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" \n The national obsession with skinniness has always been a numbers game \u2014 think of those complicated body mass index (BMI) calculations or standing on the scale at the gym, fixating on that last quarter pound. But the desire to downsize has taken a ridiculous turn: We now live in a world of clothing sizes that dip below 0 to subzeros (also known as 00). Negative sizes \u2014 and the dwindling celebs who wear them \u2014 put more pressure than ever on females. You can&amp;#039;t help but think there must be a ton of \u00FCbertiny women out there if they have to invent less-than-0 sizes. &amp;quot;Size is the latest way to evaluate self-worth,&amp;quot; says Susan Head, PhD, a body-image specialist and clinical psychologist in Durham, North Carolina. &amp;quot;Women want to measure up to the 0 ideal.&amp;quot; Complicating this crazy situation is that unlike weight, which is a quantifiable figure you can count on, size tags have become infuriatingly inconsistent. Not only is a 6 today probably roomier than a 6 from just a few years ago, but different stores have varying definitions of a size 6. You probably have a range of sizes in your closet, and lots of them may be labeled with a smaller size than you ever thought you&amp;#039;d wear. Before you get too excited about that, read on to learn how the clothing industry manipulates sizes, why a simple number seems to matter so much, and how it all messes with us. The Secret of Sizes Some time in the past several decades, designers tapped into a bankable truth: Women tend to feel better and buy more when we fit into a smaller size. &amp;quot;I put on 10 pounds in college and dreaded shopping because buying bigger sizes forced me to admit I&amp;#039;d gained weight,&amp;quot; says Naomi,* 25, from Montreal, Canada. &amp;quot;It was like a slap in the face.&amp;quot; Enter vanity sizing, where designers add extra inches of fabric to clothing without changing the number on the tag. For example, if you measure a size 2 pair of pants today, they might be as wide around the waist and hips as a 4 from 10 years ago. And 00s aren&amp;#039;t the result of women shrinking away (though some actresses seem to be). Designers created them because as 4s morphed into 2s and 2s became 0s, smaller-framed women were sized out of the normal range. &amp;quot;Standardized size charts exist, but designers often take liberties to create their own smaller scale, regardless of how illogical the numbers are,&amp;quot; says Tammy Kinley, PhD, associate professor of merchandising at the University of North Texas, who has studied the vanity-sizing phenomenon. In one of Kinley&amp;#039;s studies, researchers measured 1,000 pairs of women&amp;#039;s pants and found as much as an 8\u00BD-inch variation in the size-4 waist. &amp;quot;Designers know that if customers feel happy when they try the clothes on, they are likely to buy that brand again,&amp;quot; says Jim Lovejoy, industry director of the apparel research company TC2&amp;#039;s SizeUSA National Sizing Survey. Take it from Jenn, 23, of New Haven, Connecticut, who is usually a 6: &amp;quot;I have two pairs of size-4 jeans, and when I wear them, I get a surge of validation seeing that label.&amp;quot; Like it or loathe it, vanity sizing isn&amp;#039;t going away any time soon. According to Lovejoy, an increasing number of designers are &amp;quot;deflating&amp;quot; sizes more than ever for one reason: the smaller the size, the larger the profits. *Names have been changed  When Thin Became In Being (or at least feeling) minuscule wasn&amp;#039;t always so hot. But as you&amp;#039;ve noticed, most of our recent beauty icons \u2014 models and celebs \u2014 are supersvelte. &amp;quot;Skinny is in vogue now, but the ideal body shape swings back and forth between a slimmer and curvier silhouette,&amp;quot; says Valerie Steele, director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The &amp;#039;80s were ruled by shapely models like Cindy Crawford, and then in 1992, Kate Moss brought back the Twiggy-style waif look with her hanger-thin physique. As models&amp;#039; bodies shrank, celebrities soon whittled down also. According to celebrity stylist Rob Zangardi, stars can more easily borrow designer clothes to wear to red-carpet events if they fit into the models&amp;#039; sample sizes. But says Zangardi, &amp;quot;Many celebs have gotten so small that even the samples are too big for them.&amp;quot; There are stars who break the skinny mold \u2014 think Beyonc\u00E9 and Scarlett Johansson. But they&amp;#039;re more the exception than the rule. And when designers create misleading size tags, the average-size woman can feel like she&amp;#039;s closer to the unrealistic paradigm that dominates the catwalk and the big screen. Mad About Measuring Meanwhile, it seems like size anxiety in general is reaching critical mass. Sure, weight has always been an issue, but now it&amp;#039;s truly an obsession. Tabloids and celeb blogs keep constant tabs on stars&amp;#039; bodies, with headlines broadcasting &amp;quot;news&amp;quot; like &amp;quot;Hollywood Dress Size Countdown!&amp;quot; At the other extreme, America&amp;#039;s expanding waistline is a staple of media coverage (Google &amp;quot;obesity epidemic&amp;quot; and you&amp;#039;ll get nearly 800,000 responses). About 200 diet books are published each year alone, more than double the number put out in 1996. We gobble it all up, eagerly devouring updates on shrinking celebs, watching weight-loss reality shows, and dishing about our own size and body with friends. Stuffing your brain with all this info has a powerful effect. &amp;quot;When thinness is discussed so regularly and with such emphasis, it leads us to attribute enormous importance to it,&amp;quot; says body-image specialist Adrienne Ressler, national training director for the Renfrew Center, an eating-disorder treatment center. &amp;quot;Size seeps into your subconscious and you can&amp;#039;t help but ruminate about it on a consistent basis.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I used to think about size constantly,&amp;quot; says Laura, 29, who lives in Denver. &amp;quot;I even hung a pair of size-2 jeans on the wall for inspiration, hoping one day I&amp;#039;d fit into them.&amp;quot; The problem is, how can you rely on size as a way to measure up when sizes themselves have become so inconsistent?   A Heavy Psychological Burden The other big question, of course, is why it&amp;#039;s still satisfying to slip into clothes with a smaller size when we rationally know we haven&amp;#039;t lost weight. &amp;quot;Since size is something we care about deeply, our emotional response overpowers logic,&amp;quot; explains Head. &amp;quot;We want so badly to be assured that we&amp;#039;re thin and beautiful.&amp;quot; Yes, it&amp;#039;s a ploy, but we&amp;#039;re willing to throw reality out the window because downsizing feels delicious. Another way vanity sizing preys on our insecurities: If you&amp;#039;re not pleased with your body, it prevents you from recognizing your true shape. &amp;quot;I remember putting on a size-4 skirt and thinking, There&amp;#039;s no way this will fit, then feeling triumphant when it did,&amp;quot; says Sarah, 29, of Brooklyn. &amp;quot;Even though I had clothes two sizes larger from the same store at home, I rationalized it by telling myself I&amp;#039;d washed those a bunch of times, so they must have shrunk.&amp;quot; On the flip side, once you&amp;#039;ve shimmied into a tinier outfit, you might convince yourself that you&amp;#039;re a 2, and wearing brands where you measure a 4 or 6 can get you down. That&amp;#039;s how Janet, 33, from Topeka, Kansas, felt when shopping for her wedding dress (wedding gowns generally run true to size). &amp;quot;The gown in my usual size was minuscule! I had to go up two sizes. In stead of feeling excited that I&amp;#039;d found my dress, I was depressed.&amp;quot; All that uncertainty ends up doing a number on you. &amp;quot;The fact that there&amp;#039;s not one standard to compare ourselves to creates anxiety because we have no control,&amp;quot; says Head. &amp;quot;We are in the dark and detached from our bodies.&amp;quot; Stressing about something so arbitrary turns out to be a losing game. And when you actually think about it, you have to wonder: What&amp;#039;s that great about being a 0 anyway? &amp;quot;The idea of a size 0 is disturbing,&amp;quot; says Head. &amp;quot;It suggests that to be pretty and feminine, women need to disappear.&amp;quot; Do we really want to strive to take up less space in the world? Maybe, after all, there are better ways to measure up. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/fashion/advice/a3031/vanity-sizing/>