A NOTTINGHAM-based study is turning figures into facts to solve the age-old problem of inconsistency in dress sizes.
The project, Size Nottingham, is scanning 360 people as part of the study into the changing shape of Britain.
It has been taking place at the Designer Forum, a creative collective of independent designers in Lower Parliament Street, since Friday.
The 3D scanner takes more than 100 measurements – of everything from the waist girth to the elbow girth – using 16 infrared Xbox games console Kinect sensors.
Gemma Sewell, 33, an IT support worker from Hucknall, volunteered to have her body scanned.
She said: "I'm about a size eight but as I'm 5ft tall everything has to be taken up a few inches.
"I used to shop in Next where I was a 6 and then suddenly the size changed.
"It would be a lot easier if the sizes were all the same."
Friend Chloe Brooks, 36, an office manager from West Bridgford, added: "The sizing is inconsistent in all shops and ordering online is difficult. I need to order two sizes and send one back.
"If I knew that if I was a 12 in one shop and also a 12 in another then shopping would be easier."
Statistics collated by Manchester Metropolitan University show how different sizing can be within the major retailers.
For example a size 8 in Topshop is the same as a size 10 in Next.
Other ladies' brands that come up big are New Look, Coast and George at Asda, while brands that come up small are Oasis, Monsoon and Lipsy.
Many brands do something called "vanity sizing" which means that people are flattered into buying after getting into a smaller size.
Size Nottingham is being undertaken by Manchester Metropolitan University and will be used by local lingerie brands Charnos and Courtaulds and fashion company ASOS.
Long Eaton-based Charnos is carrying out a special study of 30 plus-sized women to perfect a new range of hosiery.
Alison Baines, brand manager at Charnos Hosiery, said: "Consumers taking part in the scanning have all stressed just how difficult it is to find hosiery that fits them, with the majority saying there isn't any hosiery brand that makes tights to fit larger women, and our aim is to change that."
Online brand ASOS is going to use the size information to ensure its sizing is consistent with the modern woman and man.
Pamela McCrone, senior garment technologist for ASOS, said: "A lot of retailers use the British standard taken back in the 1950s but, across the board, all of the retailers' sizes are different. People's shapes are changing so much – people are taller, they've got wider waists and bigger hips and there are different ethnic shapes in the UK."
The analysed data will be available to the Designer Forum and retailers taking part in a month's time.
Unusually it's also going to be made public in some form.
Simeon Gill, senior lecturer in fashion technology at Manchester Metropolitan University, who's undertaking the study said: "It offers so much information about the body.
"Size UK in 2001/02 was the last major survey but it's not publicly available. I hope to have a summary of the data made available to the public."
Nina Faresin, creative manager for the Designer Forum, said: "This is the first time that data like this is going to be widely available.
"Previously it's been done by large brands who have kept it to themselves.
"We hope it's going to be the first of lots of studies where the data is shared out."
