Spain – New Clothing Size Guidelines – Promotion of Healthier & Realistic Body Images – No Ultra-Thin Models

Spain
Sizes Up Fashion World’s Measuring Stick

02/21/08

By
Brenda Gazzar
WeNews correspondent

Spain is updating its body measurements and encouraging standardization
of women’s sizes to make shopping easier. It’s part of the country’s ongoing
push for realistic contours in models and mannequins so women can enjoy more
self-acceptance.

MADRID,
Spain (WOMENSENEWS)–The Spanish government has just finished measuring the
bodies of more than 10,000 women to help create new guidelines for the
clothing industry.

The Feb. 7 study concluded that Spanish women come in three basic
shapes–hourglass, pear and barrel–which consumer advocates say should serve
as a more accurate base for sizing.

In part, the effort is about reducing the amount of trial-and-error time
in the fitting room. Current sizes are based on pre-1975 models, when women’s
bodies were significantly different, and clothes often vary by two to three
sizes from store to store.

“From the perspective of the consumer, it’s an inconvenience,”
said Angeles Heras, director general of the Madrid-based National Institute
of Consumer Affairs, which conducted the five-month study for Spain’s
Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs.

But it’s also an effort to promote healthier body images: receiving honest
and reliable information about their clothing size can help women to more
readily accept their bodies as they are, goes the logic.

Manufacturers around the world often fudge sizes to make consumers feel
better but they are also misleading their customers and supporting distorted
perceptions of what constitutes a healthy and beautiful body, Heras said in
an interview last November, while the study was being conducted. “It’s
clear that fashion greatly influences the health of women,” she said.
“There are many psychological disorders that stem from wanting to be
thin. . .We want to promote models of healthy beauty.”

Rethinking Sizes

The $2.5 million study advocates using a three-digit sizing system that
takes into consideration the perimeter of a woman’s bust, waist and hips, in
relation to height. Clothes are currently limited to one simple size because
“anatomy had always established scientific categories according to the
male gender,” the National Institute of Consumer Affairs said in a press
release.

The study found 86 percent of women in Spain had a conventional body mass
index. This means that whatever their description–underweight, normal or
overweight–they do not require medical consultation or treatment. About 12
percent–particularly among women over 50–suffer some form of obesity. About
1 percent–particularly among young people–is moderately or severely thin.

More than 90 percent of the clothing industry–including such popular
Spanish retailers as Zara and Mango–have volunteered to standardize their
sizes according to the study’s findings within five years.

The women–recruited randomly from around the country to represent 10 age
groups–were measured inside booths that use laser beam technology to obtain
their three-dimensional body shape. That information was supplemented by
manual measurements.

More than 40 percent of the subjects said they sometimes or always had
problems with clothing sizes. Among them, 43 percent said they found sizes
too small for their bodies and 22 percent found them too large. Another 8
percent said their size was too common, which made it difficult to find in
the store.

Aiming for
Realism

Even though Heras said many women prefer to fit into a smaller size, she
thinks standardized sizes will give women a more realistic and accurate
picture of their true size.

“What we are aiming for is to know what we are” regardless of
the size “because beauty can be real and can adapt to real women,”
she said.

The 2007 agreement also requires signatories to replace their
conspicuously thin mannequins with those that are at least a European size 38
(or U.S. 8). They have also agreed to change the way they treat size 46 (or
U.S. 16). Previously regarded as a “special size” for larger women,
it will now be regarded as a normal size and be part of their routine
inventory.

Alicia Hormigo, a 50-year-old teacher from Madrid, approves of the changes
ahead whether they affect the sizes that stores carry or the shapes of their
mannequins. “Women have to have curves and when they are older, they
cannot be thin,” she said.

Sandra Criado Mosteles, 29, a window dresser at clothing stores in Madrid
said the mannequins she works with are so thin that even the smallest sizes
have to be taken in with pins to make them fit. “It’s a bit
deceiving,” she said.

Mosteles also welcomes the government’s push to standardize sizes. “I
would like to know the (real) sizes so that I could go into stores and go
exactly to the size,” she said. “When you are going to buy, it is
much easier.”

Measuring the
After Effects

Another woman, an immigrant and mother from South America, said she rarely
feels like shopping for pants because sizes are distorted and because she has
difficulty finding pants that fit her curvy hips.

“If they don’t fit you well, then you become nervous that you are
fat,” she said while riding on the city’s metro. “You go home and
want to start a diet.”

While sizing inconsistency is rampant around the world, Spanish officials
say the country is the first to embark on such a rigorous and comprehensive
scientific study aimed at remedying the problem.

No European law obligates sizes to conform to certain measurements, Heras
said.

Spain began leading the way against fashion’s ultra-thin pressures a
couple of years ago, when the Madrid regional government decided to exclude
models with a body mass index of under 18 from its 2006 international fashion
week.

Italy followed suit by banning underweight models from its Milan fashion
show.

New York City’s fashion week, which ended earlier this month, has yet to
ban underweight models. This year fashion reporters pointed out that the
current male models were noticeably skinnier than in previous years.