Echo, hi -- I meant to offer a response here. I also like the way tapered pants look on my shape. They're a bit of a harder find now -- I'm still wearing my slim BF jeans because of this very issue. Taper= greater flattery for me. Angie noticed it too during our try-on session in Seattle, so I'm not imagining this. I can absolutely wear other shapes (wide legs, bootlegs, etc.) but a slight taper looks much better than a stovepipe straight on me. And a tapered crop looks and feels best of all. I think of them as Laura Petrie pants. You can look for "cigarette" style pants -- that's sometimes a slight taper. But waists are going to be higher than you may be used to. The eye may need time to adjust.
On that note -- if you don't mind pricey or are willing to go to the Rack or maybe the gently used items at Eileen Fisher, she is doing a tapered pant. You might need to size down in EF quite far -- hard to say. I haven't tried her pants but the quality is good.
At my size, there is no possible way I should be wearing an XS. I am about a 6 in dresses right now, and there are many people who are truly small boned and petite. If I am an XS, that means many other people are simply sized out of clothes because they run too big. Regardless, I ordered the jacket in an XS to check, and it has not yet arrived. But size inflation is definitely real. I wore a size 6 thirty years and twenty pounds ago, so how can I still wear that size now? Sizing numbers truly mean nothing anymore.
Yes. Size inflation is real. After I lost weight, I was several sizes smaller than my previous smallest size -- but the number on the scale wasn't a lot different that my previous lowest weight. The distribution was a bit different because I had been working out, and that accounted for some of the shift. But definitely not all.
Many smaller people are sized out in certain brands. Angie has spoken about this. It's an issue, for sure. Not the same issue as that faced by those at the larger end of the spectrum, but once you have adjusted to your new size/ weight, you will likely find that brands you previously relied on don't work as well for you. You'll have to seek out different fit models. I'm sized out all over the place, or nearly so. Angie, who is taller, is also more slender and sized out in even more places.
