Steady Sizing

What size do you wear? When I look at clothing in my clients' closets during a Wardrobe Wisdom consultation, I always see a range. One women will have size 2, 4, 6, and 8 pants, and they all fit! The lack of standard sizing can be incredibly frustrating and can make shopping a tiring task.

There seems to be reason for hope, however. I just read a very interesting article on this topic in the New York Times. The graph was especially enlightening, showing how even the same designer sizes clothes differently for his differently priced lines. Tanya Shaw is an entrepreneur and the chief executive of MyBestFit. In short, a customer using her system receives a full, 20-second body scan, which measures and then figures out "things like thigh circumference." Sign me up, right?

Seriously, I think Ms. Shaw is onto something. Once a woman completes the scan, she learns how her measurements correspond to the sizes at individual stores. For example, she may learn she wears a size 2 at Old Navy and a size 4 at Talbots.

Unfortunately, MyBestFit has not made its way to the West Coast yet. But other entrepreneurs are devising methods for making labels more consistent and easy to read. Marie-Eve Faust, program director of fashion merchandising at Philadelphia University states, "The next step is to have the major players sit together, manufacturers, retailers, brands, and say, 'This type of label should be appropriate for all of us. Let's standardize.'" I second the motion!