Ladies with Ladies

Since I'll never have the energy, design talent, or financial backing to successfully start this fashion line (nor do I posses the specific morals it requires to create affordable clothing by using slave-like off-shore labor - I can create patterns and look the other way, but if my name was on it, I couldn't do it & no one would be able to afford my clothes), I'm going to put the idea out there in h.

The idea is a clothing company for women whose body type is not the "traditional" body type that the standard fit block is based off of. The current fit block that 90% of companies use doesn't work for a staggering population of women. Women who are starved enough for ready to wear clothing that properly fits without the added expense of a tailor's bill.

"LADIES WITH LADIES" will cater to women with a range of waist sizes, bust sizes, and hip sizes, but specifically women with the hour glass frame not represented in current clothing stores. This is not a plus size women's store. Plus sizes are built around a body that has the same proportion of the basic block, but wider all over. LADIES WITH LADIES is a clothing line for women with more dramatic curves than the average fit model.

LADIES WITH LADIES would represent a woman who has a 48" bust, 28" waist, and 40" hips. That woman would not fit properly into a common ready-to-wear size, but also would not be appropriate for a plus-size ready-to-wear size. This is a woman who can either make clothes herself (unlikely in modern culture), can fork up the money for custom clothing (unlikely, given the modern economy) or could shop at FOR LADIES WITH LADIES, which would sell clothes similar to men's ready to wear sizing, by measurements and not the strangely accepted "XS-S-M-L-XL/0-2-4-6-8-10-12-14) sizing.

Some of the main arguments against women being offered measurement-specific sizing like this is that women do not like the reality check of their actual measurements, that clothing would be wasted if created for people whose measurements "did not exist," and that there's something inherently "unfeminine" about a woman seeking clothing using a men's sizing system. What these creepy size-fascists don't understand is that a dress made with specific measurements can be mass produced, it just takes slightly more research. That research takes work and money that companies aren't willing to front out of greed and laziness, stress on the laziness.

A little marketing and social networking could make this research mildly time-consuming and not for a loss of profit. Women are more than capable of measuring themselves and there are definitely enough women dissatisfied with the current sizing system that they'd be perfectly happy to anonymously enter those measurements on a website created to gather information for the purpose of catering to women with "uncommon" (or rather, unrepresented) sizes. A company could take this information and use it to organize size ratios, percentages, and geographical/marketing information so where certain body types with certain tastes/aesthetics are located. A woman in Montana may not have the same wardrobe requirements of a woman in Miami, but they may have almost the same measurements, and this should be factored in the research, as well.

Finally, affordability is a constant struggle that the American public fights for in terms of fashion. How does one create measurement specific-sizing while maintaining low cost? Off-shore manufacturing would be a must, but also, using on-the-spot tailoring at every retail location, free of charge for LADIES WITH LADIES customers would be key. This way, clothing can be started in another country, with seams only stitched together for fitting purposes, but entirely finished on location in the store where the customer has the fitting. The brunt of the labor could be sewn ahead of time, and the finishing of labor can be done here. It creates even further freedom in the sizing, adds a personal element to the shopping experience, and also feeds people's eagerness to see items made locally without the added costs of something being made entirely locally.

Every industry fears change, even when it is as desperately needed as the upheaval of the current sizing method.  Waiting for a current industry leader to create this change would be a hopeless endeavor. It takes someone entrepreneurial to open up shop and make change.