Made-in-Australia Clothes Are Ill-Fitting, Says American Sizing Expert

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While Australian consumer may not throw a fit when their clothes does not fit like what that Indian actress did, buyers deserve better treatment, said Ed Gribbin, president of Alvanon, a clothing size and fit consultancy.

He finds Australia's sizing practices to be outdated, causing Aussie consumers to buy and wear clothes that do not fit them properly.

That is because the Australian clothing industry is so set in its ways, resulting in clothing brands reluctant to adopt more modern fit grading practices already accepted in other countries.

Mr Gribbin pointed to the old-fashioned mindset on grading between sizes and the lack of willingness to change that way of thinking. He explained that grading between sizes must be proportional to the body size so that the difference between sizes 6 and 8 should not be the same as the difference between sizes 18 and 20.

However, he observed that in Australia the difference is the same, making the very small or very large shipper the biggest loser.

Mr Gribbin said, quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald, "It might not affect the average person who is a size 10 or 12 too much, but it significantly limits the number of large people and the number of smaller people who are going to find a good fit when they go shopping."

Mr Gribbin is in Melbourne to discuss clothing fit at the Holmesglen College on Tuesday night. Among the reasons he will give the talk is in response to calls from people who want to launch a clothing retail Web site.

His company, Alvanon, owns the largest global database of body measurements and is the largest mannequin maker in the world.

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He disclosed that most of the time, the reason why shoppers return clothes is that it does not fit properly. Mr Gribbin said online shopping could lead to universal sizing in clothing which could help reduce confusion when consumers buy clothes from overseas Web sites.