<< Clothes That Fit the Woman, Not the Store
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By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: March 31, 2006
It is a noble pursuit that has long eluded the clothing industry: a
standardized sizing system that would allow consumers to navigate the
frustrating world of off-the-rack apparel, where size varies from
retailer to retailer.
Finding Her Perfect Fit
A Woman, Full of Hope, in the Dressing Room (March 31, 2006)
A Benefit for Insurers
But a closely watched experiment, under way at two national apparel
companies, highlights just how hard it may be to pull off.
One obstacle is that retailers, ever eager to distinguish themselves,
are loath to share anything, even if it might help their customers.
Fit Technologies, which is owned by a Dallas entrepreneur, has
developed a sizing system based on three body types that represent the
most common female figures. Clothing companies that adopt it produce
three versions of every size, one for each body shape.
Jones Apparel and Garfield & Marks quietly applied the system to a
handful of lines, and three retailers, Macy's, Nordstrom and Q.V.C.,
the television shopping network, agreed to carry limited quantities of
the products.
Despite the endorsement from big-name companies, the system faces
enormous challenges. Retailers that commit to it must find space for
more merchandise, train workers to understand the new sizes and explain
the new system to customers — a struggle for stores that already have
few employees on the sales floor.
Then there is the reality, however counterintuitive it may be, that
retailers and clothing makers thrive off sizing confusion. Consumers
who find a brand that fits are likely to stick with it and a standard
sizing system would encourage them to visit other stores.
So perhaps it is unsurprising that the sizing system, called Fitlogic,
has hit some bumps in the road. Macy's, which stocked a single style of
Jones New York pants made with the Fitlogic sizing system, said it
would cease carrying the line. And Nordstrom, which is carrying a
single style of pants from Garfield & Marks, said it had no plans to
expand use of the sizing system.
Both companies declined to disclose sales figures for the clothes using
the Fitlogic sizing system, as did Q.V.C. and Jones Apparel, with
executives saying it was too early to tell.
Nancy Jones, vice president for marketing at Garfield & Marks, said
customer feedback on the Fitlogic system was positive but that "we have
not figured out how to get this concept out to our stores in a fashion
they can accept financially and commit to in terms of space." There is
little doubt that consumers would benefit from Fitlogic, or any other
standardized sizing system, if it were widely adopted. Size, by
definition a standardized measure, has become one of the most flexible
concepts in retailing.
The creation of vanity sizes — intentionally smaller than an objective
size, to flatter the buyer — has introduced pure guesswork into
shopping. A size 10 from one clothing manufacturer is a size 8 from
another and a 12 from still another.
According to a survey of 84,000 women, conducted by the NPD Group, a
market research firm, 36 percent return a product every year because it
does not fit. Those returns equal 12 percent of all clothing sales.
As a result, industry executives say, women shop at fewer stores and
buy fewer clothes than they would if sizing were more transparent.
Julia Pierson, 46, from Baltimore, buys pants from one company, Jones
New York, because it is the only brand that produces a size 12 that
fits her. "My waist is disproportionately large," said Ms. Pierson, who
was shopping in the Jones New York department at Macy's Herald Square,
wearing a pair of Jones New York corduroy pants.
Fitlogic is the not the first company to tackle the sizing riddle. In
the mid-1990's Levi Strauss developed a system that allowed consumers
to order jeans cut precisely to their measurements. Using a different
approach, a company called Intellefit designed scanning machines that
took shoppers' measurements — including shoulder slope and calf
thickness — in stores. And Neiman Marcus provides a kind of CliffsNotes
to sizes in its catalogs.
But an industrywide solution has never materialized.
The developer of Fitlogic is Cricket Lee, who has frequently expressed
her own frustration with clothing sizes. On Q.V.C.'s Web site, Ms. Lee
describes herself as a 52-year-old who weighs 245 pounds, adding, "Like
many women, I was unable to find clothing that fit and I was sick and
tired of it." Ms. Lee declined to comment for this article.
According to Fit Technology, more than 90 percent of women over 35 fall
into three body types: straight silhouette, curvy and pearlike, which
the company labels 1, 2 and 3. Fitlogic pairs traditional sizes with
its three body types, producing a tag with sizes like 10.2 and 8.3.
But what would make the system appealing to shoppers — multiple
versions of the same size — is what turns off retailers and clothing
makers. Three times the number of items requires more display space and
creates more risk of unsold inventory. "A small boutique cannot support
a program like this," Ms. Jones of Garfield & Marks said.
The retailers that could support such a program may not want to. For
many, proprietary sizing, however frustrating, is a vital part of a
brand's identity.
"A Seven Jeans fit is different from a Gap jeans fit," said Andrew
Jassin, managing director of the Jassin-O'Rourke Group, a fashion
consulting firm in New York. "They don't want it to be the same."
The system also creates more work for clothing manufacturers. To make
one pair of pants using Fitlogic sizing, Garfield & Marks, which
designs clothes by hand, had to create three patterns. "The concept
behind this is legitimate and needed by consumers," Ms. Jones said.
"But it is very challenging to be an innovator on a concept like this."
The industry appears to be taking a wait-and-see approach. Even Macy's,
which agreed to test the system, has done little to advertise it.
The Jones Apparel pants using Fitlogic sizing hang on a single,
unmarked rack in a corner of Macy's Herald Square store in Manhattan.
On a recent evening, a saleswoman in the Jones New York department
where the pants are sold said she was unfamiliar with the product or
where it was sold in the store.<<
Susan
"Slow down. The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel
too fast and you miss all you are traveling for". - "Ride the Dark
Trail" by Louis L'Amour
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