{"id":1241,"date":"2012-07-15T04:05:41","date_gmt":"2012-07-15T04:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/?p=1241"},"modified":"2012-07-15T15:25:51","modified_gmt":"2012-07-15T15:25:51","slug":"reinvention-of-womens-sizing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/reinvention-of-womens-sizing\/","title":{"rendered":"Reinvention of Women’s Sizing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Up until recently, Missy 0-16, Juniors 1-17, Petite 0P-16P, and Women\u2019s 14W-28W+ have been the standard sizes available for women\u2019s clothing. These standard sizes don\u2019t take into account the differences in each woman\u2019s unique proportions and curves and leaves most women disappointed in the fit of ready-to-wear clothing.<\/p>\n

A woman\u2019s only options for getting a good fit have been to tailor off-the-rack clothing or seek out custom, made-to-measure or bespoke solutions. Both of these alternatives can be time consuming and pricey.<\/p>\n

Standard sizing is so ingrained, that most designers wouldn\u2019t even think of changing them. According to Christina Wallace, Co-Founder and CEO of Quincy, the teachers she encountered in design school didn\u2019t understand that the standard sizing doesn\u2019t work for most women. She wanted to make her design samples to fit her own body, instead of making the standard dress form size, so she could wear the pieces she designed in school. When Christina asked her pattern-making instructor how to change the standard pattern to accommodate her body, the teacher could not understand Christina\u2019s question. The teacher was not even capable of conceiving of making adjustments to the standard pattern sizing, let alone develop a strategy to do that.<\/p>\n

Several female designers have started a revolution that is changing the landscape of women\u2019s clothing sizes. They know first hand how frustrating it is to have ill-fitting clothing and are reinventing women\u2019s sizing options to accommodate and fit women\u2019s body shapes. The founders of Quincy Apparel and Rebecca & Drew Manufacturing are sizing pioneers.<\/p>\n

Quincy Apparel<\/a><\/p>\n

Quincy\u00a0co-founders Christina Wallace and Alex Nelson created a new sizing system based on the three parts of a woman’s body that vary the most from woman to woman and cause the most frustrating fit problems. Their sizes are defined by bust, hip to waist ratios, and height. They created a fit quiz to help customer find their Quincy Size.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>I recently tried the Quincy \u201cJane\u201d Jacket<\/a>, a style I would usually avoid because it is typically too boxy and visually adds about 20 pounds to my frame. I was surprised and impressed with the fit! Off-the-rack clothes are usually too tight in the waist\/tummy, too short in the arms and legs, and the waists are too long for me. I always need a tailor to get the fit right.<\/p>\n

I used the Quincy Fit Quiz to determine my size. The \u201cJane\u201d Jacket was SO flattering – not boxy at all – and fit my curves perfectly in the shoulders, bust, waist, hips and arm length. WOW! (the arms were a little tight in the biceps, but then I do have really strong biceps!) The styles are \u201cDress Yourself Skinny\u201d flattering, details are special, fabrics are beautiful, finishes are neat and clean and the fit is superb. The ladies at Quincy are really on to something!<\/p>\n

Rebecca & Drew<\/a><\/p>\n

Rebecca Matchett and Drew Paluba set out to create a button down shirt that really fit women. They created the TrioFit sizing formula, which calculates shirt size based on chest circumference, bra-cup size, and height. The Rebecca & Drew shirts claim to solve the gaping bust problem and fit a woman\u2019s curves. To order, customers select their body type (choice between apple vs. pear shape, they call these body types strong & confident vs. soft & smooth), bra band size, bra cup size and whether they are short to average-waisted (average) or long-waisted (long).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

These ladies really are creating better fitting garments. I hope other designers catch on…if not, they may be left in these ladies’ dust. Viva La Revolution!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several female designers have started a revolution that is reinventing women\u2019s clothing sizes. They know first hand how frustrating it is to have ill-fitting clothing and are creating new sizing systems that dramatically improve the fit of ready-to-wear clothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,348,74,363],"tags":[655,41,660,661,654,662,1081,657,663,221,659,68,10,652,653,658,656,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1241"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1248,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241\/revisions\/1248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}