Sunday, February 20, 2011

Measuring Up

Hello All-


All the samples have been shipped off, so that we can get our first round of shirts! I want to thank all the people who volunteered their time to have their measurements taken, taking time out of their schedules to help this project move forward. We have our first set of twenty shirts should be here in the next couple of weeks. Meeting all the lovely ladies reminded me of how diverse these women are and how different their needs are. I met ladies who ride occasionally, but need shirts to wear to meet other horse people or just want to look nice. I met other ladies who work on dude ranch type situations and need to have shirts that will work as hard as they do. I met some young ladies who like to show locally and finding shirts that fit their still grow long limbs can be a challenge.

I expected to find out that in general, women had the same problems with their shirts. I don't think I could have been more wrong. I figured most women would have problems with the sleeves being too short, and the chest area being too tight. I met some women for whom the "standard" western shirt is too large, and the sleeves are too long.  What I found was that all an average shirt is a shirt that doesn't most people. People get by, make all sorts of quick fixes, but in the end it is still not right, just good enough. Meeting all these women reminded me of why we are really focused on fit. We have all different body types, curves, and find something to fit all of us collectively is not realistic.

I was trying to find a correlation between arm length and shoulder width, or arm length and torso length, or arm length and anything really so I could make sure that the arm length matched the person. I found out there is no correlation between arm length and almost anything on a woman's upper body. Maybe if I had been measuring height or in seam that would be different. What came out of this experience was that I need to let people choose the sleeve length on their shirts separately from the other measurements. I also learned I personally have really long arms. Longer than any other woman I have measured so far, even women taller then me. Measuring all these women gave me more insight into what we want from our clothing, and I was surprised how many women felt that these shirts had never fit them correctly either. Well hopefully we are going to change all that.

Until next time!
Jenna

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