Clothing Sizing Changes Through Decades
Fashion Professor Discusses How Designers Calculate Sizes
Newswise — Any woman who has searched for a well-fitting pair of pants or the perfect little black dress should understand the impetus behind Lynn Boorady’s research.
The associate professor and chair of Buffalo State’s Fashion and Textile Technology Department has studied clothing sizing for more than 20 years, and she’s the first to admit it’s puzzling at best. When it comes to women’s clothing, there is no industry sizing standard, meaning it’s up to each designer to decide the ideal female shape. For many women, finding clothes that consistently fit can pose a challenge.
Historically, ready-made clothing was not meant to fit perfectly. Up until the 1960s, shoppers assumed they had to take their store-bought clothing to a tailor for adjustments, Boorady said. Of course, that is not the expectation today. This is why it’s so important to try everything on and not get caught up in the numbers, she said.
“If a piece of clothing fits, don’t worry about the size,” Boorady emphasized. “Tear the label out if the size bothers you. It’s a comment on the company, not you.” This situation has only improved slightly in recent years following a 2002 national study, Size USA, which conducted body scans on more than 10,000 women and men to adequately reflect modern body types. The last time women had been measured for a major study was in 1939.
To cover the wide range of body types, designers are offering more choices— slim fit, curvy fit, for instance. At the same time, there remains a disconnect. Fifty percent of the female population wears a size 14 or larger, yet the majority of designers make clothes for slender women, she noted.
That is slowly changing as more niche markets emerge with clothing designed for large-busted women, tall women, and plus sizes.
“There are still not great choices, but they are better,” said Boorady who wrote about sizing of apparel for overweight and obese consumers for a chapter in the 2014 book Designing Apparel for Consumers: The Impact of Body Shape and Size. (Serge Carrier, Marie-Eve Faust and Francis Dodds (Eds.). Woodhead Publishing: London)
At the same time, more designers are using vanity sizing — extra-small and triple zeroes — with the larger sizes adjusted accordingly.
“Manufacturers do the same thing to men that they do to women,” she said, “only it’s sizing larger, not smaller to make the consumer feel better.”
About Lynn Boorady Current chair of Buffalo State’s Fashion and Textile Technology Department, Lynn Boorady has taught at the college since 2010. She holds a master’s degree in Textiles and Apparel from Cornell University and a doctorate in textile and apparel management from the University of Missouri, Columbia. Other faculty positions she has held include: the University of Missouri, Iowa State University, Stephens College, Mount Mary College; and the American University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Her major areas of interest are body scanning, sizing, functional design, patternmaking, product development, technical design, apparel manufacturing, and the slow fashion movement.