ABSTRACT
Establishing the right fit is a difficult and complex issue for companies, because no two figures are the same. Customers often wonder why they are one size in one brand but another size in a different brand; this is simply because there is no uniform sizing in the industry, and each brand will design for a particular figure’s shape and height. Particularly, catalog and online companies have problems with fit because they try to develop pattern blocks that fit the majority of their customers and to minimize returns. Checks should be regularly done to look for high-returning styles, especially before repeat orders are placed. If a style has a high percentage of returns, then an investigation should follow and stock should be re-examined, because, possibly, something was missed at the fitting sessions or quality audit, and as many garments as possible should be tried on to re-assess the fit. I have known up to 50% returns on fashion items, and you cannot always trust the reasons given by the customer for returning the item. It might be fit, but the customer could just easily say that they did not like the color.
