Every now and then people start wondering why it seems that more men are libertarians. I don’t know if that’s actually true or not (I know plenty of female libertarians), BUT lately I’ve started thinking that it wouldn’t be surprising if men placed more trust in market solutions than women do. Markets fail us every day. To wit:
- The average American woman is somewhere between 5′3″ and 5′4″ (depending on who you ask). “Petite” sizes in women’s clothing generally apply to heights 5′4″ and lower. That means half of the women in this country are petite. The absurdity of that fact aside, there aren’t very many petite clothes out there. Lately, high end department stores are getting rid of petites. It seems that nobody bought them, because they were frumpy. Why? Why aren’t stylish clothes made to fit the 50% of women who are petite? (At least shorter women still have some options; Ann Taylor has a great petite line - if you want grown-up career clothes. Or there’s Banana Republic, if you can afford it, or Talbot’s, if you’re square [both literally and figuratively].)
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- As Brooke points out in her post about the closing of petite sections, there aren’t very many tall clothes out there either. This is almost more surprising, as the people who model the clothes are all quite tall. What, do they let out all the seams for runway shows?
- The average American bra size has recently increased* from 34B to 36C. At least the people who are actually at the 50th percentile can still find bras in their size, but anybody above that has trouble. The most stylish bras frequently only go up to a C cup. And hardly any styles go above a D, except in industrial-looking styles. The large number of women who need larger sizes than that and/or want attractive bras that actually fit, have to go to specialty stores or have them custom-made.
- One area in which the fashion industry has actually started responding to market demands is plus-size clothes. Forty percent of American women wear a size 14 or larger, but you wouldn’t know that from looking in most clothing stores. Brands like Lane Bryant and Just My Size have started to fill in the gap, but women who are average size or a bit bigger still don’t have all that many options.
- Then there are shoes. Accurate data are hard to find, but it seems that the average female shoe size is, these days, about a 9. According to the same Slate article, the standard range of sizes is still 5-10. I actually don’t believe that one, as someone who wears a 6. I do almost all my shoe shopping at places like DSW these days, after one too many shopping trips spent cooling my heels in the showroom while the salesperson checks in the back to tell me “the smallest we have in those is a 7. In these, we have just a 7.5. I could stuff the toes with newspaper for you!” There’s much less disappointment if I can check whether my size is in stock first. Athletic shoes frequently don’t come below a 6 or 6.5, and in my recent shopping for rollerblades, it looked like I’d have to buy some that are meant for little boys.
Every woman I know has, at one time or another, exclaimed “Just who are these clothes supposed to fit??” while on a frustrating shopping trip. I agree. It looks like the fashion industry is a case of market failure.
* I found the 36C statistic several places, so I think it’s accurate. The Discover article I linked to may not have all its stats quite straight, though. It claims that a pair of D-cup breasts weighs from 15-23 pounds. I found that difficult to believe, and did some back-of-the-envelope calculations. It looks to me like Discover is guilty of skewing to the right end of the tail, as well as sloppy approximation. If you assume that each breast is a half-sphere, you end up with a 36D bosom weighing about 15 pounds, and need 42Ds to get up to 23 pounds. Of course, breasts aren’t half-spheres unless they’re bad fakes; they’re closer to cone-shaped, meaning those numbers are significant overestimates. Plus, D cups don’t start at 36 band sizes, the delusions of those stocking the lingerie department at Target notwithstanding.
Posted by Amanda in General | 6 Comments »