So I did 2 surveys this term to help me get a feel for a) what women want, and b) what size the actual average woman is. Although my sample sizes are small I'd like to think they reached a wide variety of women, having shared them on various social media platforms. I also made some QR codes to link to the surveys online and stuck them around my university campus in the hopes that some of the students would see them and take part.
Here are the results of survey one, based around what is available in shops, what women buy, what they'd like to see and how they feel the garments fit them.
So I found out that women aren't super happy with the choices available and would defiantly like to see more choice of style and colour. But I did note that fit is a big issue for most women as most women aren't a standard size, or at least don't tick every box of the standard measures. This is an issue I'd really like to try and deal with in my 3rd year collection, and hopefully influence industry to add more size ranges. There are already petite and curvy ranges in mot stores, but where the items are more about tailoring and fit, but don't use stretch fabric, it would be great to see some variation from just the standard 8, 10, 12 etc. Or even another option would be to have an in store tailor / altier who can make adjustments to garments for a small price. Obviously I'd be all for this option since it would give me more career opportunities! I know some shops do offer this, for example Hobbs do offer small alterations that I believe are included in the price? Independent businesses sometimes offer this service too as it gets them a little more revenue but also it encourages people to buy the more expensive, well made garments as they know it can be fitted to them. You could walk into Topshop and buy a suit that doesn't fit well for £30, so why would you pay a lot more for a suit that doesn't fit you from an independent business? The fact that they offer this service definitely increases the sales because the consumer would be more likely to pay more for something they feel they have had a more personal experience in purchasing, and that fits them great!
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Survey 2 was about measurements, I asked the women to measure themselves or get someone to measure them so I could get a good indication of what sizes women commonly buy, but also what measurements they actually have and see how different these are to the UK standard measurements. There were 21 participants in this survey. I have outlined the results below.
Size 6- 2
Size 8- 3
Size 10- 2
Size 12- 5
Size 14- 2
Size 16- 2
Size 18- 1
Either size 6/8- 1
Either size 8/10- 1
Either size 10/12- 1
Either size 14/16- 1
Size 8- 5
Size 10- 3
Size 12- 6
Size 14- 1
Size 16- 1
Either size 10/12- 1
Either size 12/14- 2
Either size 14/16- 1
Size 6- 3
Size 8- 2
Size 10- 3
Size 12- 5
Size 14- 2
Size 16- 1
Either size 6/8- 1
Either size 12/14- 1
Either size 14/16- 1
Size 16/18/20 depending on style- 1
One person answered that they don't buy these kinds of clothes.
In inches:
30- 1
32- 1
34- 3
35- 1
36- 4
38- 3
39- 1
40- 6
42- 1
45- 1
In inches:
25- 1
29- 1
30- 3
32- 5
33- 2
34- 5
35- 2
36- 1
38- 1
In inches:
24- 1
25- 1
26- 2
27- 2
28- 1
29- 2
30- 2
31- 1
32- 2
33- 2
35- 2
36- 1
37- 1
42- 1
In inches:
31- 1
32- 1
33- 1
34- 3
35- 2
36- 3
37- 2
38- 1
39- 2
40- 1
41- 1
42- 1
45- 1
48- 1
In inches:
34- 2
35- 2
36- 2
37- 1
38- 1
40- 4
41- 3
42- 2
45- 1
50- 1
In feet and inches:
4'11"- 1
5'3"- 1
5'4"- 8
5'5"- 2
5'6"- 1
5'7"- 2
5'9"- 1
5'10"- 4
6'1"- 1
From this survey I got a good idea of how sizes aren't set in stone for women, that they can vary a lot from garment to garment. It was interesting to see the different shapes and sizes of the women who answered my survey, and that the majority of women that responded are pear shape like me! I was going to use some of these measurements to draft my patterns but I since confirmed a model to work with so now I've drafted for her instead; she also doesn't exactly fit into one sizing category so it gets my point across.
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