This Woman’s Dress Experiment Reveals Shocking Truths About Clothing Sizes That Experts Can’t Ignore
S, M, L, XL, XXL — just a bunch of letters, right? Yet somehow, they wield the kind of power that can turn a joyful shopping spree into a soul-crushing saga. You ever squeezed into a dress, glanced at the tag, and wondered, “Wait… how am I both a medium and an extra-large depending on the brand?” Yeah, me too. Just when you think you’ve cracked the code, along comes viral TikToker Grace Tutty, flipping the script by showing she can rock every single one of those sizes — from XS all the way to XL — all at once. Mind blown. So, why does your body magically morph just to fit these wildly inconsistent labels? Spoiler alert: it’s not you — it’s the clothes! Dive into a world where fashion brands play a sneaky game with sizing, leaving us all a bit dizzy and questionin’ our worth by the numbers stuck on our tags. Spoiler: it ain’t about your body changing; it’s about the clothes pulling a fast one. Curious to find out more? LEARN MORE.
S, M, L, XL, XXL.
These are just letters. Yet somehow, they hold so much meaning when they are printed on a tag and hanging from a dress you just squeezed your way into.
One viral TikToker challenged this idea in a video, showing how women can fit into every one of those sizes depending on the clothing brand.
A viral TikToker showed how brands manipulated clothing sizes, making shoppers feel a certain way about their bodies
Image credits: gracetutty
- Influencer Grace Tutty showed how brands manipulated clothing sizes, making shoppers feel a certain way about their bodies.
- “Proof you shouldn’t base your worth on your clothes,” the body-positive influencer wrote.
- “There is no industry-wide standard for sizing. Each brand does pretty much its own thing,” said one expert.
TikTok star and content creator Grace Tutty recently shared a video with her 589K followers on Instagram.
“Proof you shouldn’t base your worth on your clothes,” read the title of her video, where the camera captured her marching in different dresses.
Each dress was a different brand and a different size. But all of them fit her perfectly, from XS to XL.
Image credits: gracetutty
“Proof ‘going up a size’ doesn’t mean your body changed, it means the clothes did!!” she wrote in the caption.
“I won’t stop making these videos until fashion brands standardize clothing sizing!!!”
Viewers agreed with her in the comments section, saying, “I have everything from xs-xl in my closet!”
“So true. And even in one brand you can’t be sure!” another said.
“Proof you shouldn’t base your worth on your clothes,” read the text in Grace Tutty’s video
Image credits: gracetutty
The content creator’s video laid out a reality that was so relatable to many shoppers: the body doesn’t have to change at all, but can still cycle through small, medium, and large sizes, showing how clothing labels can often feel inconsistent and even misleading.
Experts say the confusion is not accidental.
“American garment manufacturers have been manipulating sizing since at least the 1930s,” Linda Przybyszewski, author of The Lost Art of Dress, a New York Times bestseller, and teacher of history at the University of Notre Dame, told Bored Panda.
@gracetutty Proof ‘going up a size’ doesn’t mean your body changed, it means the clothes did!! I won’t stop making these videos untill fashion brands standardise clothing sizing!!! 🩷 #bodypositivity#clothessizing#dresses#pearshaped#insecurities dresses from @Princess Polly @PrincessPollyUK @asos @White Fox Boutique @Pull&Bear @Oh Polly @Brandy Melville @Urban Outfitters Europe ♬ my way – Olivia Rodrigo
When it comes to understanding size labels, “there is no industry-wide standard for sizing. Each brand does pretty much its own thing,” Sylvie Blum, author and expert on Women and Fashion, told Bored Panda.
Brands even manipulate sizing because “wearers in general want to feel they are a smaller size,” said Dirk de Waal, a sustainable fashion scholar.
“Sizing within a brand is generally consistent,” he told Bored Panda. “However, you might find variances within a retailer’s sub-brands, as the measurements of a specific size (s/m) might shift based on the brand’s sizing.”
The reason why brands manipulate sizes is “most likely to encourage the customers to feel like they are thinner, and therefore it’s a feel-good practice,” Blum added.
“There is no industry-wide standard for sizing. Each brand does pretty much its own thing,” said one expert
Image credits: RDNE Stock project/Pexels (not an actual photo)
As bodies have changed over time, so have clothing labels, too. And sometimes, this is not to reflect measurements, but to influence how shoppers feel when they look at the tag.
For instance, “vanity sizing gave larger numbers to children’s sizes in order to assure mothers their children were healthy and growing, and smaller sizes to women to flatter them,” Przybyszewski said.
“Also, as Americans have gotten larger, size numbers have gotten smaller,” she added.
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