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Above sketch shows various
women's
fashions from the early to
middle 1800's.
Everylady's Journal, May
1915
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Introduction
In pre-industrial
America, most clothing was crafted at home or
by professional tailors or dressmakers from
individual measurements taken of each
customer. In the early Twentieth Century, the
growing urban middle class began to purchase
the affordable and fashionable ready-to-wear
merchandise which new technology and
industrialized production methods had created
the means to manufacture.
At the request of the Mail
Order Association of America (MOAA),
between 1949-1952 the National Bureau of
Standards (NBS, now NIST) conducted a
comprehensive study of women's body
measurements to develop a sizing standard for
women's ready-to-wear clothing. Mansfield Lonie of the
NBS Commodity Standards Division was
appointed Acting-Secretary of the
Sub-Committee on Body Measurements for
Wearing Apparel Sizes and Measurements of the
MOAA Committee on Standards and Terminology.
Churchill
Eisenhart and Lola Deming, mathematicians
in the NBS Statistical Engineering
Laboratory, lent their expertise to the
project.
The project was an unusual one for Bureau
staff who were accustomed to analyzing
measurements in the hard physical sciences
and engineering. Suddenly NBS statistical
engineers found themselves thinking in terms
of "abdominal extension" and "bust point to
bust point" measurements. NBS personnel
attended meetings with representatives of
organizations such as the Underwear Institute
and the Corset and Brassiere Association of
America. At these meetings, delicate matters
were breached such as, to quote from minutes
of an October 21, 1949 meeting, "the subject
of 'chubby' sizes…" Other concerns
were wrestled with, such as whether to use a
one-hip, three-bust or a one-bust, three-hip
system.
The resulting standard is still used by
manufacturers to make clothing that fits a
majority of today's diverse female
population. Additionally, more studies are
being done to update information and to
modernize the standard.
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