Why is Frum clothing SO small?

amother

Purple

Fri, Dec 09 2016, 12:17 pm

amother wrote:

What you can do is shop in regular stores. Shop around and find a brand that works for you.

I do that as much as possible, but I have a hard time finding clothing that meets my standards of tznius and is also my style.

heidi

Sat, Dec 10 2016, 2:52 pm

amother wrote:

I worked in the fashion industry for many, many years and really it depends on where you shop and how each line is cut. When I started out size 6 women were clearly size smalls. In pretty much anything they tried on. Today, rarely so. 2 was XS and hard to come by. Those women needed to do their shopping mostly in the juniors section of department stores. Not so anymore. Everything has shrunk. A size 6 can rarely squeeze into size smalls anymore in high end fashion labels.

The # on the label honestly is meaningless. If you look good and feel good, what does it matter if your label says Xs, S, or M, L, XL..... The problem of course is not that frum clothing runs small but that it stops at M/L sizes. Anyone slightly overweight will have trouble. If you're more than slightly overweight, good luck to you.

Designers cut what sells. I guess for whatever reason they are not convinced there is a market to cut another size or two up. I can't imagine why though since I see plenty women who will benefit and be customers.

I will tell you why. Because no size 2 woman wants to walk into a wedding and see the dress she's wearing on a size 2x woman.
Simple as that. The designers know it. The store owners know it.
And we fat people know it.

Volunteer

Sat, Dec 10 2016, 8:33 pm

heidi wrote:

Huh? Is that true?
I currently wear a size 2, and I couldn't care less what other people wear.

amother

Pumpkin

Sat, Dec 10 2016, 8:47 pm

heidi wrote:

I don't get it. If two women walk into a party wearing the exact same dress - one woman a size 2 and the other a 2x - I think we both know which one will look better in her dress. What's for the size 2 to get worked up over?

amother

Apricot

Sat, Dec 10 2016, 9:00 pm

amother wrote:

I find that in Jewish stores, I often have to buy tops in a size large or XL because they're cut for people who are completely flat-chested. I don't know if it's because that's what's considered attractive in the Jewish world, or what. I'm petite with a short torso and narrow waist, but I'm bigger on top, and it makes my life difficult. I usually have to buy tops that are huge on me in other places, just so that they will fit on top.

Same here. I find that the non Jewish brands are more realistic.

amother

Black

Sun, Dec 11 2016, 3:00 am

Quote:

nah, I am a size 2. I really don't care who else wears the dress I buy.
Although chances are that a dress that looks good as a size 2 won't look good as a size 2x.
I have had my turn with plus sizes as a teen and I found that I needed completely different cuts and not just the same dress with more fabric...

Amelia Bedelia

Sun, Dec 11 2016, 8:32 am

Maya wrote:

From the few times I've tried them, my impression was that the clothes were simply cheaply made and badly tailored, with unrealistic waist to hip ratios and sizes which didn't make sense.

Some items, like the Kiki Riki shells, seems to be made purposefully ridiculous, but other are just a result of incompetent designing.

Pretty sure there was a thread on here once claiming that Kiki Riki is not a Jewish company at all!

zaq

Fri, Dec 16 2016, 2:10 pm

amother wrote:

Exactly what I was thinking.

amother

Gold

Fri, Dec 16 2016, 2:49 pm

I grew up in the garment business. a size 6 was for someone with a 36 in chest, 26 in waist, and 36 inch hips. Size 8 was for 38 in chest, 28 in waist and 38 in hips. And so on and so forth. Size small was a 6-8, medium was a 10-12, Large was a 14-16, XL 18-20. XS was a 2-4 and almost nobody bought those. most people bought medium and large. We bought at least twice as much stock in those sizes and would groan when we would get an order with extra XS pieces.

I think all this started to change about 20 years ago.

This was obviously not perfect, because obviously not every woman has a chest 10 inches bigger than her waist, but that was how it worked. A lot of people altered their clothes.

Now I'm a size 12 (old sizing) and I wear only plus size. I shop at woman within and even lands end I buy an 18. I could care less. I'm very active, I'm in great shape bli ayin hara and I know I'm a healthy size for my height