donewiththisshit:

I seem to be doing a lot of quick thoughts these days.  It works well for me.

I was talking to a friend yesterday about clothing and weight and size.  She’s into vintage clothing and works in theater, so does costumes on occasion.  We were also out shopping, and wandered into a consignment shop with a high percentage of vintage clothing.  In the course of our conversation, she mentioned that a large part of the reason many of the vintage pieces available are so teensy is that the larger pieces were often recut or retailored or otherwise reused. 

Think about it.

This makes sense, right?  Larger clothing has more fabric, therefore, it is more likely to be cut up in order to make more clothing.

Another additional thought: Before the days of ready to wear clothing, everything was hand made, and took time and effort to create.  People wore their clothing out.  If something still exists today, 50 or 100 years later, it probably wasn’t worn as often.

I’m not saying that we aren’t at all larger on average than the human race was in the past, but again, we’re taller, too, and many of us have access to better nutrition.  Comments like “people were so much smaller ______ years ago” just don’t fully encompass the changes that have occurred in the elapsed time.