Archive for the ‘Clothing Sizes’ Category

Courtesy of InCharacter Costumes

It’s the time of year to be planning Halloween parties and costumes. If you have plans to order your kid’s costumes online, here are some resources to help you narrow down your search and find the correct size.

Measuring your Child for Halloween Costumes

Children’s Halloween costume sizes typically correspond to children’s clothing sizes. As sizes do vary, it is best to refer to a company’s own size chart to determine which size will fit your child the best.

Most costume company size charts suggest height and weight guidelines for children’s sizes; some also use waist, but very few use chest. Refer to my earlier post on taking measurements for tips on how to take your child’s body measurements.

What Companies Make Kids’ Costumes?

The following is a list of well-known costume-making companies. Not all companies sell directly to the public, but a handful offer size charts – available links are included below – to help you find the best fit for your child before you start shopping.

• Disguise
• Dress up America
• Fun World Costumes
• AMC Costumes
• California Costumes
• Charades Costume
• InCharacter Costumes
• JAC Costumes
• Rubies Costumes

Where to Shop for Kids’ Halloween Costumes

The following list is by no means comprehensive, but gives you a starting place for shopping for costumes online.

• One of a Kind Kid.com is not specifically a costume store, but it has a good selection, and they offer company-specific size charts for all of the companies whose costumes they carry.
• When available from the manufacturer, Make Believe offers measurement guidelines on individual product pages to assist you in finding the correct size.
• Buy Costumes offers generic size charts on their product pages – if possible, refer to the costume manufacturer for size details.
• Halloween Express
• Just Kid Costumes

For years, the terms “Husky” and “Plus” have been the standard in childrens’ clothing sizes intended for kids who are larger than average. These terms are pretty much used by every clothing designer that offers extended sizes – though some brands, like RealKidz, are now offering an intermediate “above average” size.

Today, I ran across a recent editorial in the HeraldNet out of Washington State in which the writer admonished JCPenney for continuing to use the term “husky”, stating that it was outdated and insulting. She proposed using S, M, L, and XL. Unfortunately, those sizes are already in use and have their own meaning.

The Gap, for example, offers both regular size S, M, L, XL, and even XXL as well as husky size M, L, XL, and XXL for boys tops. The fits differ. If Gap were to remove Husky sizing, they’d be left with either changing the fit of their existing regular sizes (to acommodate a wider range of measurements perhaps) or increasing the range of regular sizes to include XXXL, etc. The alternative would be to leave the larger than average sizes in place, but change the term used to describe them.

The questions is, what contemporary term would accurately and sympathetically replace the word “husky” while still conveying that the clothing sizes are larger? This is not a question that I have an answer to, so I’d appreciate your insights.

Why your average kids clothes don’t fit the way they should

According to Susan Ashdown, a professor in the Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design at Cornell and a leading researcher on improving apparel fit, there’s no such thing. In a recent piece by Virginia Postrel, Ashdown is quoted as saying:

“The average takes you to nobody.”

What she means is that every body comes in different shapes, lengths, widths, etc. and there is no average that covers them all. In other words, “Stuff varies.” And it typically varies in a bell curve distribution, like this example showing women’s weights, with the bulk of kids being somewhere around the middle of the curve, and fewer kids in widely varying heights and weights at the ends of the curve.

If there really is no average child, then why do clothing designers and manufacturers use averages to make clothing for them? For a few reasons, it turns out:

• It is impossible to accommodate every child of a given age/gender/measurement range within a single size.  So, children’s clothing manufacturers tend to design with a specific target customer in mind.   A given brand’s sizes, then will fit kids whose average measurements are consistent with those of their typical customers for those sizes.  Result:  The same size, 3T or 6x, for example, will vary from brand to brand, since they have different customer bases.
• It is expensive to create many sizes.  Given all of the variations in children’s body shapes and measurements, it would be costly – in terms of design, production, fabric, overstocks and shelf space – to create a range of sizes to accommodate all of them.  Result: A brand will focus on the range of sizes that best suits their resources and their average customer.  Esther of the blog Design Loft offers her children’s clothing design expertise on this topic in her post Too Many Sizes!
• A size can only cover so much.  Looking at the curve again, you’ll see that most children’s measurements vary within a few pounds of the “average.”  A manufacturer might design a single size that will fit kids in this range – even if not perfectly.  Result: Clothing manufacturers will create sizes that will fit the “majority” (or average) of kids of a particular measurement range.
• Extended sizes are a challenge. Once you get to the ends of the bell curve, the measurements vary so widely that it becomes impossible to create an average that will fit all smaller or larger than average children.  Regardless, some brands have tried to use average measurements at three different levels – slim (the average of smaller than average kids only), regular (the average of the average), and plus/husky (the average of larger than average kids only).  Result: Some slim sizes will be smaller than others, and some plus/husky sizes larger than other depending on where a brand’s average customers fall along the measurement spectrum.
• Children’s clothing size standards have only recently been updated.  Prior to last year, children’s size standards were based on 1930’s and 1970’s data.  The new standards do represent the average measurements of children today, but  I don’t believe they have been widely adopted by children’s clothing manufacturers yet.  Result: Most clothing sizes will likely remain brand specific so that a brand can meet their target customers’ clothing size needs.

Because average can mean different things when it comes to kids clothing sizes, you might want to look for brands whose sizes fit your child’s measurements particularly well.  Other than that, trying clothing on your child before you buy it, referring to a brand’s size chart (rather than relying only on the size on the label), or adjusting clothing items to fit are probably the best advice for finding clothes that fit your child well.

Sources:

• Virginia Postrel, The Real Reason That Ann Taylor Hates Plus Sizes. Double X, Tuesday, June 9, 2009.
• Virginia Postrel, Rightsize Me: Why sending a man to the moon is easier than finding jeans that fit. Atlantic, December 2007.

This post was updated on 1.23.10

True to what size is really the question?

This past weekend, I randomly selected a number of brands to review. For each of them, I checked out their most recent collection and their size guidelines. What most interested me is that many of the smaller brands do not offer size charts on their websites. I contacted a handful of them to see if they could share a little more information and was told, more often than not, that their sizes run “true to size.”

So, what does it mean when they say kid’s clothes run “true to size?”

As a parent, I would hope that if something is true to size, it means that I should be able to buy the size that matches by child’s age. So, if my kid is 3 years old, I should be able to buy size 3 or 3T, right? Of course, this assumes that I know if my kid is average for their age in terms of height and weight.

This begs a second major question, though:

What are the measurements of the average child?

You might say that the CDC growth charts are the best place to find out average height and weight by age – and the brands will probably tell you that’s what they mean. But, in fact, manufacturers use a variety of sources to define the average range of measurements that each size is designed to fit. Even those that say their sizes run true-to-size may use different information. And, of course, the size of the “typical” or average child has changed over time, but not all brands have kept up.

The short answer to the above question, then, is that depending on what source of child measurement data a manufacturer uses and when they accessed that data, “typical” measurements vary.

Where do measurements used for kid’s clothing sizes come from?

Children’s clothing designers use different approaches to develop their size charts and design standards.

1. Children’s Growth Data: A brand might look at CDC children’s growth chart data and use the 50^th percentile for height and weight to determine the average. The data were updated in 2000, but not all brands have updated their pattern grading to reflect the new data. So, true-to-size could be for a pre-2000 or a post-2000 child. As well, CDC data are not always clear about the other body measurements – it’s harder to find 50^th percentile for arm or leg length, for example.

2. Kids Clothing Size Standards: A brand might turn to the standards. Organizations such as ASTM periodically create standards for clothing measurements by age, gender, and body type. The ASTM has recently updated their standards for small children and regular, slim, and plus sized girls (boys’ standards to be released soon). These new standards will reflect a new “typical”, but, again, many brands have not had a chance to update sizing to reflect the new definitions.

3. Size Studies: Larger brands may seek the assistance of private companies that specialize in size studies that use biometric, 3-dimensional, body scanning technology. They may also use the results of these studies to design for a specific population or sub-population.

4. Reverse Engineering: It is also possible that a brand bases their size guidelines on the measurements used by a popular brand or brands, assuming that that’s what customers look for.

5. Manufacturer Recommendation: Finally, a brand may leave the size grading up to the facility that manufacturers their clothing for them. The manufacturer may use any of the above data, and state that it is “true to size.”

These approaches are common in the US. Designers in other countries have similar strategies, but child growth data, regional sizing standards and biometric studies will be more reflective of their local population.

Whatever the case, it’s almost impossible to know whether a “true to size” size will actually fit your child unless you know the size’s measurements for key body dimensions or you take your child to try the brand on at a local store.

I’d love your input please.

What has your experience been with different brands? What brands do you find run true to size – and if they do, does your child have typical measurements? Any designers out there that want to weigh in on the subject: what data do you use?

The Malaysian Sizing Survey, or MYSIZE, is a national sizing survey to take body surface measurements of Malaysians. The Malaysia survey is modeled after other size studies around the world, including SizeUK, SizeUSA and the on-going SizeThailand, and will allow comparison of data across gender, ethnicity, geographical location, socio-economic income, and age (children, teenagers, adults and senior citizens).

Starting in July of this year, 10,000 to 15,000 children, teens, and adults across Malaysia will be recruited to have their body surface measurements scanned with the X-16 3D Body Scanner. While this sounds pretty daunting, the goal is actually to collect enough measurement data to be able to propose a Malaysian national size designation and standard for clothing, as well as other industries that rely on size information when designing products.

The scanner is significant because it makes measurement so quick and easy. It can take from 140 to 200 measurements per person being scanned, in the duration of only one to two minutes with an accuracy of 99.5%. Basically, it minimizes errors, and is incredibly quick and accurate when compared to manual measurements. I may sound overly-excited about this, but, personally, I love the idea of this technology being able to quickly scan and create a 3D image of a person.

The study carried out in the USA in 2003 found that:

“… the US population has grown taller and heavier, but we are growing heavier faster than we are taller. If you look at the grade rules for most manufacturers today, they do not reflect what we are finding in our size survey.”

This seems pretty much on track with results from other studies of children’s growth and development trends and the emergence of extended sizes and specialized brands that focus on husky and plus sized children. It will be interesting to see how children’s measurements from all of the sizing studies compare across countries and how it impacts grading standards – if at all. Yes, there is demand for adjusted sizing, but it’s quite a process for a brand to change their grading and size standards to meet the demand.

References

• Malaysia Sizing Survey
• The US National Size Survey