Which is bigger Louisiana? 2XL or XXL, they are not the same

Parents all over Louisiana are checking their bank balances and planning how to afford back-to-school clothes. It’s that time of year in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lafayette, Lake Charles and other cities and towns across the state. That means moms and dads are figuring out how tall their kids will be this year.

Clothing manufacturers don’t tell the truth when it comes to sizing. That’s why no matter what size you think you are, you should try on the garment before you plunk down your hard-earned cash and walk out of the store. Some of us learned that lesson the hard way

But in my defense, the fact that clothing manufacturers are misleading the public, and doing so knowingly, is why we struggle to find shirts that stay tucked in and pants that don’t fall down. In our headline, we used the example of XXL and 2XL. But it’s not just the “big boy” sizes that the labels lie about.

Ladies, am I right about the labels lying? How many of you are comfortable wearing a one size dress from one store and then wearing an equally comfortable dress from another store that is two sizes bigger or two sizes smaller? Manufacturers do this to stroke our egos.

They even call it “vanity sizing.” Because we all love to brag about how we bought a piece of clothing on sale and how small the size was, clothing manufacturers purposely lower the number on the label so we can feel better about how fat we really are.

But speaking of fat, which I am considered morbidly obese, thank you, flawed federal dietary guidelines, that’s where you really see the differences between XXL and 2XL. Here’s how the labeling works. An XXL shirt is one size larger than an XL, which is one size larger than a Large. The cut of the garment is the same, it’s just done “on a larger scale,” no pun intended.

A 2XL garment is cut differently. It is half a size larger than an XXL. The cut of the garment is also different. The 2XL is cut more generously for people with excess weight and larger curves. So while the XXL seems to be the same as the 2XL, they are in fact two different sizes.

The same scenarios apply to XL vs 1XL. However, I still can’t find a logical explanation for how someone can be a size 0. Talk about vanity. Here in Louisiana we like to tell people that “we cooked up the cure for skinny jeans”. There’s no need for those tight pants here.