You're so vain...

I headed to the mall to buy new jeans yesterday because my favorite jeans are having some zipper failure issues. I don't really want to spend my days X-Y-Z-ing all the time, so I thought I would treat myself to at least one new pair. As a person who is in the earlier part of her Weight Watchers journey, I visit Lane Bryant to buy jeans. I really like the fit of their jeans, and I like that I can buy my size...too important criteria when buying jeans!

Lane Bryant has recently introduced new sizing for their jeans, based on body type. They have a straight version, a moderately curvy version, and an extremely curvy version. Well, my derriere resembles two big bubbles attached to the back of my body, so although I tried on the moderately curvy version, I ended up going with the extremely curvy. But the thing that cracked me up was the sizing.

It used to be that the lowest size carried by Lane Bryant was 14, and the highest was either 26 or 28. I was somewhere in the middle. And I wore the tall jeans. Yesterday, I learned that the sizes now range from one to something like eight. They can't tell you what each number is the equivalent of. They measure you, and you try jeans on, and you find what fits. I ended up buying a size three in the lighter colored jeans and a size four in the dark rinse. And I bought the regular length, except for one pair of dark rinse that I bought to wear with heels (which I do very infrequently...but I try, for Bill).

I haven't worn a size three or four since...ever.

And I called my other Lane Bryant-shopping friend and asked her this: do you think they are trying to make us feel better about ourselves? Are they trying to take away the stigma of wearing 16 or 18 or 20 or 22 and make us feel like "normal" women? What is the deal with this vanity sizing?

My next goal is to fit into a size two...