A pair of jeans with a 33-inches waist is equivalent to a size 16 in women.
WOMEN'S SIZING CHARTS via kwout
The word 'jeans' comes from a kind of material that was made in Europe, named after sailors from Genoa in Italy, because they wore clothes made from it. The word 'denim' came from the name of a French material, serge de Nimes: serge (a kind of material) from Nimes (a town in France).
In 1848, gold was found in California and the famous Gold Rush began. The gold miners wanted clothes that were strong and will not tear easily. In 1853, a man called Leob Strauss left his home in New York and moved to San Francisco, where he started a wholesale business, supplying clothes. Strauss later changed his name from Leob to Levi.
The pockets, which easily tore away from the jeans, were a big problem with the miners' clothes. A man called Jacob Davis had the idea of using metal rivets (fasteners) to hold the pockets and the jeans together so that they wouldn't tear.
Davis wanted to patent his idea, but didn't have enough money, so in 1872, he wrote a letter to Levi Strauss and offered a deal if Strauss would pay for the patent. Strauss accepted, and he started making copper-riveted 'waist overalls' (as jeans were called then).
In 1886, Levi sewed a leather label on their jeans. The label showed a picture of a pair of jeans that were being pulled between two horses, suggesting how strong Levi jeans were that even two horses could not tear them apart.
Check out 7 Tips to Finding the Most Flattering Jeans for Your Body Shape shared by WhoWhatWear.com.