Tall women's satisfaction with the fit and style of tall women's clothing

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to assess tall women's satisfaction with the fit and style of apparel for tall women. Design/methodology/approach -A total of 75 US women, who were at least 5 feet 8 inches and between 18 and 54 years old, were asked to rate their level of satisfaction with misses-size and tall-size apparel, in general, and with seven garment categories (jackets/blazers/coats, button-up blouses, pullover tops/sweaters, skirts, jeans, pants, lingerie). Findings -T-tests revealed that participants were more satisfied with the fit of tall-size apparel than with the fit of misses-size apparel, but were more satisfied with the style of misses-size than with the style of tall-size apparel. In addition, participants most frequently used the misses-size designation to purchase clothing and rated style as more important than fit. Despite reported dissatisfaction with the fit of misses-size apparel, participants appeared willing to sacrifice fit to have the desired styles.Research limitations/implications -The study was limited to US women in Southwestern Virginia. Thus preferences affected by regional product offerings may be reflected in the responses. Practical implications -The paper provides discussion on implications of mass customization in resolving the conflict tall women report between the desire for properly fitting apparel and the desire for current style trends. Originality/value -No existing empirical research has examined tall women's satisfaction with products specifically designed for their special anthropometric and style preference needs. This research serves as the foundation for extending research for the market segment from an applied and basic research approach.

An exploratory study of fit and size issues with mass customized men's jackets using 3D body scan and virtual try-on technology

“…This study demonstrated that larger-size male consumers have more fit issues and are in need of better fitting jackets, and may be potential consumer group for mass customization, which coincides with a previous study. 37 Jones and Giddings 51 suggest mass customization as a solution for such consumers. The current study was limited in testing the production of mass customized jackets for plus-size men; the majority of the participants were in the normal and overweight BMI ranges, and only one participant was in the obese BMI range with large chest and waist circumferences.…”

Comparison between Clothing Sizing Systems of Korean and Foreign SPA Brands for Clothing Size Satisfaction of Tall Women in their Twenties

“…Most clothing products are manufactured based on average height and weight of consumers, so those who do not have an average size experience dissatisfaction with clothing size (Shim & Kotsiopulos, 1990). Many studies on clothing size dissatisfaction of consumers who are not of average size focused on plus-size women (Chowdhary & Beale, 1988;Kim, 2006;Lee, 2011c;Shim & Kotsiopulos, 1990), and not many dealt with tall women (Jones & Giddings, 2010;Kersch, 1984;Lee, 1997a). Lee (1997b) said that tall women had the highest dissatisfaction about clothing size, and Jones and Giddings (2010) said tall women were dissatisfied about clothing size of misses-size clothes and had especially low satisfaction for pants.…”

“…Many studies on clothing size dissatisfaction of consumers who are not of average size focused on plus-size women (Chowdhary & Beale, 1988;Kim, 2006;Lee, 2011c;Shim & Kotsiopulos, 1990), and not many dealt with tall women (Jones & Giddings, 2010;Kersch, 1984;Lee, 1997a). Lee (1997b) said that tall women had the highest dissatisfaction about clothing size, and Jones and Giddings (2010) said tall women were dissatisfied about clothing size of misses-size clothes and had especially low satisfaction for pants. They claimed that while pants were purchased more from tall-size clothes, other categories were purchased more from misses-size clothes.…”

“…The area items required to improve clothing sizing systems can be extracted through existing studies on clothing size satisfaction. The study by Jones and Giddings (2010) found that the misses-size systems were not appropriate for tall women to wear for all area items, and that a tall-size system was most needed for pants, but it did not deal with specific area items. The study by Lee (1997a) also found that the existing clothing sizing systems needed to be improved for all area items, and that there was a lack of size diversity for all area items excluding skirts.…”

Apparel recommendation system evolution: an empirical review

“…Some articles focused on the relations between physical features and apparel styles, including body shape, height, weight, facial features and skin colour et al (Jones and Giddings, 2010, Grogan et al, 2013, Park et al, 2009, Kim and Damhorst, 2010, Lee et al, 2007. Grogan et al (2013), found that people use clothes to increase body confidence, camouflage and try to attain a slender hourglass look.…”