Comment by krick | Hacker News Reader

Comment by krick | Hacker News Reader

This is a boring way to respond to a post that obviously tries to be funny, but I don't find it funny. There's nothing special about Gregorian calendar. It is shit and unorganized just like hundreds of other things that are shit and unorganized, and would make life easier if we could replace them with something better (which already exists, or very realistically can be designed) via absolutely massive organizational effort. Gregorian calendar can be replaced by French Republican calendar (or one similar to that), imperial unit system can be replaced by metric, all sorts of different clothes' size standards surely can be replaced by one that would actually make sense. There are hundreds of things like that, you encounter them every day. Calendar and units are just some that everyone knows.

To me there's nothing funny about this. This is just sad and annoying, and slightly demoralizing, since it's so simple to fix, yet absolutely impossible to fix by yourself.

> all sorts of different clothes' size standards surely can be replaced by one that would actually make sense

Like, imagine if those sizes were equal to some actual body part measurements (or the garment's dimensions itself, whatever) in millimetres/centimetres?

only expensive clothes have reproducible sizes. You can test this yourself. Go pick out 3 different levis jeans that are the same size that ought fit you, in different colors but the same cut. They will all fit slightly differently.

Expensive clothes that are meant to be altered will usually have better tolerances, at least in my experience.

this is one of the main reasons i refuse to buy any clothing intended to be worn outdoors from amazon, shein, aliexpress, ebay, &c.

I have a hard time finding clothes that fit due to being way out on the edge of standard sizing. I have found this similar inconsistency, e.g. I’ll find something I like in my size, order one of each color, and invariably one or two out of four items (that should be roughly identical) will be an 1.5-2 inches out of spec in a way that makes a huge difference (like waist, or inseam, or sleeve length).

Well, you can try to order several copies of a piece at once and return those that don't fit... that is, if your market platform allows that. The ones over here recently have started charge a not insignificant amount of money for returns.

I know that the tolerances are quote large; but I've personally have experience with 27 size shoes being slightly larger than 29 size shoes from a different brand which is ridiculous IMHO. Those numbers don't mean anything, they differ not only from brand to brand, but from batch to batch even for the same maker, so I don't even know how people manage to buy clothes over Internet: the listed sizes in my experience at best serve as a starting point, then you just try pieces on until you find something that actually fits you.

Which is exactly why I ask for sizes to be garment's actual sizes, not some made up fairy numbers (and don't even get me started on X+S|S|M|L|X+L markings).

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