Size matters

It’s finally that time of the year which makes you feel both happy and sad! Diwali is a festival that the avid shopper in me always looks forward to but it is also that time of the year when the otherwise, languid, fitness-conscious self just raises her head to scare me into business. But trust me, that’s always been a short-lived one!

The truth is, while it's super fun to go shop-hopping checking out the latest designs and wanting to make a fashion statement, the ugly truth of one’s expanding size really starts to bother then; only then.

And that’s why I love to shop at Fab India.  No! I am not one of those hardcore handicrafts fans who have vowed to work assiduously for the upliftment of the artisans of the land and hence would buy only clothes made by them. That I would love to do when my purse permits; but I love the shop for a completely different reason.

Their ethnic designs, exquisite craftwork, handwoven cloth, natural dyes and high prices apart, what matters the most to me is that Fab India is the only shop where I can always buy a couple of sizes lesser than my actual one.  The one place where I can happily ask for an ‘M’ sized dress aloud and feel excited about being able to fit into it.

Despite being an avid fan of readymade dresses, shopping for them has always been a nightmare owing to the lack of a standardized size chart in our country. There is always the UK size or the US size for dresses that most brands adhere to while the more local ones stick some random label that they can lay their hands on or that their tailors advise. What these folks fail to understand is how much stress and pressure it causes on the self-esteem of users like me, when they stick wrong labels. (Also because I would like to blame it on the label sizes of dresses than on my expanding body size.)

We, Indian women, are a unique breed. We are plump, fleshy, rotund and curvaceous and we look awesome in our sarees which are nothing but a five-and-a-half-metre-long single cloth of vibrant colours and divergent material.

But when it comes to readymade dresses, be it pants, tops, palazzos, or even the veritable churidars and salwars, it has always been a challenge to slip into UK or US size charts that these brands follow. For, we have inimitable body shapes that defy to conform to any Western norms and we are proud about that; except when we cannot find the right fit for that gorgeous top or that silky pants that haunts us even in our dreams.

And hence, the news about the government planning to develop an Indian size chart was just a sweet one to hear. The Ministry of Textiles, along with the National Institute of Design, had finally gotten to work in coming out with a size that is definitely for Indians, by Indians and of Indians. The proposed INDIAsize survey is expected to be an extensive anthropometric (relating to measurements of the size of the human body) research study of the Indian population to develop a distinct dress size for us. This will surely prevent major fitting issues that we often encounter when we try to squeeze ourselves into a dress of a size that is meant for another country and culture.

Undoubtedly, this huge project is not going to come up with its size list anytime soon. The project, which was scheduled a long time ago, was delayed due to the pandemic and given the vast and diverse population to be considered, it is not an easy task. But anyway, a beginning has been made.

Well, till I zero in on my INDIAsize, I plan to cry foul at the label stickers and flaunt my Fab India sizes happily. Jai Ho!