Have you ever been shopping for a dress, or a T-shirt only to look at the size and find these words, “One Size Fits All”? Well first of all, that’s a lie! You don’t need to be in the fashion industry to know that there is no way one garment is going to fit everyone from a size 2 to a size 18. I don’t care how much spandex and lycra you put in it. What it means is that the people on both ends of the sizing spectrum are either going to be drowning in folds of fabric, or trying to squeeze into two constricting bands someone calls yoga pants! Either way, both are left gasping for air! I believe “One Size Fits All” is a euphemism for “One Size Fits Next To No One”!
My daughter recently suffered a severe ankle sprain. We were advised to get her a lace up brace from the local drugstore. I sent my husband, Kim, out to snag one. When he returned I asked him what size he got. He said it’s, “One Size”. Uh huh, we’ll see about that.
Mariah has been blessed with her dad’s bones. They are not big people, but their bones are solid! You could snap my bones like a twig, but Mariah and Kim, well you’d have to run over their ankles with a truck to break them, so I was skeptical, at best, with this “One Size” moniker. When we opened the package I noticed an immediate problem. You could loosen the brace, to a certain extent, but the support band that went under the arch…that was one piece. In order to put it on you had to point your toes, slide them in, and then tug it the rest of the way onto your foot. Only then could you adjust the rest of the brace. Did I mention that Mariah had severely “sprained” her ankle? She wouldn’t let you touch it, let alone tug on it, and she couldn’t point her toes. Furthermore, I couldn’t get my foot into that “One Size” brace. I have a narrow, size 5 foot! If it wouldn’t fit me, how would it fit an average size man, let alone an average size woman’s foot? No, it was not for a child. I checked! It went back!
Recently I noticed a change in this vague sizing language. Instead of “One Size Fits All”, many of those tags now read, “One Size Fits Most”. Great! Now they’ve moved from lying to insulting. If it doesn’t fit you’re not even in the “most” group. No wonder so many of us have self esteem issues.
I decided this isn’t my problem. It’s an industry that has become lazy and has settled for “most” as good enough. People come in all shapes and sizes. We are all uniquely our own in personality, attitude, abilities, and even the way we look. Some of us are tall, some short, some thin, some curvy. So why then does an industry that should understand that more than anyone, insist on ignoring the most obvious things that make us different?
Who started this insanity? It was the sock industry! It all started with, “Fits shoe size 4-9”! Really?