Have you ever wondered why you fit perfectly into a size 16 jean at one store, and then can only squeeze into an 18 at another? And then, at a third store, a size 14 fits you like a glove? How did women’s sizing become so inconsistent?

It didn’t always used to be this way. For most of history, if you could afford it, you had your clothes made for you, and if you couldn’t, you made your own. Made to measure was the only way to have clothes made and they fit better, in both size and application, than anything off a rack. All that changed in America when the Great Depression hit, when people couldn’t afford to feed their families, and certainly couldn’t afford fabric for new clothes. As manufacturing processes improved during WWII, and the economy improved, it was faster and cheaper for companies to mass produce clothing, and in the early 1940s a study was performed to standardize clothing sizes. The American Government set out to measure women in the country to determine a set of anthropometrical measurements for the industry to go by when designing clothes. Unfortunately, the study was stunted by women not wanting to share their measurements, and so in 1958, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released a set of standard sizes, even numbers 8 through 38, to represent overall size, based on the limited data the study was able to collect.

However, by the 1980s, this standard had been abandoned, because the debate about sizing is a personal one. Women are under intense scrutiny for what we wear; we can be shamed for looking too skinny, too fat, too slutty, too prude, too loud, or too bland. And when we go shopping, we’re constantly thinking about these things in the hopes we can find something that walks the thin line of approval. So, as women have gotten larger, companies began to change sizing so larger women would fit into smaller clothes, to make them feel skinnier. It’s gotten to the point where a size 12 in 1958 is now a size 6, and the waistband in a size 6 pant can vary by 6 inches, by one estimation.

Why don’t we go back to universal sizing? Because there is no ‘universal’ U.S. body type. America has become increasingly diverse since 1958, when they took the measurements of mostly white, thin, short women and based the sizing chart off of them. And while going back to a universal standard might make it easier for some to shop, it will only alienate more people from finding clothes that fit them.

The terms ‘plus-size’ and ‘straight-size’ where first introduced in 2012 by the industry to try to set a closer standard for two different body types. This has only served to further segregate women during the shopping experience. The majority of women in the U.S. are a size 14 or above, and the plus-size industry hit $20.4 billion in February of 2016, only growing from there, and yet, most brands won’t carry larger sizes, or close their plus-size lines after a few seasons. The message: fat isn’t welcome.

As most women can attest, larger sizes are relegated to smaller sections of stores, with fewer selections, and often bizarre styling. Plus-size shoppers have to search for the ‘plus-size’ tab on a website, or hunt for the few styles that come in larger sizes, which is usually half the amount that are straight-sized, and are more expensive. The larger clothes carry weird lines, poor fit, and little coverage from designers who don’t understand how to clothe larger bodies.

As plus-size designers, our hope is to eliminate this experience at Refracted Auras. We’re done with shaming people for how their bodies look. We’re done with relegating people to one section, or certain styles. While we’re only able to offer every style in sizes 4 to 18 right now, our goal is to provide extended sizing store wide, covering all sizes from 2 to 30.

There is more than one way to be beautiful and sexy. Fat, thin, masculine, feminine, or anywhere in between — you should be able to find clothes that represent you, with out feeling shamed. Refracted Auras is here to make that a reality.