A Measured Take: My experience in how sizing factors in the Fashion & Retail

As you may or may not know I have been recently decided to take a career change into the realm of fashion; a relatively large step from my usual admin-receptionist gigs. Part of this new change came the choice to take up a course to learn the Essentials of Fashion, which is coincidentally the name of the Parsons x Teen vogue collab to introduce newbies to the world of fashion, explain its many facets & the moving parts that make the industy so lucrative and successful.

So far the program has been a real delight! I've had the opprotunity to learn what it means to truly be part of in the induistry, to stand out, to be business minded, to be creative without limits, to network both on and offline and to work with your hands. It truly is a unique business that requires both your right and left brain to compose the final results that end up being the next iconic piece, article, design, etc.  Below is an experience from an assignment given in the Fashion Production module of the course and how it changed my view on retail sizing

Have you ever noticed how a small in one brand of shirts is somehow a medium in another? Or how when you order off an Austrailian website, that medium that you think will normally fit turns out to be very tight? Thats what I experienced at "Saks fith Avenue" at Polaris mall in Columbus, Ohio as part of a Parsons x Teen Vogue course assignment. My mission was to try on various clothing at a store that carried many different sizing and analyze the difference of sizes between each brand, why sizes would vary amogst pieces. 

I first started off with a collection of pieces: 2 dresses, 3 shirts, 2 pants and 4 blazers, of course. I found that I am a size 6-7 for the first 3 and a small in the blazer department. I started with dresses. The first dress being of a jersey blend, had european sizing, but goood thing for me they had translated sizing to size 7. This dress I've noticed was tighter than most dresses I usually wear and surmised that in most countries, particularly in Europe, sizing is made to be a tad smaller to appeal to a specific audience or common body type. Peeling out of that dress I proceeded to try the American brand which fit perfectly but just a little loose on the waist. I concluded that the designer had the girth of body types in mind, perhaps as they grow into the size better prolonging the piece as opposed to replacing it when it gets too tight for comfort. 

That or someone a little larger than me squeezed into it before I did.

Next was the shirts in size small. Because two of them were cotton blend, seemed to fit about the same but it was the button up white collar shirt that gave me a moment of pause. It both did and didnt fit correctly, it could use some tailoring around the arms but the chets and waistline was perfect. I came to realize later on the length and looseness of the sleeves were an aesthetic choice for layering and versitility if the customer wants to go from casual roll-up sleeve to a bit of cuff poking from a tailored jacket. I completely understand the design choice, but for me personally, it affected the fit. 

The pants had me beside myself. For ther most part they were european sized and of different fabrics, however the tailoring and inseams threw me for a loop. I usually fit a size 38 which is  a 6 in womens sizes, but upon trying the first pair, made from polyester blend, things were very uneven around the waistline. Perhaps this was meant to be worn with a belt, or maybe my waist is just a tad smaller than normal, but that wasn't the case with the second linen pair which fit beautifully around the waist and hips, but having a longer than normal inseam which led me to believe this was intended for a taller demographic...or maybe I just needed heels. Regardless, they were both of wonderful quality and taught me a thing or two about waistline/hip/inseam sizing.

Last and most certainly my staple favorite, the classic blazers. All were well tailored and of different designs: One Black, One Snakeskin, One tweed, and the last Leather.What got me was the bust and arm inseam. While on the outside they all looked more or less the same, upon try-on they all fit very different. The cool beige snakeskin fit very loosely with the arm inseam being aestheically longer to give that classic oversized look. The one in Black, made in Australia, fit a tad tight around the bust and upper are area, bringing the cuffs up above my wrists very awkwardly, thus reminding me of the size difference around the world. This is very juxtaposed by the pink tweed blazer which turned to be tight around the arms while fitting perfectly around the bust and hips giving a very elegant silhouette. In the blazers defense, I do have muscular arms. The leather Blazer, yet another gift from Europe surpisde me as it fit the best! The tailoring was as if it were made for me! Too bad I couldnt justify the $300 price tag.

This assingment along with the lectures provided by the program, truly taught me that in the fashion world, sizing is an integral yet varying aspect in retail and mass production. For one designer using stiffer matierial, they may want to appeal to a taller more slimmer body frame and to another,  the everyday person who will inevitably grow into their size, so they need stretchy fabrics or a slighlty looser design that can accomidate that. It taught me sizing varies all around the world throughout many pieces and what one would need to know about their overall market to aqcuire the best & most accurate sizing to appeal to their overall target audience and retailer.

But moreover it taught me to never take size at face value and always try clothes on before taking them home!