sizes. In Italy and USA

Lucca (Italy), evening

I am going to buy a pair of pants. I normally wear a 42-44. I mean, if it was some years ago, I would certainly wear a 42 here in Italy. In Holland I wear an 8. In USA I am not sure.
The question of sizes is a tricky one. None basically could buy me pants since it would be difficult to know exactly which size is the right for me. Fortunately, since I always wear larger pants, there is a range of size that could potentially work and then save who would like to buy a pair of pants for me.

The problem is. In Italy the size 44 of some years ago now shrinked so much that I don't know why a girl size 44 cannot wear it anymore. This makes you feel awful when you go shopping for some pants. You enter the shop, you ask for a 44, since until some months before you were a size 44 and you are 100% sure that you didn't gain any weight and then you get in your hands a 44 that seems made for a Barbie with no shape. The thing is. I am Italian and as I already stated earlier in my blog, I am shaped like a pear. Thin waist and large bottom. All this years ago would fit in a size 42-44 if I wanted larger pants. Now it simply doesn't. And not that I gained weight, even if my first reaction was to panic and think that (but I checked that and it is not the case). No, the company just decided to shrink their sizes. And this in a world in which there is an alarm to highlight the problem "anorexic". The sizes shrinked, so if you still want to think and say that you wear a size 42 or 44, you probably have to starve, loose weight and wear a size that some years ago was probably a 38-40.

Now, I went to buy jean in a Banana Republic store in USA. I tried on my jeans. Size 8. Too large. Large everywhere on my body. Just not my size. Weird, I thought to be a size 8. Then size 6 and? STILL LARGE! So, you go to size 4 and they fit perfectly. Just perfect. Right perfect size. Result? a boosting for my self confidence, a lot of smiles from me to whatever person was in the shop and the feeling of looking good. Not to bad right? So, Hurra for the USA..............................................................................Too bad that in general in the USA they don't have too many nice clothings for a cheap price....