tiny shirts

The slim cut Lacoste polo shown with the standard cut polo beneath it. Both are size 3. (Josh Rubin:Cool Hunting)

I'm wondering if anyone has the answer to this question: with Americans growing increasingly obese and the world's people collectively getting taller and bigger, why is it that designers insist on making their clothes smaller and smaller?

I'm not advocating a return to oversized silhouettes or people walking around dressed liked Bedouins (or Bea Arthur on "The Golden Girls," circa 1987) but there has to be a limit at which 'slim-fit' is slim enough.

The graphic above shows the new, even slimmer fit Lacoste retro polo shirt for the spring. It's the pink one. I know very few poeple who, if they bought it in their size, that would look fashionable in that tiny shirt. The old shirts (the green one behind the pink one) already have been downsized because they were considered too billowy, and now even that is too much.

Luckily, the old Lacoste shirts will still be sold, but it still begs the question...

When is the fashion industry going to learn that making clothes smaller won't create demand? Nobody I know that skinny wants to wear clothes that tight, and those of us who aren't that size can't fit into the clothes. What's more, the skinny guys can alweays downsize to get the look they want in that area; big people can't. The big and tall are stuck wearing the same crap from Casual Male that's been in there for years.

Abercromibie & Fitch started shrinking their tops a few years ago and sales have never truly recovered. Why go down the same path again and again?