That's exactly how I feel about wedding dresses too, atlee! Considering how the entire wedding industry is geared toward getting brides to feel "special" (and therefore justify spending a fortune), you'd think they'd want to pad the bride's ego by calling her a smaller size! Who knows.

It's been true for as long as I've been buying my own clothes (17 years?) that women's sizes vary widely depending on the manufacturer. Maybe I have a weird body, but I've never been able to buy something without trying it on first. There's just no telling what will fit by looking at it on the rack. (Jeans are a special torture. Jeans are worse than swimsuits sometimes!)

I do think I heard a few years ago that American sizing standards had been adjusted up so that measurements which previously would have been a 12 were now a 10. I have no proof of this, however. It may have been a rumor.