Just about any woman can be a size 4 if she puts her wallet to it, according to a UNT study of the inseams, crotch seams and waistlines of more than 1,000 women's pants.

In this study of vanity sizing, a practice in which designers place a smaller size label on a larger-size garment, Tammy Kinley, assistant professor of merchandising and hospitality management, found the differences between the standard clothing size and the size indicated on the label to be as large as 13 inches.

"And it seems that the more recognized the brand, the bigger the difference," she adds. "So national brands like Ralph Lauren and Jones New York tended to run larger than private labels such as Route 66 and Honors."

Pants with the biggest waists and smallest size numbers were typically the more expensive clothing brands, Kinley says. In her study she found that pants costing $100 or more were more likely to have vanity sizing, while pants under $50 were sized more consistently.

Her study focused solely on women's clothing, but she says vanity sizing occurs in men's and children's clothing as well.

"Nowadays the size number doesn't mean much," she says. "It's just an arbitrary number."

Kinley adds that designers practice vanity sizing because it creates customer loyalty, makes their patrons feel better and affects their sales.

"Designers will say they're designing clothes for a target market and what may be a size 8 for one body type may be different for another," she says.

Typically, designers use real models to create a size fit, but because the measurements and dimensions of the models vary, the definitions of the sizes change as well. Standardized sizing charts exist, but designers in the garment industry have moved away from using them. These standard sizes were developed in the early 1940s by the government for women in the armed services.

Kinley says vanity sizing makes it incredibly difficult to shop for clothes without trying out numerous garments to achieve a good fit. And the size labels become completely unreliable when the size numbers are so arbitrary, she adds.

Initially this may not seem like much of a problem until one considers the high rate of returned items and missed sales retailers experience each year as a result of vanity sizing, reducing their sales significantly, Kinley says.

For consumers, vanity sizing means a long and difficult hunt for a brand that caters to their body type.

In her study, Kinley visited numerous stores including Target, J.C. Penney, DKNY, Talbot's, Mervyn's, Foley's and Dillard's. Her goal is to use this study as well as others to help develop a more accurate sizing system that focuses more on body types rather than standardized numbers.

BY RUFUS COLEMAN rcoleman@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• It's not too late to participate in SECC
• South Pole cancer survivor to speak at luncheon
• UNT historian says familiar Halloween icon came from history's witch hunts
• Staff members honored at annual convocation
• UNT crime statistics available online
• Campus events planned for Halloween
• UNT to host conference on green building
• Faculty, staff encouraged to participate in parking and transportation survey
• Competition at UNT to rival TV's popular robot wars

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