Got a question about clothing sizes

I am doing this paper for school about body image. I have been trying to get what the measurements for a classic size 8 are, but I am getting nowhere I have seen from a 26 inch to a 33 inch waist on sizing charts for size 8’s and I know they all can’t be right…or can they? Is there a set waist to size chart or am I just going to have to wonder around confused asking people what size they are LOL

I wish you luck, TiffTZell. From what little I understand of this, though, you’re still one step away from being able to ascribe measurements to these sizes. AFAIK, a size 8 “junior,” for example, is a completely different size from a size 8 “woman.”

FWIW, I think this is an excellent field of study. I have long suspected the entire thing is simply a mind-numbing exercise intended to insulate those women who would be wounded by such info from what their actual measurements are. You will notice that men’s fashions are almost entirely handled in actual measurements.

They are all right, because the sizes aren’t really standardized. It’s not just that a junior 8 isn’t the same as a misses 8 (“womens” sizes are the larger sizes), but one company’s size 8 may be another company’s size ten, and I’ve even seen the sizes differ in different styles by the same company.

Well if that is the case…was there ever a set of classic measurements? I rmember my dad telling stories about some actress when he was a kid and rattle off some numbers…38/21/39 thats just an example- I don’t remember what they were…If there is a set of old classic measurements- what would the new ones be?

I remeber hearing actresses and models being described as 36-24-36 (bust,waist,hips)and I think that was supposed to be sort of a classic measurement for an hourglass figure, but I never heard those measurements associated with a clothing size.If you want to look at the changes between then and now, it probably makes more sense not to look at what the waist measurement is for a size 8 then and now (especially since the sizes aren’t standard now and probably weren’t then), but at what the ideal proportions (which determine body shape)are. Two women might both have 24 inch waists, but if one has 28 inch hips, and the other has 36 inch hips, they won’t have the same body shape and most likely won’t be able to wear the same clothes in the same size.

This is of some interest on this topic:

Note: highlighting is mine. Let you know more if I find it.

found it , thank you
Thanks for all the info
Now all i need to do is go make sense of all of it, I am more like a size 18 right now so even though i wear girls clothes it is stil forign lol

You might want to go down to your local fabric store and look at pattern books. They have size measurements listed in each book. Or they did a few years ago, which is the last time I checked on such things.

Now, these sizes probably won’t be the same from one company to the next, but at least you’ll have some data points.

I used to work in a women’s clothing shop, and I can tell you that everyone here is right, there IS no one consistent set of sizes. Even in the same style from the same manufacturer, one pair of pants might be a tad longer than the next. When the clothes are cut out, the material is in layers, and if the cutter slants the cutting device at all, the garment piece on the bottom might be quite a different size from the one on the top.