Clothing sizes (in Australia)

This started off being a brief account of clothes shopping for me right now, but evolved, as I googled and fossicked through the internet, into a longer piece on clothing sizes in Australia. Is it out of kilter with a blog with a focus on a Type 2 diabetes journey? No, because with weight loss - a significant recommendation for those with the disease - you have to engage with clothing sizes, and moving through them as your weight changes. So it's even trickier than when you're at a stable weight.

A little while ago, I remember reading that the Australian authorities were going to come up with new definitions of clothing sizes, given that the current ones were established maybe fifty years ago, and with changing shapes and bodies, and a more ethnically diverse population, it was worth revisiting and clarifying this. According to this article, the last comprehensive survey in Australia was done by Berlei in 1926.

Seems as though the research still hasn't taken place. There's an article here from Standards Australia from 2003 that recommends research - but so far I haven't been able to find that the research has been done (there is an abstract of a Master's thesis here, dating from 1999). The current Standards Australia document on women's clothing sizes is here, but costs from nearly $60AU to buy.

Part of the problem seems to be that any revision of sizing needs to include data from a valid anthropometric survey - which in the 1950s would have involved tape measures and pins, and today involves 3D computer body scanning software capable of mapping human body dimensions with considerably more precision. A 2004 National Sizing Forum discussed this (article here) but indicated that compliance by garment manufacturers would still be voluntary.

Senator Kate Lundy put out a press release in 2005 about the issue of clothing sizes in Australia (her call for change appears to be unanswered) and the Sydney Morning Herald discussed the same issue that year. Both seem influenced by this 2005 press release from Andre Haermeyer, Victoria's Minister for Manufacturing and Export, covered by The Age here.

Standards Australia has a committee dealing with clothing sizes - CS-092 Sizing Systems for clothing. The (illuminating) minutes of the 2003 National Sizing Forum are here and a brief account here.

The Australian Defence Forces have a great interest in anthropometric surveys, not only for uniform but for crew accommodation. There was a survey (ADAPT) in which they were involved - brief information here. The Centre for Applied Anthropometry at the University of South Australia indicates that it plans to build a database of measurements, not only for clothing but for a number of applications, such as furniture and vehicle manufacture etc. A thesis abstract from the Centre indicates that there is a disparity between the standards and current actual sizes.

As a mere consumer, my question is: how many times does this have to be stated before something is done to drive constructive change?

Sharp Dummies have a table on their website indicating the results of a survey of Australian women, but it just gives basic data such as average age, height, weight, BMI - although it does compare the average in 1926 (Berlei survey) with the data it found. The site also has a list of published papers on the sizing issue. The most recent one, from March 2007, still only talks about the need for a comprehensive survey - it appears as though this still hasn't happened.

In 2006 The Age newspaper published an article on the discrepancies in clothing sizes that highlighted some of the reasons - such as customer flattery (women won't buy size 12 at this shop if they fit into size 10 at that one). Maybe some consumers like it, but those on this Vogue Australia forum certainly don't.

The establishment of a consortium called SCALE: Sizing Consortium of Australia Landmark Evaluation is a step towards change - but it needs funding, which doesn't seem to be forthcoming from either industry or government. The Courier Mail has an informative June 2007 article on clothing sizes here, Ninemsn has a brief one from 2006 here, and Textiles NZ mentions participation in SCALE here. In 2006 The China Daily canvassed the issue too, and the problem of 'vanity sizing' (this link is to Google's cached copy as my security software thinks the main site could have security issues).

The funding would apparently need to be around $AU 5 million. Given the trade and manufacturing implications, and the benefit to all Australian consumers, isn't that fairly small beer? APEC in Sydney this month cost $AU300 million.

Shopping for clothes, I wonder if size labels mean much at all. OK, I understand that there may be small variations between manufacturers, but do you really have to always carry three sizes of each item into the change room to find which one fits?

(If you're not in Australia, there's a chart here or a converter here to translate sizes I mention for other countries' systems). To give one indication, US size 0 is AU size 4.

For instance: a shop that has (both its own house labels) 'ordinary' size clothes from 8-18 and 'plus' size clothes from 18-26. Ah, but unless you ask the shop assistant, you don't learn that the plus size 18 is cut more generously than the ordinary 18, so 18 means two different sizes, depending on whether it's plus or ordinary. So while you might fit a plus 18, an ordinary 18 might still be a bit tighter.

So customer flattery/vanity sizing is part of it -oooo, I'm in 18 (plus), not 20 - but if ordinary went up to 20, that's probably the equivalent.

As my size is changing, it is really difficult to determine what size to try on. The clothes I have are undergoing a process of discarding - try it on, see if it's still reasonable or now ridiculous and therefore if it stays for a little while longer or goes into the charity bag - and so I need to do some replacing to ensure that I have enough to wear to work etc. So I'm spending more time than I'm accustomed to in clothes shops, and a lot more time in changing rooms guessing what might fit. Currently I'm wearing clothes sized from 16-24 - although the 24s won't be staying much longer, and I'm sure I don't yet fit into a lot of size 16 clothes.

If you have further useful links on the topic of clothing sizes and clothing size research in Australia, please leave a comment.