The Thin Man Hunts for a Clothing Clue

In “The Small-Minded Shopper” (editorial, Aug. 11) you report that the U.S. apparel industry is about to standardize clothing sizes. But to whose body dimensions?

I am a skinny person, and for years I have worn short-sleeve dress shirts that are labeled size medium, or 15 inches (neck size). They all fit well in the neck and shoulders, and well enough in the body.

Recently, I discovered that today’s size-medium shirts no longer fit me. They are too big. Size-small shirts fit me in the neck and shoulders, but they are too full in the body. Have I shrunk? Hardly. I overlaid one of my older size-medium shirts with a recently purchased size-small shirt. Both are the same width at the shoulders, but the size-small shirt is much wider in the body. I suspect that shirt manufacturers already are beginning to standardize clothing sizes to the supersized American male.

Jay B. Winderman

Claremont