

While the rest of the world is getting heavier, Hollywood’s elite are downing horse steroids and Adderall in an endless race to be ever-thinner. It’s not surprising, then, that designers are now offering “sub-zero” sizing for the waif that needs to take in her size zero jeans.

While this may seem disturbing, designers claim that sizes are arbitrary anyway, and that almost no one is following guidelines for the waist and hip measurements for sizing. Indeed, a size 6 of today was once a 14 of yesterday. The average US woman is 5 feet 4 and weighs 155 pounds, which is 20 pounds heavier than 40 years ago.

designer Nicole Miller will introduce something tentatively called the “subzero” for women with 23½-inch waists and 35-inch hips. And this spring, Banana Republic began offering an equally tiny “00″ on its Web site. If you remember the days before there was a size zero, you might have to brace yourself for some unsettling fashion news: there is now a size smaller than nil. A negative size if you will. Next fall, If you’re having trouble picturing a minus-size woman, think of the waifish Spice Girl turned soccer wife Victoria Beckham who is reputed to be small enough to fit into a subzero. One newspaper compared her waist to the circumference of a soccer ball, but it might be even tinier than that—23 1/2 inches is closer to the size of the smaller soccer balls recommended for kids. But mini-celebs aside, does the debut of the less-than-zeros mean that a sliver of America is shrinking while the rest of our obesity-challenged country grows in girth and clothing size? Yes and no. American women are definitely getting bigger as a group. The average woman is about 155 pounds and 5 foot 4 according to SizeUSA, a 2003 survey by the industry research group. That’s about 20 pounds heavier than the average woman of 40 years ago. But don’t assume that the contemporary woman is wearing a bigger size than her grandmother might have. “According to standard size measurements, that average 155 pound woman should be wearing a size 16, but thanks to vanity-sizing, she’s probably buying a size 10 or 12,” says Jim Lovejoy, the industry director for the SizeUSA survey. “Most companies aren’t using the standard ASTM [American Society for Testing and Materials] sizes any more. Sizes have been creeping up a half inch at a time so that women can fit into smaller sizes and feel good about it.” Think of vanity-sizing as self-delusion on a mass scale. Anyone over the age of 40 knows that something isn’t quite right if she can wear a smaller size now than she wore 20 years and 10 pounds ago. Yet many of us slip gratefully into a size 6 pair of Old Navy jeans even though we’re pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to squeeze into our size 10 Calvin Kleins from circa 1980. Call it faith-based sizing. We want to believe—hell, we really do believe—we’re a size 6 or 8 because the label says so even when the scale disagrees.

[Thanks to Fark for linking this]

There is the worry that a double-0 or sub-zero size will become the new benchmark for anorexic pride. Nicole Miller is justifying the new sizing, saying that there’s a call for it in Asia, where women are generally smaller.

A zero of today may be a four of yesterday. Author Pam Danziger claims that she uses old Vogue sewing patterns in a size 14 when she regularly buys a size 6 at the store. That doesn’t make me feel depressed or anything.

Here’s Nicole Richie with what looks like her butt hanging out, but it’s hard to tell. [via]