I’ve never understood it. We men have collar size, chest measurement, waist, inside leg, cut, style, even hat size, yet women’s dress sizes seems to be mashed down to a single figure. It makes it almost impossible to shop for a wife, mistress, lady friend or all three without the potential for causing immense offence. It’s an art not a science…which makes it doubly tough for male ubergeeks last-minute shopping on a Christmas Eve.
As far as I can gather, the norm seeming to lie somewhere between an 8 and an 18 with outliers at size zero to 6 and 20+. How can this be? Well, the NYT broke down the women’s clothes size system a while back and revealed that “size” really does matter to women. Moreover, it means something different to each and every shopper depending on whether you mind the Gap or live in a Banana Republic. Admittedly, women do apparently have two other measurements to contend with, but we’re not going for bust today.