The Twisted Logic of Mass Produced Clothing and the Fashion Industry

Today, I’m going to compare how we think about clothing and fashion to how we think about some other things we wear. Don’t worry, I have a purpose; bear with me. 

So, clothing comes in various sizes. Small, medium, large, extra small, extra large, and so on. However, many people, especially those who wear clothing marketed to women, have experienced the issue of having a closet full of clothes that fit them but every brand they own has a different size tag. This is because different brands cater to different body types. When you don’t fit their idea of a good body type, their clothes likely look terrible on you and you don’t know why. Well, now you do. 

But the problem is that most common and affordable brands of clothing make clothes according to outdated measurements that are deemed attractive by high fashion. The proportions of the bust, shoulders, waist, legs, and hips are usually very minimal in size difference from each other. When you lay these types of clothing items out on the floor, they likely look like a box that has been crushed slightly due to weight on top of it. I have also bought jeans for myself that fit in the thighs, waist, and the butt, which is rare for me, but the ankles were so small I had to cut slits in the seams so my feet would go through. Who takes measurements for the ankle of skinny jeans but forgets that people usually have feet? 

Many large clothing manufacturers often use “standardized” sizes that are not actually standardized at all. They often distort the measurements to be able to fit the body type they think they want to market to, which is usually small-waisted people with hips only slightly wider than the waist, paired with small chests (if we are talking about clothes marketed to women). If people who wear men’s clothing want to have a form fitting item, they need to pay extra or shop at a specialty store. Needless to say, this is highly inaccurate and problematic.  

There is also the discrepancy between the sizes of clothes marketed to men and those marketed to women. This causes body image issues in different ways for these separate groups. Clothing sizes for men are usually more agreed-upon by multiple brands whereas women have to try on clothes far more to actually find something that fits them. People who wear men’s clothing usually can look at the size of a pair of jeans and know that they’ll fit, but those who wear women’s clothing likely fit into multiple different sizes of jeans depending on the brand.

There is also the issue of the quantity of different sizes. “Medium” sizes are usually more readily available than larger clothing. In some businesses, they double charge just for extra sizes. While this is necessary up to a point because of the additional material used in the manufacturing process, big stores do it often and at an amount that is unreasonable. Not only does this give the idea that being larger than who they wanted to sell to is bad, but also that you need to pay more to be a size larger. This leads to severe body image issues and potentially headaches with being unable to buy the clothes one wants.

Society also wants us to think that sizes are the same across all age groups and genetic variations. This is simply untrue. People have different body types, which means they are going to be different sizes. People are also at different points in their lifespan, which means that they could need to replace their clothing more or less often than other people. Pregnancy, health issues, money struggles, and genetics all come into play. We shouldn’t expect a thirty-year-old who has given birth to two kids to be the same size as a seventeen-year-old with fast metabolism.

First, I want to bring up dentures. When someone is getting dentures, they need to go in for five to eight appointments beforehand to measure, fit, fix, and fit again so your dentures fit nicely in your mouth. And of course, we can’t just skip out on these appointments because they do all these trials and measurements so the dentures don’t hurt your gums or cheeks or tongue. If we just had a bunch of pre-made dentures sitting on a shelf that were based on previous customers’ mouth shapes, we would have a lot of people who bleed from the mouth or have to go without teeth because the dentures cause them harm. It is also highly unsanitary to try on dentures that have been tried on by other people…

Now, imagine you are going to buy a new pair of Jordans or you need a pair of shoes that are acceptable for work. The first pair you try on pinches your feet and makes you uncomfortable, so you go a size higher. No big deal. You don’t pay a fortune more for that one size up, you just get the size that fits you better. In China, before 1911, women would bind their feet into shoes several sizes too small and pointed impossibly at the toes because that was how their beauty was judged. They were to have the smallest feet possible in order to be seen as beautiful. This caused severe mutilation and painful bone deformation that these women had to live with the rest of their lives. However, in most parts of the world today you either have shoes that fit or you don’t have shoes at all. You don’t need to shove your feet into ice cream cones to be pretty, you just need to have shoes to protect your feet from sharp rocks and the cold ground. You do not keep the shoes as “inspiration” to try and work your feet into being smaller, you just love your feet because they let you walk places (unless you are impaired, in which case you probably like your feet because they’re there to stop you from bleeding out the bottom, or you enjoy the absence of feet because then you don’t have to spend money on shoes.) Either way, feet or no feet, you don’t try to fit into shoes that don’t fit because that would not be logical.

Before the 20th century, almost all clothing was made specifically for the body it was going to be used to cover. If it was a hand-me-down item, it would be altered to fit the new person. This means that contrary to most people’s beliefs, most corsets made by skilled tailors would be made in a way that it would not cause harm to the person wearing it. If you look back into fashion at this time such as dresses and suits, the articles show that fittings were done as often as necessary and alterations were made when needed so the clothing would last a good while and flatter the person’s shape. Many women would take their own measurements and make their own clothing as well so it could be whatever they wanted. If they wanted purple overcoats, then they saved money to buy purple fabric and made themselves purple overcoats. They did not keep their old gowns for motivation to work out, they just altered the clothes to fit them. They did not punish their bodies when a type of dress went out of style, they simply made a new dress if they liked. 

So, why, in the last century, has the focus shifted? Why do we know for sure that we can’t just have pre-made dentures for people to try on, that shoes are pre-made but we can’t hate our feet for not fitting into a pair of shoes, yet we think that our bodies are useless and ugly if we do not fit society’s idea of beauty? Why did you flinch or cringe or cry out in sympathetic pain when I told you about foot binding but you or someone you know is trying to work their body sick and contorted so they can be “thicc” with a “tiny waist, pretty face, and a big bank?” 

All this has to do with beauty versus health, and what we value more in certain situations. When someone enters the dentist for a consultation for dentures, it is because of their health that they need dentures and that they cannot just try on a pair, find one close, and leave. We know this. When we go to the shoe store, it isn’t considered normal or common to try and beat our feet into these shoes just because someone says small feet are pretty. When we are buying jewelry, we don’t buy a necklace too small to train our neck to be like a turkey’s. This is because we care more about health in these situations than beauty. Sure, shoes and dentures and necklaces might be nice additions to your outfit that can enhance the aesthetic of your appearance, but we do not just buy these things to be pretty. We buy these things because we need them in order to be able to chew, so we don’t cut or freeze our feet on the ground, or because it was a gift from someone we love. 

With clothing, however, society tells us that we are useless if we don’t follow the latest trend. With our bodies, society tells us to eat more or go on a diet, which can and is often very harmful to the one being told to change. Society tells us to wear a certain style of jeans even if they are uncomfortable or we hate them just so we don’t get bashed online. We feel the pressure to be small when we see someone who is “overweight”, even when both people in this situation are divine. We think that women need to be so much smaller than men that we are congratulated for still shopping in the children’s section at twenty-three years old. If we have enough fat in our bodies that we could survive an emergency such as famine or near-starvation, we are told to get rid of it. We are congratulated for being skinny to the point that we lose ten pounds every time we catch the flu. 

All this attitude toward our body comes from society valuing “beauty” more than health. It does not make any sense to wear someone else’s dentures, so why on earth are we expecting people to wear clothes that are not made for them? We are punished economically for being “unattractive” by huge price differences between the small and extra large versions of a certain style of shirt. We are punished socially for being healthy by people giving you snide looks for eating a burger after having to skip breakfast because you were late for work. Skinny people are cheered on for eating two stomachs worth of food, but people seen as fat are penalized for eating at all. 

Beauty standards for men and women have never been fair, and short of in the middle ages, they have never been healthy. Men are expected to have defined muscles on top of muscles in order to be seen as pretty, and women are expected to be so weak they can’t even pick up a four liter milk jug with one hand. Beauty is viewed over health when looking at the picture of everything between our feet and our teeth. We are expected to never have acne, cover up scars we worked hard to heal from, leave our bodies unmarked by traits like tattoos or piercings so we can be dolled up however society wants, and we are told to be so skinny that a strong breeze blows us over. 

Not to mention, beauty standards are always changing. People who want to be seen as attractive at a certain time will likely try to work their body into the ideal shape, buy new clothes that fit the trends, and put themselves in uncomfortable positions for photos so they look good to people online. Not only does this harm the person’s self-esteem, but it is also harmful for the environment because of the support of fast fashion when it could be avoided. The only reason fast fashion is a thing is because big retail stores want more money, and they know that the best way to make a lot more money off of a group is to lower individual prices just below their competition.

So, a summary is as follows: high fashion creates the beauty standards for the rich. The poor want to fit in and be like the rich because the rich are a symbol of prosperity. But high fashion cannot afford to lower their prices because their designs take time, money, and measurement to make. This is where big corporations swoop in, rip off the designs, and produce them in “standardized” sizes millions at a time. They give the illusion of giving the people what they want at a better price than professional designers (which makes high fashion look terrible) and hide the reality of landfills piling up with wardrobe replacements and exploitation of foreign workers. Take this into account with the fact that big corporations take regular advantage of tax havens to make the owners billions of dollars while paying millions of other workers minimum wage. Then there is also the issue of having “trendy” body shapes, which increases sales of cheap workout equipment (which can only be found so cheap from big corporations). Basically, big corporations make money off of our insecurities in multiple ways, and we unknowingly encourage it my increasing their sales needlessly.

Everybody in this world is unique and different from the next. Society, let them be. Big corporations, stop being greedy. Let people be happy, let them be healthy, and look for the beauty instead of telling them to bring the beauty to you. No person has the responsibility to be attractive for another person’s gain, and no one has the right to demand their version of attractiveness from another person. We need to stop worrying about appearances and start working toward changing the things that need to be fixed. Maybe like, I don’t know, inflation? Corruption? Dictatorships? Pollution? Discrimination? Conflict? 

Please note: I am not calling out any companies for their prices. There are plenty of businesses who follow laws and value their customers and workers. I am aiming this post at the way we think about clothes compared with other things as a society, and how we prioritize appearances over health. I love small businesses and their quality of products, but many big corporations take advantage of the public in many ways, which should be thought of critically.

Until next time, keep thinking outside the box, and keep reading in between!