Vanity sizing

PSFK reports (full article at the very end of the page) on the new trend in the fashion industry - vanity sizing.

Fashion brands are making their customers feel good about themselves by providing "vanity sizing" - a trend where brands mark a lower size on an item than it really is. New York daily news says:

Vanity Sizing [is] a brand's way of appealing to a customer's ego by slapping a size 2 label on a garment that's much more like a 6 - and it's gained incredible momentum in the past few months.

Banana Republic recently introduced a "00"; Old Navy now has XXS tops and bottoms, and the desire to become a nearly negative size is taking over the retail scene...

"Retailers don't want size 16 women coming in their store and saying, 'I need to lose some weight; I'll buy this later.' They want them to think they're a 12 and buy it now," says Tim Gunn, chairman of the fashion department at Parsons the New School for Design, and fashion authority on Bravo's "Project Runway." "The sizing is so much a part of a woman's self-esteem."

Yes, sizing is part of a woman’s self-esteem, but going down to sizes 00 and XXS won’t help. Nobody is that small or really shouldn’t be that small either. This makes me very upset. Who says being a size 00 or XXS will make you happier? Life isn’t about a size or number on the scale. I know I’m guilty believing that from time to time, but as a woman you have to learn to look behind size and weight. Life is so much more than appearance. If you love yourself no matter size or weight it will show and nobody will really care if you wear a size 20 or a size 00. Love yourself for who you are now, not for who you want to be!