, although he does have one pair of “loose fit” 12 jeans. With shorts, it doesn’t matter.
So, there isn’t all that much difference between the R and the H. I don’t know what really fat kids do. Do their parents have to get adult jeans and hem them? not everyone owns a sewing machine anymore.
“husky” meaning big and strong is much older than fifty years. I have a video tape of “Carmen Jones” from 1954 - it’s a redo of the opera with English lyrics and an all-black cast. The bullfighter Escamillo is redone as the heavyweight boxer called Husky Miller.
Yes of course, the word is probably centuries old. “Husky” as line of clothing sizes may also go back further than 50 years, but all I know is that it’s at least that old.
Maybe its a generational thing.
Me and the girl who I am working on this project with are both late-20s and we don’t like the term and feel it’s archaic and derogatory, but knowing the demographics of this site, maybe it’s a generation gap thing?
I don’t get the offense. “Husky” is the very successful brand name of one of Canada’s biggest motor fuel retailers, and I think there are a few Husky truck stops in the western USA, too. Their logo shows the face of an Alaskan Husky sled dog, and I can guarantee you, there is not and has never been a single working sled dog in the history of the Arctic that was obese in any sense of the word. I doubt if there is any animal in the world with a greater strength-to-food intake ratio.
As a “husky” clothes wearing boy in my youth I’m not seeing the “dirty” evil in the name. It’s as innocuous a term for fat kid clothing as anyone could conjure up. If anything it’s a bit sensitive to the issue as “husky” doesn’t correlate directly to “fatass”, but can also mean being big and strong.
I would’ve said “maybe it’s a ‘first heard the word in Margaret Cho’s act’ thing,” but it amounts to the same thing. 
Speaking of such terminology, you’re working with a woman, not a girl.
Anyway, this thread reminds me of this MST3K moment, immediately before the one minute mark.
What does Margaret Cho say?
Personally, I don’t think of “husky” as “fat.” Husky is just a little too big for regular, but not to the “Eric Cartman” stage yet. Kids come in different sizes, and the slim, husky, and regular jeans are about evenly distributed-- when you buy kids clothes, you find about the same number of each, in each size. The slim, FWIW, isn’t “underweight,” it’s just “trim.” All of them are in the normal range.
The ‘one’ being the ‘huskee’?
Been there hates it. Hated that my mom forgot to take the tab of the sleeve and my not portly brother went wild on me
Another “husky” kid here - I hated buying clothes because I was in fact fat, but it wasn’t the word that I hated, and I don’t find it offensive. ISTR that the corresponding term for girls clothes was “Pleasantly Plump” - that would have been mid-late 70s to early 80s. That’s way worse than husky. Anyone else remember it?
I was one of those boys whose mother shopped carefully for my clothes in the ‘Slim’ section and I hated it at the time. It meant that I was relatively weak while the other, better ‘Regulars’ and ‘Huskies’ could probably beat me up if they wanted to (mostly true back then). It was always the ‘Husky’ boys that were the best at contact sports and that was the most important thing on the 2nd grade playground. Most of them weren’t fat, just bigger and tougher than I was and I was jealous of that at the time.
Don’t confuse women or girl’s standards of positive or negative sounding size terms with those of younger boys (or even adult men) because the standards are completely different. There is nothing offensive about calling a boy ‘husky’ - it may even be a compliment if he is also athletic. He may or may not grow up to be a lard-ass but they don’t size men’s clothes in those terms and the connotations are completely different.
Every time I see a chubby little boy, my grandmother’s voice pipes up in my head: “He’s a husky little fella, isn’t he?”
Every word related to body size or shape is likely bothersome to someone. The other day I told a friend that I was getting close to that time of the month, and she pointed out (in a playful way) that I was more buxom than usual. That’s usually a good thing, right? Well, it made me a bit embarrassed. I guess I don’t really want to be described that way. So I can understand why someone wouldn’t want to be called “husky”, even though it’s value-neutral.
I always wore “slim” as a kid and-- sensitive lad that I was-- was always embarrassed by that label. I longed to be “regular.”
What about stocky?