Today, MABR student Nicole Chan asks the fashion industry to rethink what they’re doing.
COVID is a great opportunity for the fashion industry to rebuild itself from the root up. Designers were rushing out designs with slight differences that would be appealing to buyers, and customers were trained to purchase low-quality garments with a perceived discounted price.[1] When the fashion industry is collapsing from tanking demand, this is also the perfect time to slow down fashion.
Shopping for clothes is difficult. The standardized clothing sizing systems by the Department of Agriculture in the 1940s was flawed as it primarily collected data from a small segment of the US population. Since mass-produced clothing didn’t represent the public’s body shape, brands started to size clothes based on their own preference.[2] Poor clothing construction and ill-fitting sizes undermine the shopping experience and add to the environmental burden as some retail stores often throw unsold or returned goods to the dumpster.[3] Brands not only need to make improvements on the quality of the products but also on how to help customers to find the perfect size, especially after trying on clothing in the store became a thing of the past. An at-home body measuring system might be what brands need.
Someone was already working on this. Zozosuit is an at-home tailor-made service. Users can use their smartphone camera to capture their 3D body measurement by wearing a special bodysuit. Zozo recently announced the launch of the Zozosuit 2, which can capture user body measurement more precisely than the flawed first generation.[4] Such technology can benefit both the users and brands. Users can make better decisions on sizes and style with their own 3D measurements as a reference. When the users are satisfied with their purchases, this positive user experience encourages them to repeat purchases. On the other hand, brands can collect real data, under the user’s consent, to build a new profile of American body type and to redefine a realistic and inclusive clothing sizing system that is universal across fashion brands.
With a realistic and universal sizing system, brands can focus on producing quality pieces that are timeless, durable, and well-fitted to different body shapes. At the end of the day, clothes shouldn’t be perishables that end up in the landfill of another country.
[1] Aleksander, I. (2020, August 6). Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/06/magazine/fashion-sweatpants.html (Links to an external site.)
[2]Stampler, L. (2014, October 23). Women’s Clothing Sizes: When We Started Measuring Them.
https://time.com/3532014/women-clothing-sizes-history/ (Links to an external site.)
[3] Moran, P. (2019, December 13). ‘It’s pretty staggering’: Returned online purchases often sent to landfill, journalist’s research reveals | CBC Radio.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-dec-12-2019-1.5393783/it-s-pretty-staggering-returned-online-purchases-often-sent-to-landfill-journalist-s-research-reveals-1.5393806 (Links to an external site.)
[4] ZOZO launches ZOZOSUIT 2, a 3D body measurement suit, and opens its measurement technologies, ZOZOSUIT 2 and the ZOZOMAT for business partnership. ZOZO, Inc. (2020, October 29).
https://corp.zozo.com/en/news/20201029-6375/