Custom-Mania

Sometime in the '20's, about the time of the rise of the flapper and changing social mores for women, clothing underwent a transformation in America.

Previously, almost all clothing was made in the home, from either homespun fabrics or storebought fabric. The patterns were sometimes standardized, such as those from Goody's Lady's Book, a popular magazine of the 19th century, but were always customized by the seamstress, taking into account every single measurement of her family.

The rise of industrialization toward the turn of the century also brought the innovative use of the factory model to produce clothing. Mens and womens clothing became more standardized, sold in set sizes in order to be mass-marketed.

However, as this change occurred, something interesting happened. Men's clothing was standardized in such a way to allow for individual differences in body shape. This is still standard in much of men's clothing today. Shirts are sold by collar and sleeve size. Pants by wait and inseam, etc.

But women's clothing, on the other hand, took a complex set of measurements and came up with a whole-body system of sizing (in today's incarnation the 4, 6, 8, etc. of women's clothing). Rather than tailor women's clothing in standardized ways to meet the various shapes women come in, clothing was tailored in the ways society thought women should look, thus putting the pressure on the women to tailor their bodies, in turn, to fit the clothes.

This still happens today, with disastrous results in the case of eating disorders in young women. Also rampant is "size inflation" where retailers cut sizes more generously in order to appease customers' egos (for example an 8 at The Gap is considerably more roomy than an 8 at Armani--trust me) Similarly, certain designers think only carrying clothes in teensy-tiny sizes increases their cache among the fahsionable (and malnourished). In Brazil, stores regularly carry extremely small sizes, causing many young girls to resort to eating disorders (they have the highest rate anywhere), so mothers campaigned to force stores to carry larger sizes.

However, I am pleased to report, customization is back on the rise in a big way. No longer content to conform their tall, short, skinny, chubby, and differently shaped bodies into a breathtakingly limited sizing system, women (and men) are demanding customized gear. No longer the bastion of the truly wealthy and priveledged, major retailers are getting in on the action. This is really cool and I hope to partake in some really well-fitting jeans soon:)

Target: http://target.com/custom-order/custom.jhtml

Land's End: http://www.landsend.com/cd/index/fp/0,,49299,00.html?cm_re=1*right*all&sid=4286130331813181890

Levi's: http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/03/05/levis/

Nike: http://nikeid.nike.com/nikeid/index.jhtml?promoID=blog_contest#home

And purses, too: http://www.1154lill.com/aboutus/inthenews.asp

By the way, it is also a hoot to check out your Virtual Model online--designed to help shoppers visualize their clothing that they're purchasing online--they already have a lot of online partners like iVillage and Marie Claire, Land's End, and more.

http://www.myvirtualmodel.com/mvmhome/jsp/home.jsp?

but the models are kinda creepy and bubbly. . .weirdness.