We know of many people who are fed up of trying umpteen number of clothes from many leading brands but still can't find their perfect fit. Well, looks like soon this 'Indian problem' will be sorted forever.
The Ministry of Textiles in collaboration with National Institute of Design has begun the INDIAsize survey, an extensive anthropometric research study to develop a comprehensive body size chart for the Indian population.
The idea behind this initiative is to develop a standardised size chart for India, in the absence of which Indians have long suffered by often finding ill-fitted clothes at leading labels.
The Indian design fraternity has hailed the move. Leading fashion designer Leena Singh of label Ashima Leena has welcomed the move. "To have an Indian size chart which is finally approved by the Textile Ministry is truly a great development in design industry. For me personally, it is like my dream has come true. While other countries like USA and UK have had their own size charts from decades together, our country did not have one despite of our design industry being formalised for more than two decades. This will surely help us in our businesses, especially to complete orders for NRI clients for whom we often cannot get the sizing right to fulfill their pret and couture orders. It will also be a great help for us in e-commerce orders. My heartiest congratulations to all and my gratitude to the government for making it possible," said legendary designer Leena Singh.
Aaina Mahajan of MellowDrama, a popular pret label called it a great initiative. "About time we took an initiative towards an accurate of the country’s population. A great initiative towards strengthening the essence of ‘Make in India’ and the entire industry to be truly representative of the population by having our own reference point," she added.
The launch of the INDIAsize Survey was originally slated for February 2019, but it got delayed due to the pandemic and was finally launched recently by U.P. Singh, Secretary (Textiles).
"The National Sizing Survey will cost nearly Rs 30 crore and entail studying a population, aged 15-65 across six cities, with men and women in equal numbers", Director General of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Sarada Muraleedharan said in a statement.
"This would be a scientific exercise where anthropometric data will be collected from a sample population of 25,000 to create a database of measurements that will culminate in a standardised size chart, truly be representative of the Indian population, which can then be adopted by the entire apparel industry," Noopur Anand, professor at NIFT-Delhi and the principle investigator of the project told reporters in Delhi.
"The final outcome will be in numerical value. We don't know yet, if we would be having just a single numerical marker or the more than one. Also, about 120 different anthropometric elements, including, height, weight, waist-size, hip-size, bust-size, would be included in the survey," she concluded.
