Extra Small

[beige_alert]

You can buy anything these days by mail-order over the Internet. Behold! Something you'll never see hanging on the rack in a store! A shirt in size Extra Small:





It's always been possible to imagine a shirt smaller than size "small," with sleeves that don't flop down over my hands, and logically you might call that size "XS," by analogy with the common sizes L, XL, XXL, XXXL, XXXXL, and so on. Not that you could just go out and buy one, mind you. These days, though, you can find all sorts of stuff on the Internet. Even shirts in the previously non-existent size "XS."

I do really love the Patagonia size scheme. Look at that label closely. "XS (EU/ASIA S)" The whole size scale works that way, in the US each item is assigned a size name one unit smaller than the size name for everyone else. And we don't get the smallest one except by mail order.

I guess not only do I enjoy long airline flights because the seats are so roomy, I also now buy shirts and jeans by mail order because you can't get those sizes by going to a store.

Comments

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

Are you kidding me? I've always been able to get size XS (our English teach told us the X stands for Extra, so it actually makes sense). The funny part is that as a woman I have XS or S in US clothes, and M to L in German clothes. I figured they wanted to be more polite to the bigger people and not run out of Xes before people run out of fat. Ladies are more inclined to buy a shirt size M than size XXL, no matter how much their body reflects the number pi.

Yes, German clothes also show that phenomenon. D 36 / F 38 / IT 38 ... We are tallest (and biggest) in the EU so they average on us specially. I've often found myself tinking "if I lived in France, I could wear this" ;-)

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Well, over on the other side of the store, I think all those bright pink clothes made with extra room for hips and breasts are only available in tiny sizes, though I'm not sure if they label them XS or XXS. My girlfriend is only maybe 5cm taller than me and she can hardly ever find clothing for women that's big enough. I'm not sure it seems obvious if you see us together that one of us should be ordering XS clothes and the other looking for XXL.

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

Lucky for all of us, jeans and t-shirts are uni-sex and we can scavenge from the other end of the store :)

[lisande.livejournal.com]

That's what you think. I'd never fit my hips into a male jeans - or if I do, it would be far too wide at the stomach. And would have far too short legs.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my girlfriend has a lot of men's clothing, but that only works sometimes—easy to find a size that is overall about right, but that doesn't mean it will fit around her feminine curviness.

I was once offered the option of a large women's t-shirt because they didn't have size small for men, and while it might have had the right amount of fabric in it, the shape wasn't right at all.