I don’t see the point in doing men’s vs women’s clothing sizes. Surely there’s a big enough variance in size and shape between individuals that it would be more useful to size based off of measurements of body shape?
Take shoes for example. Why is a uk men’s size 10 so wildly different from a UK women’s size 10?
All it seems to achieve is making shopping for clothes difficult for anyone that doesn’t fit into the expected body shape for their gender and make it hard to find well fitting clothes outside of specialist shops.
Generally, women are going to have boobs and wider hips and men generally have bigger feet. Obviously there’s a massive spectrum of human body shapes, but this is the main differentiation.
If I wear my (male) partner’s t-shirts, they’re just straight with no space for boobs and they don’t come in at the waist. Same with trousers, there’s a massive pouch in the crotch, too narrow on my hips and too loose at the waist. People like to wear things that best fit their bodies.
Style/cut is different than the measurements though.
It isn’t about style. Women’s sizes (e.g. 8, 10, 12) originally came from codes based on the variations between hip, waist and bust measurements.
Tradition plays a huge part in it.
Why do so many women’s dresses zip up the back? Because servants used to be a thing. Same reason women’s shirts button differently than men’s; someone else was supposed to be dressing the lady.
Even fifty years ago in New York a man could be arrested for wearing something the police considered “women’s clothes.” and NYC was considered a loose town with easy morals
Desired profile and fit are different.
I “passed” before HRT often just by wearing men’s clothes. The way that pants shape your butt is very different. I occasionally thrift women’s blouses and think I pull them off well, but these are ones from the 80’s and 90’s with the more “triangular” frame.
Women’s sizing is an incoherent mess. Men’s sizing at least in theory should be based on measurements. Historically, you would have been expected to have your clothes adjusted by a tailor anyway - this world of fast fashion, “ready to wear” means most of us are walking around with clothes that fit us poorly. Mass produced clothes are trying to fit some sort of “average” person, and none of us have a perfectly average body.
As far as shoes - there’s differences in shape and men’s feet on the whole tend to be larger. I think toebox proportions are different.
(The real danger of a “mixed gender” shopping section would be people realizing how shit women’s clothing is. Cheap flimsy material, lacking pockets, constructed to fall apart with a stiff breeze - designed to be disposed of. Shoes being designed with no thought for comfort or long term health…)
I mean, a men’s size 10 is wildly different to some other brands size 10
Like others already mentioned, they don’t just differ in size, but in shape as well. What I would prefer is different varieties for each size per sex. For example, I am an Asian medium. So when buying shirts in the US, I’m in that weird spot where a US medium is too wide on the shoulders and the sleeves too big, but the torso is just right. On the other hand, a US small fits just right on the shoulder width and sleeves, but the torso is too tight. It would be great if there are variations based on build as well like pants (i.e. slim, standard, wide, etc.).
Sounds like I am the opposite of you, as I have broad shoulders and long ass gorilla arms and torso so I end up needing to hunt down the long/tall version of XL sized clothes for most brands.
I would love something for regular clothes that was more like dress clothes with multiple measurements to work with like sleeve length, shoulder, neck, etc. to more easily find what brands design for my body type. Hurley for example is an excellent fit the vast majority of the time for me, and I’m not a cut sports guy.
That’s why I like Levis pants. Lots of different fit options
Many things like shoes could easily be for both men and women, like for instance sneakers.
But with the different size standards, that can’t work.
The result being identical sneakers have a series for women and another for men! Although usually the colors are different. But what if we would rather have a choice of ALL the colors?
It’s not just stupid it’s moronic.Shapes need to be different, as others have already said. So men’s and women’s clothes do need different construction. But sizes could be just measurements. Absolutely. Yes.
Shoes, no. They should all be length in cm and then a narrow, medium, wide, xwide.
No gꝏd reason for it , don’t listen to the biœssentialists in this thread that say otherwise
Degender (body types|clothing) NOW ‼
EDIT : wording
