Steps to Production Series - Size Charts

Launching a brand can be overwhelming, where do I start? What steps do I take? In this blog series, Anna breaks it down in a simple step by step process to get your brand off the ground and into the hands of your consumers!

My favorite question when it comes to size charts is, “Where can I find the standardized size chart?” The quick answer is, it doesn’t exist. This is why everytime you shop, you have to try on clothes because each fit, by each designer, is different. With some many different size charts out there it can be difficult to decide what yours should be. But, it doesn’t have to be! I’m going to share with you the steps I go through with my clients in order to decide what their size chart should be and move forward into prototyping confidently. 

Decide your customer 

I have some exercises I run my clients through in order to identify their customers. Basically, you want to ask yourself a series of questions to help determine your customer like “where do they live?” or “what age are they?” Sometimes it even helps to write a journal entry AS your customer, what they do in a day, what they are interested in, things like that. From the description you come up with you should be able to figure out what clothing brands they are wearing. This then starts your competitive analysis (more on both of these brand development steps later!). Once you have compiled a list of brands that you know your customer wears it’s time for the next step (it’s a fun one!)

Go Shopping! 

You will want to get familiar with the brands that your customer is familiar with, most of the time they will follow a similar size chart. If you can afford to, it helps the pattern maker to have examples of like garments in the fit you like. One of the many perks of being a fashion designer, being able to take a tax write off for buying clothes! Even though it won;t be the exact garment you are creating, if it’s similar (a fitted dress, a pair of slacks) the pattern maker can use this as a block to create your styles. 

Research size charts 

Based on the brands you feel your customer is familiar with, these size charts normally can be pulled from their websites. You know, when you go to buy a top and there’s a tab to check the measurements? That’s what you want. You can pull multiple charts, take an average of all or follow another one directly. I would not suggest making up your own size charts, or using letters or symbols other than what your customer is used to. Otherwise, you will be spending a lot of time educating your customer on what size is right for them and that can be frustrating unless it is part of your brand story. 

Pick the one that fits your brand the best 

Now that you have researched and pulled the charts from your competitors lines, you are ready to decide what your size chart will look like. It’s important to be sure to have the right fit for your customer, is she busty? Large or small hips? Is it gender neutral? All of these details should be reflected in your size chart. 

There you have it! As always, these steps are in order, it is essential that you develop your size chart FOR your pattern maker to follow and not the other way around. Your fit defines your brand, and that should be defined by you!