The garment industry is expanding its clothing ranges into smaller and smaller sizes. At the same time, many an adult feels ever greater pressures to be able to squeeze into the measurements of a clinical anorectic.
By the yardstick of international measurements, the 23"-waist jeans turned out by the Swedish brand Cheap Monday could only be worn by someone under the age of ten. Kids’ clothes have in all quiet been brought onto the shelves of the adultwear department.
The inside-leg lengths of these smallest sizes are nevertheless so long that they would drag on the floor, even if worn over an adult pair of legs.
When a European size 40 (USA 8, UK 12) corresponds to a 29" waist measurement, it follows that these smallest jeans are even tinier than the much-discussed “size zero” ideal of the fashion catwalks - a veritable XXXS.
Adults will presumably understand that the mini-sizes are clearly meant for children.
Nonetheless, it doesn’t prevent thoughts of going on a crash cabbage soup diet passing through the mind.
Let’s get adult sizes back into the stores, so normal-shaped people do not have to feel like an elephant when they look at the clothing racks!
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 13.1.2008
