Size Zero
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Size_Zero".

Size 0 is a women's clothing size in the US catalog sizes system, believed to be equivalent to a UK size 6 or a Europe size 32-34. It is also a concept within the fashion media relating to models with low body mass. Due to the current vogue for super-slim actresses and models, and a public awareness of eating disorders and celebrities with dramatically fluctuating weights, it's often incorrectly assumed that size 0 and 00 were invented to fit a new class of unhealthily thin women.

In reality, a size 0 (or 00) is the smallest size many stores carry. In the USA sizing is not standardized or monitored, resulting in a size inflation (vanity sizing). This is commonly believed to be a sales strategy designed to make women feel better about fitting into a smaller size, and therefore prompting them to buy more.

US catalog size

In reality this size is impossible to find in most American retail businesses. Most sizes listed in catalogs as 0 or 00 are Bust: 32"-33" Waist: 25"-26" and Hip: 34"-35" and are therefore equivalent to a UK size 8.

Petite sizes 0 and 00 come closer to catalog sizing, sometimes measuring 31.5-24-33. However, these clothes are cut short, as they are designed for women 5'4" and under.

Sizing has been changing in the US for the last 50 years, but the pace has accelerated recently - along with the increasing amount of people who are overweight or obese. In the 1950s the average women was 5'3" and had 34-35" hips, compared to 5'4.5" and 42-43" hips today. In short - the average mid-century American woman would be a 'size 0' in pants today.

The biggest repercussion of the vanity size inflation is that women who are slim or petite, wearing a 2/4 until a few years ago, are no longer able to find clothing which fits.

Fashion concept

In European fashion circles, the concept of 'size zero' models has gained recent notoriety in the media when the organizers of Madrid Fashion Week 2006 prohibited models with a Body Mass Index below 18 — classified as unhealthy by the World Health Organization — from participating in the event.^[1] International debate followed concerning the purported effects upon impressionable people of the fashion industry's continued use of underweight models.

Size zero has been linked to anorexia nervosa and bulimia, despite the fact that one's actual weight and size doesn't always have much to do with eating habits or disorders. Plenty of 'healthy-looking' women eat next to nothing, and abuse their bodies in various ways.

The media have labeled many celebrities as size 0, which dilutes the meaning and "size 0" now often refers any woman no matter what her size as long as she is slender.^{citation needed}

See also

• EN 13402

References

HWFMAG asks London designer Gavin Pierre Medford to comment on the Size Zero Debate

External links

• A nutritionist speaks on WHO.com
• Interview with Dannii Minogue on the Size Zero Debate on WHO.com
• National UK survery on weight loss surgery

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