One of fashion’s biggest problems is also its most fundamental: fit. With no standardized sizing across the fashion industry, ill-fitting clothes and subsequent returns are damaging consumer trust, brands’ balance sheets and the planet. Vogue Business’s recent consumer sizing survey showed just how big the problem is getting, at the same time that brands are grappling with a broader luxury slowdown. Findings show that poor fit (43%) and inconsistent sizing (36%) are among consumers’ top deterrents to purchasing garments from a brand or retailer, and ill fit is the leading cause of returns, at 38%.
Few people have spent as much time thinking about fashion’s fit problem as Phoebe Gormley, who founded the first women’s tailor on London’s Savile Row when she was 20 years old. “I spent 10 years listening to women complain about sizing. No matter the age, no matter the price…
