Last weekend, I went shopping at a popular chain store, where I bought a pair of new-style jogger pants – in pink, natch.
They were a size 4. No, I wasn't in the United States but in downtown Melbourne.
![.](/web/20161029230654im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/b/h/1/x/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grn1fo.png/1477534126647.jpg)
Rather than being elated at being a size 4, I was perplexed, confused and, eventually, really annoyed.
I felt like I had been had, falling prey to fashion's game of sizing where no woman – no matter her shape – can confidently shop at a variety of stores and reliably predict what size she will need.
In a bid by some stores not to have sizes larger than 16 on their racks, they have downscaled their sizing to the point of ridiculousness.
At some stores, you can now buy an XXXS, while at others, size 16s – the size of the average Australian woman – are in the plus-size section. Seriously?
Women over the world are getting fed up with the inconsistency in sizing. It doesn't matter if you're a 4 or a 24, having to play a guessing game every time you go to the shops is enough to put you off shopping. And the Australian fashion industry cannot afford that.
Online, the impact of dodgy sizing tables is felt five-fold, especially when you can't try things on.
![An Australian sizing standard was abolished in 2008, before the rise of online shopping. Some consumer advocates have ...](/web/20161029230654im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/n/2/z/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grn1fo.png/1477534126647.jpg)
Sure, it may feel nice for a moment to be told by one retailer you are a size smaller than everything else in your wardrobe. A cynical person may even accuse some brands of using these outliers as a driver to push more sales. After all, find me a woman who wouldn't prefer to buy an identical item in a size 12 rather than her usual 14. We're only human.
But this inconsistency in sizing is doing a great disservice to Australian women by wasting their time – the time it takes to return clothing that doesn't fit – and questioning the acceptability of their bodies.
Australia used to have standards around sizing but since they were dropped, it appears the manipulation – at both ends of the sizing scale – has got much worse.
The argument for scrapping the standard in 2008 was that industry, government and consumer groups felt it was dated and irrelevant.
But with online fashion sales hitting $1 billion in Australia this year, it's fair to say a sizing standard is needed now more than ever.
I don't want to be a size 4 – it doesn't make me feel good. It makes me feel like a freak.
In Britain, the wild fluctuations in women's clothing sizes have in part led to the #nosizefitsall campaign, which has seen the Women's Equality Party calling for better representation of realistic women's sizing in the fashion industry.
One of the most astonishing revelations to come out of the campaign is the fact that 20 per cent of British women cut out the tags from their clothes, 70 per cent of whom do so out of shame or embarrassment at the size.
When the fashion industry mucks around with sizing to protect its image, it does so without consideration for the impact it will have on its most important marketers – the customers.
The industry should reintroduce a standardised scale for clothing to take the guesswork out of shopping, and protect women from the negative impacts of their illusion.
Whether we like it or not, many women ascribe certain values to the number that's on the tag in their clothes. While clothing companies cannot change our body shapes or size, ensuring there is consistency in sizing will at least stop messing with our heads.
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