Designing Apparel for Consumers
The Impact of Body Shape and Size
Woodhead Publishing Series in Textiles Series

Given its importance for consumer satisfaction and thus brand success, apparel fit is a major challenge for retailers and brands across the industry. Consequently there have been major developments in sizing research and how it can be used in apparel design. This book reviews how these developments are affecting clothing design for different groups of consumers.

Part one identifies various aspects of body shape, size, volume and the psychological aspects of designing apparel. This section covers topics such as body shape and its influence on apparel size and consumer choices, sizing systems, body shape and weight distribution (with a discussion of the Body Volume Index (BVI) versus the Body Mass Index (BMI)), and the psychological and sociological factors influencing consumers? choice of apparel. Part two outlines the challenges in understanding the sizing and shape requirements and choices of particular customer groups. This section discusses apparel designed for infants and children, older consumers, overweight and obese consumers, plus size Black and Latino women, apparel design for Asian and Caucasian ethnic groups, sizing requirements for male apparel, maternity apparel, intimate apparel for varying body shapes, and the challenges of designing headwear to fit the size and shape of Western and Asian populations.

Designing apparel for consumers provides an invaluable reference for apparel designers, manufacturers, and R&D managers in the textile industry, as well as postgraduate students and academic researchers in textiles.

Part 1 Identifying shape, size, body volume and psychological aspects of designing apparel: Body shape and its influence on apparel size and consumer choices; Creation of ready-made clothing: The development and future of sizing systems; National sizing surveys: Techniques, data analysis and apparel product development; Body shape and weight distribution: The Body Volume Index (BVI) versus the Body Mass Index (BMI); Psychological and sociological factors influencing consumers’ choice of apparel. Part 2 Understanding sizing and shapes requirements and choices of particular customer groups: Infants and children: understanding sizing, body shapes and apparel requirements for infants and children; Older consumers: Understanding sizing, body shapes and requirements of apparel for this niche; Overweight and obese consumers: Shape and sizing to design apparel that fits this specific market; Asian and Caucasian: Designing apparel for these two different ethnic groups; Males: Understanding sizing requirements for male apparel; Male and female consumers: segmenting consumers in the apparel market by body shape and other factors; Pregnant women: Understanding pregnant women’s shape, sizing and apparel style preferences; Plus size Black and Latino women: The implications of body shape and size for apparel design; Intimate apparel: Designing intimate apparel to fit different body shapes; Headwear: Designing headwear to fit the size and shape of Western and Asian populations.

Marie-Eve Faust is an Assistant Professor and Program Director of Fashion Merchandising at Philadelphia University, USA.
Serge Carrier is a Professor at the Graduate School of Montreal Fashion, at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Canada.