Shoppers have a fit about sizes

By Olivia Barker
USA Today

Many women are certain that retailers are squeezing them out by retooling clothing sizes to suit the coveted Generation Y market. Call it the legacy of the belly-baring low-rise. Gannett News Service photo

But they all fit about the same. Size is "just a number," sighs Holub, 23, who works in a coffee shop and lives in Queens. N.Y. "It means nothing."

It used to be that unless a woman gained or lost weight, her dress size was an indelible statistic, as permanent as her Social Security number. But now what's printed on the tag makes as much sense as the very concept of a size 0.

These days, a 10 fits more like an 8, or smaller. And as women hit the stores to stock their closets with warm-weather clothes, they're getting zipper shock.

Consider it the legacy of the low-rise. For the past couple of years, retailers and manufacturers — who insist they haven't altered the model upon which they base their sizes — have been peddling the teen-friendly belly-baring trousers and their accompanying accouterments: tight-fitting tops and tanks.

Except that in the push to court the coveted Gen Y market, older, average-sized women are getting squeezed out — literally.

Jamie Delaney used to count on Banana Republic for affordable, fashion-conscious clothes. Two or three years ago, "I could go in there and pick up a size 8 pants with Lycra, and they'd fit perfectly," says Delaney, 47, of Stamford, Conn.

This season, she's entered the store three times with the intention of buying new pants. "I keep trying them on and turning around and walking out," she sighs.

Stores seem puzzled by all the grousing. "Manufacturers are not cutting smaller than they typically have, and women certainly aren't heavier than they used to be," says Linda Lee, who heads personal shopping services for Macy's East Coast stores.

Still, Christy Post ducked into Old Navy the other day and was shocked to find she had to buy pants a size larger than her normal 4. A trip to Urban Outfitters to try on size 5 jeans yielded worse results: "I could not get them up."

"Either things are shrinking, or we're all getting fat," says Post, 30, a Burlington, Vt., resident who designs women's athletic wear.

Most likely, it's the former.

Shrinking silhouettes — and alienating consumers — is strange retail strategy in an economic climate when few feel they can afford new clothes, analysts say.

The disconnect between consumers and retailers is a major reason why the apparel industry is in "a very tough state," says Marshal Cohen, co-president of market research firm NPDFashionworld. Gap Inc., parent company of Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy, has been weathering well-publicized financial woes. Likewise, J. Crew.

Stores such as the Gap "changed their identity," Cohen says. "They abandoned their core customer" — the moderately stylish woman — and embraced someone who's trendier, younger and, by virtue of biology, skinnier.

"Now, everybody is chasing that market," Cohen says.

This despite the fact that 13- to 24-year-olds, who comprise about one-fifth of the population, contribute only 17 percent of the apparel industry's dollars, according to NPDFashionworld. On the other hand, those 35 to 54 — 43 percent of the country — buy 40 percent of clothes sold.

Though the company wouldn't supply sizing information, Banana Republic insists its thirtysomething demographic is intact. Spokeswoman Kim Sobel points to the chain's recent introduction of petite and "extended" sizes (up to 16) as evidence that they are continuing to serve the same not-necessarily-skinny customer.

Lee says the issue is one of shape more than specs. "This spring and probably on into the summer, the style is to cut closer to the figure," she says. Weave trendy stretch fibers into an already narrower silhouette and "the perception might be that it's too tight."

Retailers maintain that they haven't changed; women's expectations have. A generation ago, over-35 women were content to gracefully transition into the misses department and buy the same size 10 they'd always worn, thanks to forgiving elastic waists and tunic-style tops. Today's younger-thinking baby boomers, however, still want to slip into waist-cinching pants and trim blouses and can't accept the fact that they'll have to go up a size as their middles thicken as part of the aging process.

But pants aren't the only thing putting women's knickers in a twist. Holub considers her shirt size 8 or 10. But at Old Navy, she's forced to find an extra large.

"The clothes are cut for stick-thin people who have no boobs and no stomach," Holub says.

Boutique clothing lines are proving equally aggravating. Lise Carrigg works at her mother's clothing store in Newburyport, Mass. There, she fits into everything from a small to a large, depending on the brand.