Size Inflation

Our weekend was excellent and totally normal - drinks and dinner with a friend on Friday, running around, marketing (which IS a word here), doctoring (which ISN'T a word here), relaxing, tutoring, dinnering, settlering, having guests for a few days, hanging out with my friend who is moving out of Singapore, our other friends who have the cutest baby in the world, out other friends whom we love...pretty normal (and wonderful). Oh - and a pretty ok movie.

This posting has nothing to do with ex-pat life in Singapore. Nothing to do with a cool place in Asia or a cool food (or good book). If this doesn't interest you, please wait for the next posting.

A few thoughts about size inflation - expansion on the points below.
1) Jer and I went shopping last year in Detroit, and there was one store in the whole Somerset (HUGE) mall that had pants his size (28).

2) I grew up and have always worn a size 8. I have not gotten smaller. Now I'm a size 4.

3) All of the clothes I got in America in the spring were made in S.E. Asia. Literally.

EXPANSION:
1) Jer has always found clothes for himself somewhere. Last year, all of the stores that should have something his size started at 30 or 32. This is clearly not an example of size inflation - which I think is because he's a male, and this might not exist in the male world. The only store that had clothes his size was Banana Republic (and the pants looked really good on him). That is just really weird - aren't there other skinny people in the world? Apparently not - I think it's not just the statistics that say that Detroit is getting fatter.

2) I have always worn a size 8 (sometimes a 10). When I was living in NYC, sometimes I wore a six. Most of my size 8 clothes still fit perfectly, so I know I have not gotten smaller, yet my size kept decreasing. This time, when we went to America, I got a lot of work clothes (the clothes in Singapore TOTALLY don't fit me). Nearly everything I got was size 4, and a few were size 6. Again - I have not gotten smaller (dafka - most likely bigger!), and most of my 8s still fit me. What is wrong with this? Is the clothing market trying to make people feel good? It's just confusing me, and it's making me spend more time trying clothes on, because I always have to go get the smaller size!

3) Literally everything I got in the US was made in S.E. Asia. I think that's pretty hilarious - to travel all around the world to get clothes that have also been flown around the world. And then fly back around the world with them. There are a few stores in Singapore where they sell the "left-overs" from gap, esprit, etc., but for the most part you just don't have the same clothes that you have in the States...even if they're all made out here!