What Does Women's Size X Look Like?

Factual Questions
1

Watching TV this evening, there was a comment about an animated character being a size 4. Not really knowing what a woman’s size 4 looks like, I google it, but with little help. (I did learn that to get the UK size, add 4. Maybe that’ll come in handy someday.) So, does anyone have a table showing, say, for a 5’6" woman, a size 0 is x inches, 1 is y inches, and so on? Or pictures showing the progression from 0 up?

For men, I have a rough idea, having, you know, bought myself stuff. But with women, I don’t have as much of a frame of reference, having been fortunate enough to never be brought shopping by girlfriends. (Commence the envy. :wink: )

2

Those are shoe sizes, cathy, not dress sizes.

A size 4 is something a model would wear, as in this picture. It’s way skinnier than the average women could wear. A thin model could wear a size 2. Size 0 is for very petite women or emaciated ones. Size 8 in more normal skinny.

3

In case this comment appears mysterious, it was in reference to a spammer post I removed.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

4

Women’s sizes are not consistent. Sizes 0-16 generally refer to the size of the waistband, but the measurement of a size 4 waistband can vary widely from brand to brand. Recently I was at The Gap trying on jeans, and their size 4 jeans had a 27" waistband. The sizes were separated by an inch in the waistband, so size 2 would be for a 26" waist, size 6 for a 28" waist, etc. I’ve found that Gap is pretty middle-of-the-road as far as sizes go.

5

There is no way to tell, really, as it varies by manufacturer. It even varies within the manufacturer.

On July 4 I went to buy a pair of shorts, and I was in a big hurry. Such a hurry that I didn’t want to go upstairs, so I went into the junior’s dept., where the clothes are more “young attitude” but I figured I could find a pair of shorts. (This dept. also tends to be cheaper.)

Misses clothes are sized in even numbers, but juniors are odd numbers. I grabbed a 5, which used to be my size. Then I told myself that I hadn’t been in a juniors dept. in 20 years so I also grabbed a 7. Note that I looked at the shorts and the 5 looked within the realm of possibility.

Well, I got the 5 on, but it was tight. I didn’t want tight so I tried the 7.

Couldn’t even get it all the way up.

Wait–it’s supposed to be…bigger. I looked at it again. Same brand. Same style. Same style number. But a larger size. Size sewn into the inside of the waistband so it wasn’t a case of them getting it wrong on the ticket. But they blew it. They got it wrong somewhere along the line, or else the 5 was way off. Or both.

At this point I was out of time so I grabbed a 9, looked it over, and bought it.

It’s huuuuge. I have no idea what happened with the 7.

But this is a not-uncommon shopping experience for women.

Now, online/catalogue places like Land’s End I’ve found to be very reliable. They will have a chart. You match up waist size, bust size, hip size, and the chart will tell you what size to order. According to Land’s End you will wear a size four if your bust measures 33½, your waist measures 27-28, and your hips measure 36½. Other manufacturers will vary but it’s going to be small or extra small.

6

While it does vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, most have charts.
Here’s the chart for Brooks Brothers.

Generally speaking, lower numbers are thinner, larger numbers are less so. A 4 is going to be smaller. A 14 will be fatter than anyone you see on television.

7

Note that “petite” in women’s sizes, at least here in the US, does not mean “petite.”

I believe it means “sort of short from neck to waist.” Basically, it means your thorax is short. You could be overall short (typically under 5’ 4") or you could have very long legs and a short trunk, I guess.

You can be XXL petite, or size 20 petite, for instance. Basically, you can be very very fat and still be petite, which is nice, I guess. I suspect that’s not the only lie told to women shopping for clothes.

CP knows nothing about fashion and almost nothing about women. He did have occasion to raise girls and attend their clothes shopping on occasion. And no, in case they are reading this, are any of our kids overweight.

8

Perhaps at one point it was… But I know that at some places (The Gap, Old Navy), a size 4 now will probably be too big for that model.

Old Navy is really bad about the sizes, and The Gap seems to be imitating them. I bought a size 6 three years ago… OK, it got a bit loose, so I bought a size 4 two years ago… OK, this one is starting to get loose again. I hope it is a case of the jeans adjusting and wearing out because I definitely will feel uncomfortable going to The Gap and finding out according to them I’m now a size 2 (impossible).

I’ve worn everything from a 14 to a 4, and again, I’ve found The Gap and Old Navy to be the worst offenders of vanity sizing. The jeans from the department stores are more likely to be truer to your model.

9

Oh yea, and “petite size” is for women under 5’ 4". The idea is that the clothes will fit better. So the shirts’ shoulder hemline will be at my shoulder instead of my arms, the long sleeves will still be short but won’t completely hide my hands, and the pants will fit nicely without dragging on the floor.

10

“Petite” is simply French for “short,” and that’s all it really means in clothing as well–cut to fit short limbs or smaller frames. It doesn’t mean “tiny, dainty specimen of womanhood” as some people seem to think it should.

11

You can’t trust the junior’s sizing, Hilarity, because the junior’s clothes are so incredibly crappily made these days. Picture cutting a big stack of pieces of shorts. A cheap pair of shorts from the junior’s section, they’re going to be cutting a LOT at once. A Chanel suit, if you buy from the highest line maybe they only cut one. Now, you’ve cut a big stack of paper before, right? The bigger the stack, the more not-to-size the stuff on the bottom is going to be - you know, sometimes the stuff on the bottom gets bigger than the stuff on top. So you have to try on every cheap-ass garment before taking it home, because you don’t know if it was on the top of the stack or the bottom - your 5 was on the bottom, maybe, and your 7 on the top.

Plus, junior’s clothes are a lot more “up and down” than the misses’ section, which theoretically has more room for curves.

12

Not really, no. That model is probably closer to a 0 in today’s sizes.

Women’s sizes are messed up, and vary a ton from designer to designer. For example, I wear a 4…and a 6, an 8 and a 10. Depending on where I got each piece of clothing, or an xs to a medium for non-numbered sizes.

Sizes have changed quite a lot - an 8 used to be the smallest size, but sizes have gradually been increasing, so now an 8 is closer to average than especially small (IIRC, 12 is average). People are correct when they say Marilyn Monroe wore a size 12 or 14, back when she was alive. But were she alive today, she’d have worn about a 6-8, usually (her weight fluctuated a lot). Still a bit bigger than your average actress today, but not by all that much.

13

I don’t think the model picture linked above is wearing a 4, but I could be wrong.

My wife is 5’6". Before she had kids she weighed 118 and wore a size 2. After 2 kids she’s about 125 and usually wears a 4, but can still squeeze into some of her size 2 outfits.

[off topic] Was it Family Guy? I was watching it last night too and also noticed the comment from Lois that she was a size 4. [/ot]

14

If you go to the site of the picture I linked to, you see that the women pictured is said to be wearing a size 4. That still seems reasonable to me.

Did people see The Devil Wears Prada? It was a big plot point that Anne Hathaway [!] was the fat one. By the end of the movie she gets down to a size 4, though, so she can start wearing some of the cool sample dresses like the other employees or like skinny-minny Emily Blunt.

Here’s an apparel size chart that gives sizes and the equivalent measurements. Or one set of equivalents, since it’s different from all the other equivalents already mentioned.

15

My mother says she wore a size 14 in the early 60’s. She was 5’4" and weighed about 120. Exactly my height and weight in 1980, when I was wearing an 8.

16

And I was that height and weight in 1975 and was wearing a 12-14, which today translates into a Large.

17

And then sizing charts aren’t always accurate! Anecdote: I was shopping from Lands End, where I’d never previously shopped, so I decided to consult their sizing chart before making a purchase. I’m between M and L (Grr!) so I really wanted to see how they defined those sizes. To my astonishment, their chart claimed that I should be buying a XXL shirt. Are they kidding me? I’ve never been anywhere near a XXL in my life. So I figure their sizing charts aren’t to be trusted, and buy a L just to be on the safe side. I planned on wearing the shirt at work, so I’d rather it be a bit too loose than a bit too snug. I’m not trying to pick up on anybody here. So when the shirt arrives, I’m swimming in it! I could have used the shirt as a blanket! Lands End, your sizing charts suck!

In answer to the OP: It depends. Was any of this helpful?

18

Is this correct? I agree it means “short” (-trunked and -limbed) in the the clothing-size world, but…

Been a while since my high school French and I don’t hang with French peeps, but I thought “petit” was closer to “diminutive” in meaning and average use, even though “short” would be an acceptable translation in certain circumstances.

I do not think the adjective “petit” would typically be used for a short, fat guy, would it?

19

I have heard this of Land’s End, so last time I got something there I went smaller, and it was still a bit big.

Victoria’s Secret is the same way, at least in their pants sizes - their size chart tells me to buy a full 2 sizes larger than actually fits me, and I like my pants on the loose side, so I’m not trying to squeeze into something two small.
Oddly, their measurements for shirt sizes are spot on, for me.

20

Actually, looking at the picture, the dress itself could be a size 4, but it hangs on the model - of course, clothes are supposed to hang off of runway models, they’re meant to be living clothes-hanger, so showcase the clothes.