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The clothes industry is about to incur some common sense. This
pertains to their clothes sizes which most women have trouble
ascertaining which size is theirs. The reason is because even
if the salesperson or the individual herself chooses the size that
should fit, it does not. It happens most of the time, not some
of the time. So, one country in Europe is now systematically
working out a new way of figuring out sizes based on anthropometric
and morphological studies. The first refers to numbers of
height and weight, and the second to shape.
Spain, through its Ministry of Health, has made
the first move and will be the pioneer. Last year, during
Spain´s Fashion Week in Madrid, it banned ultra thin models from
participating on the ground that they were an “incitement” to
anorexia and, more importantly, did not represent the mass of women
who would buy the clothes they were wearing. It made
headlines, caused a polemical discussion but caught the attention of
the Spanish clothes industry. Surveys conducted by the
Ministry of Health showed that 41 percent of women in Spain said
they had problems always or often to find the right sizes. Yet
data showed that 86.1 percent of Spain’s women were in a healthy
height/weight correlation (Body Mass Index). While 24.9
percent were overweight, there were five percent who were slightly
underweight, 56.2 percent were within the norm. But the clothes
industry of most countries seems to target the slightly underweight
leaving the rest to feel they are overweight, abnormal and somewhat
disfigured after fitting clothes that do not meet their sizes.
With these market conditions in mind, the
Ministry of Health has embarked on a program to rationalize sizes.
Following The World Health Organization index that women within the
17 to 29.9 percent BMI while thinner than most of the female
population, do not yet require medical intervention, Spain has
imposed a minimum BMI of 18 for models who will participate in the
Spanish Fashion Week currently being staged. The result was
three British models under the 18 BMI were banned from the show and
two Spanish models refused to participate because they refused to be
weighed and have their BMI determined.
The ministry’s program of size rationalization
has made a study of 10,415 women from 12 to 70 years of age.
From this study it has established for the first time, three
morphological types of feminine bodies—cylindrical, curvaceous and
bell-shaped. Cylinder is the shape of young girls’ bodies from
infancy to adolescence where the perimeters of chest, waist and hips
are the same. The curvaceous is the adult woman whose chest
and hips are wider than her waist. The bell shape (“campana”)
refers to women of a certain older age whose chest and waist are
equal and the hips wider. From these data the Ministry of
Health with the cooperation of the Spanish clothes industry will
embark on new sizes that will be much more compatible with the real
sizes of real women out there. It is envisioned that instead
of one size as in Medium or 42, there will be four figures as in
1234, referring to height, chest, waist and hips.
Eventually, Spain will bring this program of
size rationalization to the European Union for future implementation
in all of Europe. Then most women will no longer complain that the
sizes they can fit into are difficult to find or ephemeral.
Common sense and reality will at last come into the fashion
industry.
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