Babys First Year Blog
Baby Vanity Sizing?
Huck as he nods off for a nap. No reason.
At the moment I am writing this to you, my dear friends of the Babble, my Huckleberry is snoozing happily in his borrowed car seat (another time) wearing 3-6 month pants from Zara kids (with an absolutely astonishingly wide waist band), and a 9-12 month onesie from Carters (a little roomy). The pajamas I changed him out of this morning are Baby Gap size 12 months.
It all reminds me of the time I went into the local Old Navy and fit into an XXXS skirt and wondered to myself, “Am I disappearing?” before venturing next door to the H&M, whereupon I tried on a size 2 skirt that was so tight it tried to kill me. (It should be noted that both H&M and Zara are European clothing stores, bearing European clothing sizing standards.)
Ah yes. There it is. Vanity sizing. It has struck the bebehs. And it has occurred to me, in my time as Baby Clothier Extraordinaire-ier, that the opposite of what we see in the American adult female clothing industry is happening in the American baby clothing industry.
(More after the jump.)
You know what’s happening when you go into a Banana Republic and your size two bottom is fitting effortlessly into a size double zero pant: they’re trying to lure you into buying their product by flattering you. “You’re so svelte here, at our store! Elsewhere you are a fat lumpy dump! Here, here we love you!”
But the opposite is happening with our babies. It’s like, as Americans, we want to believe our babies are fatter, heftier, and more robust than they actually are. “Oh, my baby is soo ahead of schedule!” (Which, hmm. I think I am guilty of this quite a bit, myself.)
How else to explain that, at H&M, Huck is wearing 4-6 months (well, he IS 4-6 months), at Zara he is in 3-6 months (again, he is 3-6 months!) while at Baby Gap he is nearly a half a year ahead of himself?
What do you think Baby Gap and other baby retailers in the U.S. stand to gain by making me think my baby is so much bigger than he ought to be/actually is?
Or, are American babies somehow smaller than their European counterparts? (Which would be the absolute reverse situation from what we’re seeing with adults?)
I don’t know, what do you think?
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9 Comments
Clare commented on Apr 15 11 at 4:19 pmBaby Gap seems to fit small for sure! So does Carters in my experience. The most age/size appropriate clothes I have are often brought over for me from England (my home). They fit well for the right age and last for a good amount of time. But this is no help to anyone, sorry!
I also agree that we, as mothers, have a built-in baby body dysmorphia thing going on, literally kidding ourselves over the size of our babies. When I went to baby group last week a friend of mine who has a 4 mo said to her husband that her son looked almost as big as mine (my baby is nearly 9 months!!).
I mean, come on now, that’s just wishful thinking! He was totally just normal-sized, but bless her for trying!
Beth A. commented on Apr 15 11 at 5:35 pmI think mostly baby retailers do it to save money. Manufacturers save money when they make clothes smaller both because they need less cloth and you need to buy new clothes sooner. This is why the Carters clothes you buy at Target and Walmart are smaller than the ones you buy at Babies R Us or a Carters store – Target and Walmart sell them more cheaply and make up the money by having Carters make them smaller, cheaper clothes in a special line just for that store.
Emme commented on Apr 15 11 at 5:50 pmYup, it’s true. I was born in Norway and my family emmigrated to Canada. My mom always rolls her eyes when someone says they had a “big” baby because they weighed 8 or 9 pounds. Puh-lease. American babies are way smaller. Smaller than Norwegian babies anyway.
Meagan commented on Apr 15 11 at 7:09 pmI think I’m even more cynical. I’m assuming they do this because all your friends and family love to go out and buy you those newborn, 3 month, 6 month baby clothes, and a month after the baby is born… hey none of it fits, better go BUY MORE.
Lucky commented on Apr 15 11 at 9:50 pmI think it’s the other way around. All the cheap baby clothes I buy are HUGE. I know my munchkin in miniature but I guess I ought to start shopping at the Gap.
Miriam commented on Apr 15 11 at 10:02 pmThe Baby Gap and Old Navy are definitely small. My almost 6mo chubby baby has a stretchy onesie from Old Navy in 3-6mo and it looks like baby spanx. I’m not sure about the Baby Gap because I am lucky enough to be stuck in Pullman and have only the Palouse Mall.
Kate commented on Apr 16 11 at 11:12 amI find this endlessly frustrating, but it’s funny because I find American baby clothes to be wayy larger than the stuff I generally buy (in Canada).
Ashlee Andersen commented on Apr 16 11 at 3:11 pmI have a hard time because I live in a very small town in the middle of nowhere and have to buy a lot of my kids clothing online. If the clothing was all standardized I wouldn’t have to constantly worry about if it’s going to fit them right.
Hollie commented on Apr 16 11 at 3:13 pmI thought maybe I would “get” this issue after my baby arrived, but… why are people so proud of having BIGGER BABIES!? I mean, as long as my pediatrician is happy with my baby’s RATE of growth, I dont really want a baby that is giant relative to other babies. I’m shooting for 50th %ile, all the way. Am I missing something here??
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