This is a super hot topic, and something people get super passionate about. We get frequent emails and direct messages about sizing, and some of them are appreciative and some of them are defensive - but why?
Here at Miann & Co we believe and are whole heartedly embracing the body positivity movement. Although our sizing currently only goes to around a 16-18, this is not a conscious choice, but one made from a personally funded point and we hope to grow and expanded our offering soon.
Our sizing for womenswear has been described as generous, we regularly receive emails from women surprised at our sizing as it's not very typical in the Australian market. I'm also really passionate about helping women realise that there are, or should be multiple factors taken into account when it comes to choosing the correct size, not the number or letter on a sizing tag. Shape, fabrics and style are three other factors that come into play.
I have struggled with my body image all my life. Numerous friends around me have struggled with the same issue. Buying clothing smaller than we actually are as 'motivation' to lose weight, hiding or even cutting off the tags of on our clothes. And honestly, as I hit the 40 mark it was like a switch when off in my head - I started to give less shits about the number size tag and began to care more about how clothing looks and feels on the body.
Gone are the days of ordering a size to small, or dieting like crazy to fit the number on the clothing item. Hell no, Sister! Those days are gone and if I had the choice, I would make our garments sizeless - size really does not matter.
We want to encourage women to embrace their beautiful shapes and be aware of and understand their shape. We urge all women when buying to not only look at the size, but the style and fabrication.
Buying from a new brand and getting to know their sizing is also tricky. I have and wear three different sizes depending on the style and the fit of the garment. We understand the ways a woman's body can change, from pregnancy to postpartum and beyond.
For this reason, we try our womenswear on different shapes and sizes. Where there is consistent feedback for a certain garment, we do try and add this into the product description for best size indication. We've also begun photographing on different bodies. We do all our photography in house, and more often than not (for the past three releases, we haven't worked with 'traditional' models at all), the models we use are employees or friends who agreed to help us out the night before. We do all of this ourselves within limited budgets, and we try our hardest to show our pieces on all women.
Our size guides are exactly that - a guide. There are commercial tolerances that exist in the quality assurance world, this means that when people are checking your products anything that is a 1/2cm out on a flat measurement, or 4 cm on the circle measurement or round body measurement, does and can exist on a garment.
With the modern advent of technical cutting, rather than hand cutting, these tolerances are definitely not as common. However, humans do make our clothing and so far as I am aware no machine has taken over the full manufacturing of our garments.
I do want to emphasise that size guides are a guide, and there are tolerances that can fall within these.
Below is an example of a guide. We normally give a chest measurement and a length as these are two of the main points of fitting.
Next point to note is that these measurements are a half flat measurement, taken on a flat surface and are of the front of the garment only. This means it does not allow for the stretch measurement of knits or elastic. If you want a full chest measurement, you will need to double the flat measurement for the round body measurement.
I have included what a size guide looks like below :
A very rough guide of how our sizing works is:
XS: 8-10
S: 10-12
M: 12-14
L: 14-16
XL: 16-18
Something that has also been very interesting was last year, working in a office of up to 5 women and seeing how we all wore the same garment differently, which is something super important to be aware of. The size you wear and the size you actually are can be two very different things.
One style that we have photographed to show how it can be worn many different way is the Chloe Knit Pant. We originally designed these to be a loose, Harem Pant or Drop Crotch fit. However, the first time a model put these on for a campaign, she wore them as a fitted, high rise pant and we fell in love with this look, even though it was never the intention for them.
Garments can be worn however you want! This is the beauty of buying your own clothes. We had a girl that contracted for us and although she had a standard Australian size 10 frame, she would often wear a size 22 in some brands! She loved the loose, oversize fit - it was her personal style.
Style is exactly that - unique to the individual and so is sizing. Ladies, love your body, know your shape and wear what you feel confident and comfortable in. Because after all the best judge of if something looks goods or fits, is you.
Happy shopping and I hope this helps when choosing your Miann & Co outfits! If you post a photo wearing out clothing, we would love for you to tag us and use the hashtag #miannandcowoman
