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"Are the sizes of adult women's clothing getting smaller and smaller?!" Ms. Wang from Heping District of Tianjin City could not help but express such doubts and sighs when she went to the mall to buy clothes recently. She liked a T-shirt and asked for a size M (160) according to her body shape, but found that she could not wear it at all.

She has encountered similar situations many times. She used to wear size M, but in the past two years, size M women's clothing seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. She once suspected that she was too fat and needed to lose weight. She was quite anxious, but in fact, her figure and weight have not changed much in recent years.

"Once, I tried on a size 160 T-shirt for my child and it fit him perfectly. I also wore a size M T-shirt I bought a few years ago." Ms. Wang told the Legal Daily reporter that many of her female friends have also noticed this phenomenon. Some netizens also complained that their 92-pound adult women's clothing could not fit them, but their 35-pound sister fit them perfectly.

Experts interviewed believe that some businesses use small sizes as a gimmick, saying "wearing small-sized clothes is a test of women's figures", and advocating small-sized women's clothing is suspected of violating the Advertising Law. Consumers should bravely supervise businesses and say "no" to unreasonable clothing sizes; in the field of clothing, my country has issued corresponding national standards, and companies should produce clothing in accordance with national standards.

Adult women's clothing sizes are getting smaller

“The women’s clothing is ridiculously small this year.”

On a social platform, a blogger posted a video to complain. In the video, a young woman showed off the size L summer women's suspenders she bought, but when she tried them on, she couldn't fit into them at all, despite her height of 168cm and weight of less than 110kg. "Before, size L could be worn by people weighing 54kg to 60kg, but why is size L so small now?"

Ms. Huang from Hangzhou, Zhejiang used to be a fan of small-sized women's clothing. Even though she has a slim figure, she doesn't like the "small-sized trend" that some businesses are promoting nowadays. She told reporters that she used to buy XS and S-sized clothes in stores, but this summer when she went to a brand store to buy a vest, she couldn't fit into the M-sized one. "My figure has not changed over the years, but I didn't expect that the size of women's clothing has shrunk!"

"Merchants can design clothing according to public aesthetics and user needs, but they cannot arbitrarily change the size, and they should not promote size reduction as a business model," said Ms. Huang.

Ms. Wang agrees with this: "At present, weight loss has become a trend among women, and merchants are also making normal clothing sizes smaller, which will aggravate women's body anxiety and even cause some girls to lose weight unhealthily."

In the opinion of Ms. Zhang, a Beijing resident, some businesses deliberately make sizes smaller, calling them "slimming" and "good-looking" and "wearing small-sized clothes is a test of women's body shape", which actually leads to "size bullying" of women. "My weight has not changed much in recent years, but the size of clothes I wear is getting bigger and bigger. I used to wear size M, but now I have to wear size L and XL. Sometimes I dare not go to the mall to buy clothes with my friends, and I have also developed body anxiety."

Once, Ms. Zhang tried on a size L dress, but it was still too small. The clerk directly called the warehouse staff to get the largest size, which made her feel very embarrassed. However, she recently discovered that large-sized children's clothing seems to be a substitute for adult women's clothing - she found that a size 160 top in a certain brand of children's clothing store had a waist circumference of 80cm, which was very loose and comfortable to wear, while a size 160 top in a certain brand of women's clothing not far away had a waist circumference of only 62cm.

Not only offline brand stores, but also some online live broadcast rooms sell women's clothing in smaller sizes. Ms. Zong from Jinan, Shandong said that she bought several clothes from a live broadcast room some time ago, but they were too small to wear after they were delivered. Later, when she bought clothes, she had to order one or two sizes larger based on the size given by the anchor. Ms. Zong told reporters that she measured and found that the XXXL size clothes she bought online recently had a chest circumference of 86cm and a waist circumference of 77cm, while the L size clothes she bought in a specialty store a few years ago had a chest circumference of 88cm and a waist circumference of 78cm, which was a little "larger" than the XXXL.

The reporter recently visited several shopping malls in Beijing's Dongcheng and Xicheng districts and found that many stores put very small tight-fitting clothes in prominent places on the counters. In a store with slogans such as "Hot Girls Club", all kinds of T-shirts and dresses are very mini. For example, a size 160 skirt has a waist width that is only about the length of a woman's forearm, and one side is less than 30cm. The store said that the women who come here to buy clothes are all in good shape.

In a women's clothing store, the reporter saw a camisole top (size 160), but the waist circumference was only 60cm, and all the clothes in the store were one size fits all. When the reporter asked to pick a piece of clothing for a friend who was nearly 160cm tall and weighed nearly 100kg, the clerk suggested buying a loose version to avoid it not fitting.

"I thought I was walking into a children's clothing store. How can an adult woman wear such small clothes?" said the boy who was waiting for his girlfriend to buy clothes in the women's clothing store. He finally knew why his well-proportioned girlfriend kept saying she wanted to lose weight. "It must have something to do with the size reduction of clothes in clothing stores."

In addition, the reporter noticed that there was also a trend of small sizes and BM (Brandy Melville, a type of clothing that is suitable for thin and skinny girls) on social platforms. The reporter searched for "BM outfit" on a social app and immediately saw many posts, such as "BM style top collection" and "Be a BM girl".

"I am 170cm tall and weigh less than 105kg." A blogger who looks very thin shared her experience of trying on BM-style clothes on her account, saying that she still "felt really strong and had the urge to be thinner."

Abnormal aesthetic interest-oriented superposition

Women's clothing sizes are getting smaller and smaller. Is it because merchants want to save costs, or are they deliberately creating "body anxiety"?

Experts interviewed believe that the smaller and smaller sizes of women's clothing are due to distorted aesthetics and profit orientation.

"Market regulation is spontaneous. Some businesses deliberately make women's clothing sizes smaller and smaller because it is profitable. This is a comprehensive reflection of market choice and certain public opinion guidance." said Liu Qiucen, associate professor at the Human Rights Research Institute of Southwest University of Political Science and Law.

She further analyzed that, on the one hand, merchants are making sizes smaller and smaller, and bloggers are wearing small-sized clothing to attract traffic, all because there are hot spots and some people are willing to pay for it; on the other hand, these merchants and bloggers are once again exacerbating ordinary people's self-doubt and anxiety through publicity - as if the entire Internet is full of people with model figures, and that they are unhealthy and ugly if they cannot wear small-sized clothes, and they may even blindly lose weight in an unhealthy way and pursue the so-called "perfect body."

Fang Jie, director of the marriage and family affairs department of Shanghai Yingdong Law Firm, believes that the root cause of the decreasing size of women's clothing is the current popular aesthetic of "white, thin and young". This aesthetic standard has spawned a marketing strategy of "vanity size", which takes advantage of consumers' desire to cater to the so-called mainstream aesthetic, thereby further increasing the sales of small-sized clothing.

In her opinion, the aesthetic of "white, thin and young" is a convergence of the male perspective. Merchants use small sizes as a gimmick, saying that "wearing small-sized clothes is a test of women's body shape", which is undoubtedly looking at the problem from the wrong angle. Some female consumers have been subjected to the bad online trend of PUA (mental control), and have gone from being consumers of clothing to being "slaves" of clothing.

"'Freedom of dressing' is a basic personal right. The commercial practice of advocating trying on small-sized clothes is a restriction on freedom of dressing and a 'bullying' of women's bodies. Using the 'white, thin and young' aesthetic to kidnap women, vigorously marketing small-sized women's clothing, and selling body anxiety violates the principle of non-discrimination in corporate activities." Fang Jie said.

Improve the system and implement standard sizes

Are there any standards for women's clothing sizes?

Fang Jie introduced that my country's national standards for women's clothing sizes have gone through several important development stages. In 1981, the first national standards for women's clothing sizes were formulated based on the data of human body measurements at that time; in 1991, the relevant departments issued the first edition of the national standards for clothing sizes, which were mandatory; in 1997, my country revised the national standards for clothing sizes and changed them to recommended standards.

"The last comprehensive revision of the women's clothing size standards was in 2008, when 'Women's Clothing Sizes (GB/T1335.2-2008)' replaced the previous GB/T1335.2-1997. The standards have not changed much, and the human body data they are based on still comes from previous measurements." Fang Jie said that when clothing standards can no longer adapt to changes in women's body shapes and aesthetics, and the recommended standards are only reference data for merchants, then the "determiners" of clothing size standards have gradually become some merchants pursuing market interests, and smaller and smaller women's clothing has come into being.

During the investigation, the reporter noticed that as women's clothing continued to "shrink", many women were troubled by it, and some even lost weight just to squeeze into the shockingly narrow sizes of clothes.

In Liu Qiucen's opinion, if we want to solve the problem of women's clothing sizes, we should not advocate binding clothing sizes to body standards, which will shackle aesthetics and social evaluation standards. If we pursue small-sized women's clothing too much, more and more women will sacrifice their health in pursuit of perfection. Society should recognize diverse beauty.

Fang Jie found that it is gratifying that society has gradually realized that it is an unreasonable phenomenon that women's clothing sizes are getting smaller and smaller. Many women have dared to say to small-sized women's clothing, "I can't wear it, but it's not my problem."

"We should face up to the fact that the national recommended standards are too outdated and cannot adapt to the changes in women's body shapes. We suggest that relevant departments update the national human body shape data and revise the clothing size standards accordingly." Fang Jie suggested that although my country currently has no legislative regulations on abnormal clothing sizes, regulatory authorities can choose to conduct pilot projects to centrally require major popular clothing brands to implement standard sizes in the face of clothing size chaos, so as to guide and promote the clothing industry to establish healthier and more positive industry norms.

"When consumers find that clothing sizes are too small to meet the general body standards, they can report this to market supervision departments. The abnormality of clothing sizes represents substandard product quality to a certain extent, and consumer associations should take the initiative to discover and resolve this issue." In Fang Jie's view, merchants who promote small-sized women's clothing are suspected of violating the Advertising Law, and in serious cases, they are even suspected of defrauding consumers. The market supervision and management departments should investigate and deal with merchants suspected of violating the Advertising Law in accordance with the law. Consumers can protect their rights by complaining and reporting to market supervision and management departments for suspected fraudulent behavior, or by taking legal action.

"Article 34 of the newly revised Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests stipulates that people's governments at all levels should take into account the special needs of women when planning and constructing infrastructure, and equip public facilities such as public toilets and mother-and-child rooms that meet the needs of women. It can be seen that the configuration of public facilities such as mother-and-child rooms and women's toilets in public places is becoming more and more perfect. Issues related to women's clothing also need to be taken seriously by society and treated fairly and reasonably." Fang Jie said.

(Source: Legal Daily)

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