This Summer's Outfit Rule: One Size Fits All

For fashion lovers, the oversized look appeared in abundance this spring and will continue to dominate throughout the summer. Offering space and a sense of comfort, this style's minimalist aesthetic is a simple and chic way to "debut" one's restored sense of fashion after a bleak pandemic.

Fashion historians say that oversized and baggy clothes first became popular in the 1920s (in Western fashion at least). The post-war mood changed when women in Canada and the United States won the right to vote and go to work. Like their social position, women's clothing became more comfortable, and Coco Chanel was at the forefront of the movement to eliminate the tight-waist fashion of previous generations.

This freedom manifested itself in comfortable clothing and with it, a new set of ideal body standards for women. Instead of being tight and flattering, Chanel's famous flowing skirts and halter tops gave women the choice to choose how they want the world to see them.

Today, with social revolutions about "body positivity" gaining popularity, the concept of clothing is changed again. Freesize—or one size fits all—is gaining favor, because it eliminates conventional body measurement and gives people a more favorable view of their bodies.