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1 – 10 of over 4000Diana Sindicich and Catherine Black
This paper seeks to investigate issues with the fit and sizing of commercially available men's business clothing in the USA.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to investigate issues with the fit and sizing of commercially available men's business clothing in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
The functional design process is a conceptual framework used to frame an investigation of fit and sizing of men's business clothing. Data were collected from 322 men aged 20‐55 at two different demographic levels. Sizing and fit of men's shirts, pants, suits and their garment features were reported to investigate fit issues with men's ready‐to‐wear business clothing and their relationships to sizing and overall body composition.
Findings
Results indicated that many men self‐report fit issues with their business clothing, including issues with the key sizing dimensions of their garments. Consumers frequenting specialty stores with high service levels reported fewer issues with key sizing dimensions, but more issues in other areas of the garments. Many respondents did not know their garment size. Some consumers appear to be choosing their garments based on non key measurements to best accommodate their individual shape, while those choosing by their sized measurements may not achieve satisfactory fit in all areas.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was generally located in the southeast United States. Sizing systems and clothing manufacturers vary globally.
Originality/value
Little research into the sizing and fit of men's clothing has been performed. This article investigates self‐reported fit issues to establish a baseline for further studies in the area.
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Michelle Ann Tongue, Rose Otieno and Tracy Diane Cassidy
Since anthropometric dimensions vary during a lifetime, it is difficult to provide adequate sizing for all, especially growing, children. This paper aims to review children's…
Abstract
Purpose
Since anthropometric dimensions vary during a lifetime, it is difficult to provide adequate sizing for all, especially growing, children. This paper aims to review children's sizing provision for girls aged 4‐8 years among four UK retailers (Adams, Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and Mothercare), an area of limited research.
Design/methodology/approach
Two research strategies were utilised: observational visits to retail stores (on sizing systems and environment) and face‐to‐face interviews with ten parents and five childrenswear garment technologists (on sizing of children's garments and fit issues).
Findings
UK retailers utilised various numerical size coding systems based on height, age and weight. Next, Asda George and Adams were the favourite shopping stores for children's wear. Parents were co‐shoppers with their children. While parents' key criteria for purchase were durability, fit, quality, price and washability, children's choice was based on colour, fashion and peer influence. Variation in sizing designation caused confusion. Parents have suggested varying lengths as a solution to accommodating different sizes; preferring a common system with age as key size code. Sizing inconsistency between brands and incomprehensible size codes are major factors in the creation of customer dissatisfaction with children's clothing. Providing ambient facilities for co‐shopping is vital.
Research limitations/implications
The children's fashion sector is important to children, parents and retailers. Parents are co‐shoppers with their children and have key criteria for selecting to shop in a store. Marketers should be aware of core needs: sizing provision, shopping environment and the dynamics of co‐shopping. Sizing systems should be relevant to avoid dissatisfaction and confusion. More research is needed focusing on larger and other samples; target markets and psychological needs for shopping.
Originality/value
The area of children's shopping for clothing in the UK has a limited literature. Key issues revolve around garment sizing, garment fit, co‐shopping and consumer satisfaction. This study contributes to filling the gap in knowledge.
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Meeting sizing needs in today's clothing is an important aspect of customer satisfaction. Based on the critical incident and grounded theory techniques, data from focus groups…
Abstract
Meeting sizing needs in today's clothing is an important aspect of customer satisfaction. Based on the critical incident and grounded theory techniques, data from focus groups with parents are analysed to establish consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction with children's garment sizing. While results revealed that parents were dissatisfied with garment sizing, the study focuses on specific causes of dissatisfaction. The centrality of efficient sizing in creation of consumer satisfaction is underscored.
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Jongsuk Chun‐Yoon and Cynthia R. Jasper
Reviews the sizing systems developed in several countries — the USA, Austria, England, Germany, Hungary, Japan and South Korea. A comparison of these systems shows that: the way…
Abstract
Reviews the sizing systems developed in several countries — the USA, Austria, England, Germany, Hungary, Japan and South Korea. A comparison of these systems shows that: the way of labelling garment sizes has varied from one sizing system to another; most of the sizing systems classified figure types by height and drop value (the difference between hip girth and bust girth measurements), and the way of classifying garments and the key dimensions of garment types in each system was slightly different. Recognizing the need for greater uniformity, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) developed an international size labelling system. Many countries, including England, Japan, South Korea and Hungary, revised their size labelling systems by adopting the ISO system.
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Maria L. Mpampa, Philip N. Azariadis and Nickolas S. Sapidis
The purpose of this paper is to derive a new method for developing sizing systems for the mass customization of garments.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to derive a new method for developing sizing systems for the mass customization of garments.
Design/methodology/approach
A range of recently published works has been studied. A new method is derived by following a basic statistical analysis on anthropometric data which are supported by an iterative mass customization model and introduced “satisfaction performance” indices. The derived method is applied successfully to an anthropometric data consisting of 12,810 Greek men.
Findings
With the proposed method, it is possible to control the degree of mass customization and the corresponding number of garment sizes. Under this way, a balance between the number of sizes (in other words: production cost) and the percentage satisfaction of consumers can be achieved. The proposed method consists of six subsequent tasks which are applied to the target population data for the development of mass customization models for male shirts, coats and trousers.
Research limitations/implications
Future work could be focused on the development of methods for the automatic garments grading with respect to the proposed mass customization models and practise.
Originality/value
The methodology presented in this paper can be applied to the development of mass customization models for other categories of garments and target population.
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Berihun Bizuneh, Abrham Destaw, Fasika Hailu, Solomon Tsegaye and Bizuayehu Mamo
Sizing system is a fundamental topic in garment fitting. The purpose of this study was to assess the fit of existing police uniforms (shirt, jacket, overcoat and trousers) and…
Abstract
Purpose
Sizing system is a fundamental topic in garment fitting. The purpose of this study was to assess the fit of existing police uniforms (shirt, jacket, overcoat and trousers) and develop a sizing system for upper and lower body uniforms of Amhara policemen in Ethiopia.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 35 body dimensions of 889 policemen were taken through a manual anthropometric survey following the procedures in ISO 8559:1989 after each subject was interviewed on issues related to garment fit. The anthropometric data were pre-processed, key body dimensions were identified by principal components analysis and body types were clustered by the agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm and verified by the XGBoost classifier in a Python programming environment. The developed size charts were validated statistically using aggregate loss and accommodation rate.
Findings
About 44% of the subjects encountered fit problems every time they own new readymade uniforms. Lengths and side seams of shirts, and lengths and waist girths of trousers are the most frequently altered garment sites. Analysis of the anthropometric measurements resulted in 13 and 15 sizes for the upper and lower bodies, respectively. Moreover, the comparison of the developed upper garment size chart with the existing size chart for a shirt showed a considerable difference. This indicates that inappropriate size charts create fit problems.
Originality/value
The study considers the analysis of fit problems and sizing system development in a less researched country. Moreover, the proposed data mining procedure and its application for size chart development is unique and workable.
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Kathryn Brownbridge, Simeon Gill, Sarah Grogan, Sarah Kilgariff and Amanda Whalley
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the link between underdeveloped and ill-informed sizing practices, fit dissatisfaction and the creation of textiles waste. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the link between underdeveloped and ill-informed sizing practices, fit dissatisfaction and the creation of textiles waste. The literature review identifies: issues that limit the effective development and application of sizing systems, the link between the complexities of consumer fit expectations, body image and self-esteem and maps the link between fit dissatisfaction and the creation of textiles waste.
Design/methodology/approach
Data analysis draws from a wider study designed to investigate women’s experiences of dress fit and body image. In total, 20 women aged 18-45 years were audio recorded while they tried on a number of mass-produced dresses, and were asked to select one dress, which they could keep.
Findings
All the dresses were selected except one style, which failed to satisfy any of the women’s fit requirements. The findings clearly demonstrate why this dress was considered to be unsatisfactory as well as the subsequent link between poor fit and body dissatisfaction.
Social implications
Findings support the theory that women identify with their clothes’ size and when this link is disrupted it causes discomfort and body dissatisfaction, which, in turn, contributed to rejection of the garment increasing the potential for the creation of waste.
Originality/value
This study is the first to link unsatisfactory fashion sizing practice with the production of textiles waste. The process of capturing women’s interactions with high street fashion dresses whilst trying them on enabled a detailed analysis that contributes new evidence to the debate around sizing practice, poor fit and its impact on body image and self-esteem.
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The aim of this research was to develop a conceptual framework of the role of garment sizing in the marketing strategy of clothing manufacturing firms in Kenya. From the review of…
Abstract
The aim of this research was to develop a conceptual framework of the role of garment sizing in the marketing strategy of clothing manufacturing firms in Kenya. From the review of literature, salient components of marketing principles and practices that had been analysed by preceding authors provided the theoretical basis for this qualitative study. The procedures for the in‐depth interviews with 13 clothing manufacturers and ten retailers are explained. Based on grounded theory techniques, the data from the interviews were analysed, resulting in a conceptual framework for determining marketing strategy in this clothing market. Results showed that these firms are still market production oriented, and may face severe competition from inward‐bound competitors who are marketing oriented. This exploratory study contextualised the role of size charts in the marketing strategy of clothing firms.
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Injoo Kim, Brooke Brandewie and Myoung-Ok Kim
This paper aims to analyze the medical uniform wearers’ needs by surveying the current medical uniform sizing system and issues, and to evaluate fit satisfaction level of medical…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze the medical uniform wearers’ needs by surveying the current medical uniform sizing system and issues, and to evaluate fit satisfaction level of medical uniform wear by gender with scrub shirts, pants and coats.
Design/methodology/approach
Research was conducted using a quantitative questionnaire, and the respondents’ data results were analyzed using SPSS.
Findings
The distinguished difference from the medical uniform and daily wear was that the medical garments’ sizing system had only alphabet sizing options, and the wearing ease was larger than that of daily wear. Fabric preferences included the combination of “stretch fabrics + non-stretch fabrics”. All male respondents’ satisfaction levels were reported higher than those of female respondents. Respondents were the least satisfied with the pants, followed by the shirts, and the coat in that order. As the current medical uniform has been developed based on the male figure, there were significant needs overall for improving the fit of the female medical uniform.
Practical implications
The study quantified fit satisfaction levels to suggest specific improvements that should be made to the design and fit of the female pants along with the coat using new comfortable textiles to achieve better performance for all medical staff.
Originality/value
This research specifically evaluated fit satisfaction levels of the medical uniform provided by hospital institutions in Ohio, attempting to suggest improvements for future medical uniform and design development to increase overall fit satisfaction.
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The purpose of this paper is to present a model of researching clothing anthropometrics at the Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK (MMU model), to demonstrate steps in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a model of researching clothing anthropometrics at the Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK (MMU model), to demonstrate steps in devising size charts by analysing raw data, to relate key aspects of size charts to raw data, and to generate debate on such methods that impinge on the disseminated knowledge in this specialised area. Although sizing is important to consumers, retailers and manufacturers, this area has received scarce attention in the literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The MMU model presents step‐by‐step processes in generating size charts. Data from 150 women generated descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, percentiles); these were utilised to devise seven sizes of a body measurements table. Correlations were used to determine relationships, resulting in size charts with a defined size range and grading increments that are relatable to utilisation by consumers, retailers and manufacturers.
Findings
A step‐by ‐step model of analysing raw data is presented. A verifiable size chart, codes, grading increments and size limits relatable to data are generated. The usefulness of size charts is therefore contextualised.
Research limitations/implications
This paper discusses only one model of researching clothing anthropometrics and provides a related conceptual framework; this could be the basis for future research and debate in this area.
Practical implications
For competitiveness, efficient sizing is useful for marketing, especially in creating niches, targeting customers and facilitating consumer satisfaction.
Originality/value
The MMU model provides an initial conceptual framework at one institution, a benchmark for similar practice in academia and industry and subsequent debate in literature.
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