How to drop two sizes without diet or exercise!

About a year ago, there was a minor flareup in the media about an alleged phenomenon called "vanity sizing." This was about stores supposedly putting size 6 labels on their size 8s or size 12s on their 14s so that women will feel better about "fitting" into a smaller size.

I'm more inclined to think this is more urban legend than fact. Manufacturers use all kinds of fit models for their various sizes and any given individual's clothing size is an average, not so much a hard and fast number. It's like that with shoes. Most of the time, I'm a size 9. But occasionally, because the shoe runs small or big, I have to go up to a 9.5 or a 10, or go down to an 8.5. Last summer I got a pair of Punkrose shoes that I had to get in a size 7 because the shoes ran really, really big. How many women feel better about having bigger or smaller feet?

Clothes work the same way. I've found that higher end designer suits tend to run a little bigger. I can comfortably fit in a 14 or even a 12 in them. Recently, I've bought A-line skirts from both Talbots and Anthropologie in a 12. Do I think they're fooling me? No...my body shape (smaller waist, fuller tushie and thighs) fits comfortably into the shape of the skirt. Conversely, I've had to go up to a size 18 or XXL for some outfits. Am I any fatter or thinner? Not really.

With shirts it's even weirder. Normally I run about a size 12 or a Large in shirts. But I've fit in anything from a small up to an XXL, depending.

So if you're finding the same issues, it's because of the wide variation of what constitutes a particular size.