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Look at this note. It's from the Blue Book Modeling Agency in 1945.
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It says Norma Jean, who you might also know as Marilyn Monroe, was in fact, a size 12.
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LYNN BOORADY: She was.
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but back in the 50s, a size 12 was very thin.
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That was a model.
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You know, a size 12 then would be about a size 6 now.
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Well, to be exact, she would be a size 8 at Topshop, 6 at Zara, and 4 to 6 at American Apparel.
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..to actually show you the inconsistencies, I went shopping.
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I bought 3 jeans at 3 different stores, all in the same size.
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We’re already off to a bad start.
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These all look different.
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This is not a 4.
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This one is the one in the middle.
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This one fits!
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Hold up. It won’t zip.
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I give up. Let’s wind back a little bit.
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It was the Napoleonic wars and later the Civil War in the US that demanded a sizing system for the mass production of clothing for the first time.
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It was for men’s uniforms.
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After that, men’s suit sizes were based on the chest measurement and the rest was calculated accordingly, assuming that their bodies were in proportion.
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The demands for mass production of uniforms escalated and ready-made clothing became really popular.
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By the end of the nineteenth century, most people were wearing ready-made clothes.
22
In 1939, the US government funded statisticians to collect the weight and 58 measurements of 15,000 women.
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LYNN BOORADY: They only used white women, even though they took measurements of women of color, they didn’t include them in the study or the calculations.
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The women who would’ve turned out for these studies were the poor women because they would be paid.
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So the data set even back then was possibly malnourished women, certainly poor women, and not very diverse group of women… and that’s what we started with.
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They were looking for key measurements that could predict the sizes of other parts of the body, the way chest sizes had for men.
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But women’s bodies, with variable breast and hip sizes, were much harder to summarize with a single number.
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So, the data was used to create a system in 1958 with sizes from 8 to 42, an arbitrary number based on bust size, combined with a letter for height and a plus or minus for hips.
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The sizing chart was really unpopular, so they made some updates, but finally in 1983 it was completely withdrawn.
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In the 1970s and 80s, companies started labeling the sizes down, and adding lower numbers like 2, zero and now even double zero.
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So the waist measurement that used to be a size 12 became an 8.
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LYNN BOORADY: Vanity sizing specifically, is when the size on the label is lowered artificially, in order to tempt to get somebody to buy the garment.
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So you’re appealing to the person’s vanity.
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Sizing has become a marketing tool.
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LYNN BOORADY: I think it’s done because the women are getting bigger, we’re just addressing that.
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When the first standardizing chart came out in 1958 it was mostly built out of malnourished, white women.
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Now, that there’s such a wide group of people to cover, the retailers are picking a certain group of people to sell to, honing in what works with that group and what doesn’t.
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LYNN BOORADY: I think we’re more aiming for our own target markets.
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So, when Abercrombie & Fitch does their sizing, they’re sizing to their target market not to me.
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We kept tweaking that information until we sold more garments and could lower the return rate.
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That means, even brands owned by the same company will have inconsistent sizes.
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A size 8 at Banana Republic will have the same hip size as a size 2 at the Gap.
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So if you get frustrated while shopping….
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LYNN BOORADY: It’s not you, it’s the industry, it’s not women’s bodies, we’re fine the way we are.
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They are just random numbers, they don’t mean anything.
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And if you don’t like your size just cut it out of your clothes.

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Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione

Questa lezione di conversazione di livello B2 si basa sul video “Why women’s clothing sizes don’t make sense”. Le parole che ritornano più spesso: size, Boorady, sizing, lynn, measurement. Questo video contiene 46 frasi e 662 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 4:17. Chi parla ha un ritmo naturale di circa 155 parole al minuto, vicino a una conversazione quotidiana. Solo il 80% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese, quindi il lessico è impegnativo.

Vocaboli chiave di questo video

Le 15 parole più avanzate del video, con pronuncia e significato:

ParolaPronunciaSignificato
measurement sostantivo/ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/misurazione, misura
malnourished aggettivomalnutrito
garment sostantivo/ˈɡɑɹmənt/vestito, indumento
vanity sostantivo/ˈvænəti/vanità
cloth sostantivo/klɒθ/stoffa, tessuto
artificially avverbioartificialmente
inconsistency sostantivo/ˌɪnkənˈsɪstənsi/inconsistenza
statistician sostantivo/ˌstætɪsˈtɪʃn̩/statistico
summarize verbo/ˈsʌməˌɹaɪz/riassumere
litter sostantivo/ˈlɪt.ɚ/lettiera
unpopular aggettivoimpopolare, inviso
retailer sostantivo/ˈɹiteɪlɚ/rivenditore
nineteenth aggettivo/ˌnaɪnˈtiːnθ/diciannovesimo, diciannovesima
calculation sostantivo/ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/conto, calcolo
inconsistent aggettivo/ˌɪnkənˈsɪstənt/inconsistente

I phrasal verb che sentirai

ParolaPronunciaSignificato
give up verboarrendersi
hold up verboritardare, rallentare
wind back verbo/waɪnd ˈbæk/riavvolgere

Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione

Chi parla usa 12 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come we're, don't, didn't. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.

  • I suoni “th”: cloth /klɒθ/, nineteenth /ˌnaɪnˈtiːnθ/, withdraw /wɪðˈdɹɔ/
  • I suoni “sh” e “zh”: measurement /ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/, statistician /ˌstætɪsˈtɪʃn̩/, calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/, proportion /pɹəˈpɔɹʃən/
  • Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: inconsistency /ˌɪnkənˈsɪstənsi/, inconsistent /ˌɪnkənˈsɪstənt/, arbitrary /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/, accordingly /əˈkɔɹ.dɪŋ.li/

I suoni difficili per chi parla italiano:

  • Consonante finale — senza aggiungere una vocale dopo: measurement /ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/, garment /ˈɡɑɹmənt/, cloth /klɒθ/, escalate /ˈɛs.kə.leɪt/, frustrate /ˈfɹʌsˌtɹeɪt/
  • /æ/ — più aperta della “e”: vanity /ˈvænəti/, standardize /ˈstæn.də.daɪz/, statistician /ˌstætɪsˈtɪʃn̩/, calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/, calculate /ˈkælkjʊleɪt/

Come esercitarsi con questo video

  1. Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
  2. Inizia a velocità 0,75×, fai shadowing frase per frase e torna alla velocità normale quando diventa facile.
  3. Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come measurement, malnourished, garment.

Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?

Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.

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