The Development of pant sizing system for Sri Lankan females

Abstract

Mass production in the garment industry requires pre-defined size charts based on up-to-date anthropometric data. These standard size charts provide information for manufacturers and retailers to plan the production and the inventories. Every country must have their own sizing systems based on the target population to provide better fit for ready- to – wear clothing which improves customer satisfaction. An anthropometric survey of Sri Lankan females aged 20-30 years was conducted. 645 females were selected for a pilot study representing 5 provinces in Sri Lanka. Eight major measurements of female lower body were taken following the ISO 8559:1998 standard. Principle Component Analysis was used to reduce the variables in to 2 major components and identify key variables. Two- stage Cluster analysis; Hierarchical cluster analysis and K-means algorithm, was used to find the body types and segment the data into more homogeneous clusters. Five different body types were identified and under each body type, many sizes were built up based on three key measurements. Sizing system for Cluster 1; Body type D, was shown with the percentage of population for each size which will be useful for manufacturers and retailers to plan production and inventory.