Study shows women's figures have changed

Many women are pear-shaped but sizes are based on an hourglass figure.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Garment manufacturers have no idea what actual sizes and shapes the American woman comes in.
Manufacturers first standardized clothing sizes for men during the Civil War at the urging of the government, which needed to get many men into uniform quickly. Women's sizes did not become standardized until the 1940s. That happened after the last large-scale study of women's measurements, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and came at the urging of the mail-order clothing industry.
Since then, we've gotten bigger -- not just heavier, but taller. And clothing sizes still are generally based on an hourglass figure, though a big share of the female population is pear-shaped.
"Manufacturers are making clothes for women who don't exist," said Lenda Jo Connell, an associate professor at Auburn University who is studying women's clothing-size preferences. Her data show that the typical American woman is 5-foot-5 and weighs 159 pounds.
Scanning for information
A mammoth project called Size USA hopes to fill the knowledge gap. Sponsored by an industry group, Size USA is traveling the country with a high-tech scanner that takes detailed body measurements in 12 seconds. It aims to scan 12,000 people, half of them women.
Information from the study will help manufacturers address complaints expressed by the nearly half of consumers who can't easily find clothes to fit. But it probably won't do anything to help the harried female shopper forced to schlep armloads of different sizes into the fitting room in hopes that one might be right, said Susan P. Ashdown, associate professor of textile and apparel at Cornell University.
"Manufacturers need to make clothes that fit well," Ashdown said. "But then they have to get those measurements the garment is based on onto a hang tag so you can identify what will fit you."
ASTM's Mellian agrees. "We are one of the rare countries still fooling our consumers with these size 8s and 10s that don't correspond with any part of your body."