On our current delusion of clothing sizing and a history of "vanity sizing" Not sure if this is common knowledge or not, but we hear a lot of bunk about vanity sizing for women, and how you never know what size you'll be, the numbers are all messed up, blah,blah. But vanity sizing was once upon a time, just sizing. Back when people made most of their clothes instead of buying it like we do now (although with Clothing sizes going up and up us shit lords must renew the skills) you had sewing patterns. I just bought a vintage one from the 70s, and they pretty much look the same as todays. Large sheets of tissue paper with printed patterns that you have to choose a size, cut out, and put together. "Vanity sizing" came about as the result of patterns, because it's much easier to choose and cut out "14" than it is "36-27-38" , when stores started selling clothes en-masse, most women still made clothes, so the "14" on the label really did mean "36-27-38" (my measurements and actual 70s size). But we are lazy people and as years went by and production of clothes went from the sewing room to a Vietnamese back alley factory, people who had never sewn thought the numbers meant actual size, and to protect fee-fees, numbers were shrunk, and sizes like 00 and 1 were created. 14 shrunk to 10, then 6, then suddenly down a whole decade to 4.  This is where most of us 18-30 somethings grew up in. We were happy with our size 4 pants that in reality are 14 (patterns haven't changed, they just add on more sizes, and for some reason even though they still have the same measurements, sone of them run a bit large). But the ever increasing butter mayos of our generations are getting larger, and seeing their sizes climb into the 20s hurt their fee fees more, and since they now outnumber us, companies obeyed their reeeeiiinngg. Male butter mayos didnt escape the wrath of fat either. Men didnt sew back in the day, so their clothing still had to be labeled as 34×34 pants, Medium shirt, etc (insert feminist comment about the patriarchy here) however I just measured my boyfriends 30×34, and they're more like 34x34s if Levi was honest. Fats ruin just about everything. I'm a pattern size 14 and proud of my 21 bmi!  On another note, I have reluctantly agreed to make a star wars rebel pilot dress for a lard bucket I know. Pathetic thing has a 49" waist anD a 48" chest. Rebels wore bright orange and she's going to look like a traffic cone. I only found one dress pattern in her size and she needs the largest size (32w) there is. I will be sure to take a picture with me in it for comparison when I'm done. This should be an engineering challenge for me.  Edit: cut the pattern out, it appears to be a lot larger than stated. Probably because the pattern people know lardasses lie.