A study claims that the fashion industry nowadays is ignoring the changing shapes of women’s bodies. The designers and manufacturers still insist on making clothes that fit the traditional hourglass figure where in fact the women’s shape today are more likely to be top-heavy, rectangular or pear-shaped.

The research disclosed that though only 8 percent of women now have that hourglass figure flaunted by curvaceous 1950’s movie stars, designers and manufacturers still continued to make clothes to fit a slim-line version of that figure.

Of about 6,000 women’s body shapes being analyzed, 46 percent were described as rectangular, having a waist less than nine inches smaller than the hips or bust. However, over 20 percent of women were bottom-heavy or usually called as “spoons,” having a hip that is two inches larger than busts or more. On the other hand, almost 14 percent were “inverted triangles” - women whose busts were three or more inches bigger than their hips.

The study of North Carolina State University was based on data from a two-year study of American body types, Size USA. It was specially made by Alva Products, a manufacturer of designers’ mannequins purposely to force the industry to design clothes for the majority rather than the minority of women.

According to Janice Wang, the firm’s chief executive, the majority of retailers are designing clothes for people with an hourglass figure. Therefore the industry standards for size measurements were out of date. Thus, they need to change their designs if they want to serve the markets they currently aren’t reaching, she added. In addition, Ms. Wang said that although the study concentrated on American women, its implications were relevant for British women as well since eating habits and lifestyle meant the shapes of women in the two societies.

Moreover, British fashion designer Katherine Hamnett agreed that women who did not measure up to slim size 10 continued to be ignored by fashion. This only shows that the fashion industry has disregarded the true size of women at its peril. Furthermore, Hamnett believed that the stupidity on the side of fashion designers and manufacturers is the result of adhering unthinkingly to a tradition.

On the other hand, the idea that larger women are not the ideal to design for is a myth, said Hamnett. In fact, she was able to measure movie stars who have 42 inch hips but are still getting a lot of work. Therefore, it is not how fat or how slim you are that matters, it’s the aptness of what you wear.

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