Why Are These 6'2" Fashion Models Wearing Size Medium? (2023)

Speaking as a guy on the taller end of things, around 6’2″ (a hair under, but very close to being spot on the 6’2″ mark – most people do not fall exactly on a given number), I do not see how any guy my size could POSSIBLY fit into a medium. To clarify, 6’2″ is not just a little bit taller than average. The AVERAGE in the western world is not 5’10” as some seem to think – it’s 5’9″ according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and closer to 5’8″ globally, which means someone like myself is closer to 5 inches, nearly HALF A FOOT, taller than the average American or British man. I am able to see over the head of my 5’10” friend, if I stand face to face with him. Let’s put it that way.

I’m also not obese at all – I weigh around 200 lbs, though this is mainly just my natural build – I work out a few times a week, casually, have some decent muscle, no belly or anything, and I’m of northern European descent, so we do have a more robust bone and muscle structure than some other demographics – those viking genetics at work. Not fat, though, not overweight, just reasonably fit. The LIGHTEST I could be is about 180 lbs – below that, I’m basically skeletal – the last time I weighed that little, people kept telling me I looked emaciated and needed to eat more. My ribs were showing. Literally, my RIBS were showing when I was just slightly under 180 (178 or so) and my hip bones were protruding. 195 to 200 feels like an all-around healthier weight for me.

So, GIVEN that, what’s my size? Well, my chest is probably somewhere in the 45″ to 46″ range right now. I tend to buy Large sized T-shirts, and my wife complains ALL THE TIME about how tight they are on me. They’re basically skin tight in a lot of cases, especially around the shoulders and arms. My waist size? I can get away with a 32 on the low end but this is really tight – I have fairly wide hip bones for a man so I go with 34, sometimes even 36 or 37 waist depending on the fit of the pants, with a length of 34 to 36, again, depending on the cut, specifically because my wider hip bone structure makes the pants bow inward toward the knees if I don’t get a wider waist – my waist would otherwise be probably a 34.

My wife came home today with a few shirts and pants she bought for me at the store, and had me try them on. One, a hoodie, I started to try on and IMMEDIATELY realized something was off – I couldn’t even get my HEAD through the hole for the head. I had to FORCE it through and it was snug around the neck. I finally managed to get it on and she laughed, because I looked ridiculous – the hoodie, which is built to be baggier than your typical t-shirt, was bulging at every seam and I looked like I’d been stuffed into something meant for a child – I could scarcely move my arms, the sleeves were much too short, and it just felt silly and there’s no way I could have comfortably worn that. My wife had to help me out of it, it was on so tight. Then SHE tried it on – she’s 5’4.5″ – and it was actually a little bit snug even on her!

She’d accidentally purchased a medium. And I asked, because I know a large is usually snug but not SUPER tight in most cases to the point where you can’t even move without ripping it – she was surprised to find that she had and I was right on my hunch! I knew from a lifetime of experience that a medium NEVER fits, larges work though are a bit form fitting, and XL is suitable if I don’t mind a somewhat looser fit. Again, I must stress that I’m not by any stretch of the imagination overweight. Just a big guy.

So here’s what I find: a lot of these modeling agencies, for one thing, only ASK their models what their height is. The thing about that is…men lie about their height, ESPECIALLY when they know it’ll be posted in association with an image of them in an ad. They simply lie. A lot. Hollywood is REPLETE with examples of liars: Justin Timberlake has for years claimed to be 6’1″, yet in photos with 5’10” Andrew Garfield, standing on even ground, he is almost exactly the same height – and this is observable in photos with other people of known heights who are shorter than that. Arnold Schwarzenegger claims 6’2″ but is actually, if you look at photos of him next to his 5’11” daughter, pretty much dead even in height with her – that’s a HUGE difference of 3 inches. It’s assumed he lost some height in his old age but THREE INCHES?!? Brad Pitt claims to be 6’1″ and, again, clusters much closer to a 5’11” or even 5’10” height and appears to wear massive lifts all the time. Tom Cruise is LEGENDARY for his massive lifts, which are occasionally giving him an additional 4 inches – boosting his likely 5’8″ height to the point where he looks to be close to 6 foot. George Clooney claims to be 6’0″, yet consistently can be seen to be much shorter than that next to others who are also listed at 6’0″.

The point here is…if a man can get away with it, he will almost invariably include shoes in the statement of his height, which may add anywhere from 1 to 4 inches depending on how giant the lifts they walk around in are. There are specialty shoes sold specifically for this purpose and they sell well- meaning a lot of shorter guys buy them to look taller. When you go to get your driver’s license in the U.S., they don’t actually measure you – they ASK you your height and you can PICK what height you want to be.

So, with how much men lie about height – men much more often than women – how tall ARE the models, really? Well, in general, MOST men seem to add about an inch, because you can get away with an inch here or there and most people won’t question it – it’s hard to tell the difference by eyeballing between someone who is 5’11” and 6’0″ if one had beefier shoes than the taller guy -some will exaggerate by two inches and a smaller percentage by even three inches, though usually these guys are called out on it because when you’re talking a three inch discrepancy, that’s getting to be REALLY obvious – e.g. if a 5’9″ man claims 6’0″, people are going to notice that he’s not that tall, shoes or not.

So somewhere in the 1 to 3 inch range. Some of these “6’2″” models are probably more like 6’0″ if you take their shoes off and honestly measure them on a level surface. After all, don’t you find it suspicious that SO MANY of them happen to be exactly 6’2″? Not 6’1″, not 6’1.5″, not 6’1.75″, EXACTLY 6’2″. That just doesn’t happen in nature. Most men who say they are 6 foot are more like 5’11.25″ or something like that – three quarters of an inch away from the six foot mark. Some are even closer to 5’10”.

Why is this? INSECURITY and the male image. For some reason, it’s become almost an embarrassing thing to admit that you’re not in the six foot club, even though MOST MEN ON THE PLANET ARE NOT OVER SIX FEET TALL! The average global height is 5’8″, the average in the west about 5’9″, and in asia it’s more like 5’6″. But because media and constant lies from insecure men give the false impression that more guys are 6’+ than actually are, average-sized men in the 5’8″ to 5’9″ range BELIEVE that and feel like they’re somehow less of a man if they don’t measure up to that mythical 6 foot mark, even though on the metric scale that’s not the round number it is in the imperial scale: it’s 183 centimeters or 1.83 meters, not even a round number.

And the 6’2″ marker is similar in that some men feel almost like 6’0″ is tall, but at only 3″ taller than the 5’9″ average, it’s not “tall enough” to stand out. So they go to the NEXT round number, which is 6’2″, because when you see that number it looks like a good, solid, respectable, strong height for a man to be. But upwards of 90% of men on earth ARE NOT 6’2″. They’re under. So you have plenty of 6’0.25″ and 6’0.75″ and 6’1″ guys who claim to be 6’2″ simply because it sounds taller and more manly than 6’1″ which only seems “moderately tall”. Myself, I know from repeated measurements in bare feet that I am usually coming in around 6’1.85″ tall – so actually JUST a hair under that magical 6’2″ – and I do usually just go with 6’2″ because it IS so close you would never know the difference by eyeballing it – far less than an inch. BUT it’s still not that EXACT mark and even I, if I’m being TOTALLY honest, round to that 6’2″ number. Not that I’d have a problem with “only” being 6’1″ but I’m legitimately closer to 6’2″ than 6’1″, in bare feet, and with the fact that your height varies by a cm or two depending on if you just woke up or are late in the day (spinal compression during the day, the fluids leave the discs due to gravity and you lose a tiny bit of height – test it yourself) …..it’s going to overlap that number at some points. But I’d NEVER claim to be 6’3″ or 6’4″ or anything like that because, hey, that’s called lying, not rounding.

ANYWAY. We can presume that these models were not rigorously medically measured for these shoots. I sincerely doubt they’re all 6’2″ on the dot. Most are probably far closer to 5’11” or 6’0″ than they are to 6’2″ (remember…more than 90% of men are less than 6’2″, and more than 99% are under 6’4″), are exaggerating and including shoes in the mix, and going for that 6’2″ number because it looks really stately. But measure them, shoes off, and the story changes. They’re much smaller, I’d bet. And yes, an inch or two in height does make a difference – I cannot fit into the same coat my (just under) 6’0″ brother can.

That, and the modeling industry has a bad habit of hiring skeletons in skin suits to do their modeling. I couldn’t fit into a medium and make it look anything less than painfully skin tight if my life depended on it. I’ve been to many clothing stores, tried on many brands, many, many times, and I know this beyond a shadow of a doubt: you put me, even at my thinnest ever, in a medium, and I’ll rip that thing apart when I start moving around. Because I’m not a genetic freak with 10 inch biceps and a 36″ chest at this height.