"Not so thin women do not have to contend with ill-fitting and uncomfortable clothes anymore. Brands these days are extending their size ranges to cater to more diverse body shapes. Some of them are adopting newer technologies to create made-to-measure clothes that fit their customers like second skin."

Not so thin women do not have to contend with ill-fitting and uncomfortable clothes anymore. Brands these days are extending their size ranges to cater to more diverse body shapes. Some of them are adopting newer technologies to create made-to-measure clothes that fit their customers like second skin.

A 3D body model to create perfectly fitting garments

Newer fashion e-commerce brands like RedThread and Measure & Made are ensuring absolute comfort for women buying from their online store. RedThread founder and CEO Meghan Litchfield interviewed almost 100 women of all shapes and sizes over a period of 18 months about their most preferred styles and the fit issues they were facing.

The brand has also collaborated with technology partner Cala to scan each woman’s body. For this, the customer first uploads his selfies through a data-encrypted text-link sent by the brand. Using these selfies, RedThread and Cala auto-generate a 3D body model and come up with perfect-fitting garments — mainly staples like wide-leg pants and T-shirts — for that shopper. This initiative has garnered a positive response from its customers as over the eight months in business, the brand has a return rate of less than 4 per cent and plans to expand its product range in the coming months.

Size matters

Measure & Made, launched in January this year, uses the Fitlogic technology that not only takes into account the body shape of its customers but also their sizes. The company categories women into three shapes: straight, hourglass and extremely curvy. Using these parameters it has created a quiz for shoppers that inputs their height, typical dress pant size and body shape, among other stats, to find out what their Fitlogic size is. Using this technology, the brand has so far sold over 250,000 pairs of pants and jeans since its launch and has a return rate of less than the 50 per cent of national e-commerce average.

Dealing with excess inventory

While brands like RedThread and Measure & Made are successfully implementing these technologies to create customised clothes for women, the trend is not catching on with bigger brands and retailers as the concept is not easy to achieve. However, made-to-measure brands can achieve this as they can have around 100 factories manufacturing clothes for them. Around 70 per cent of RedThread’s garments are pre-made. The company just tailors these garments by hand in its South San Franciso factory within a week of receiving the customers’ measurements. This also helps the company to curtail the amount of waste it generates.