Clothing for Children and Teenagers

Anthropometry, Sizing and Fit

Norsaadah Zakaria

• Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780081002544
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Materials Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Clothing for Children and Teenagers: Anthropometry, Sizing and Fit addresses the complexities of developing size specifications for clothing aimed at seven to seventeen year olds. Children and teenagers experience rapid physical growth and alterations in body shape as they develop—changes that pose significant challenges in creating apparel sizing systems. The book begins by introducing the principles of apparel fit and sizing systems. Drawing on the author's own fieldwork, it goes on to discuss methods of conducting anthropometric surveys in children and teenagers, and techniques for analyzing the resulting data in order to produce successful sizing systems.

• Introduces the principles of apparel fit and sizing systems, and discusses methods of conducting anthropometric surveys in children and teenagers
• Offers systematic and comprehensive coverage of the complexities associated with clothing for children and teenagers
• Reviews techniques in analysis and classification of children and teenagers' body shapes and sizes
• Covers the development, designation, and validation of an apparel sizing system for children and teenagers

1

Introduction

Clothing for children and teenagers

Abstract

Historically, children’s clothing is relatively a new creation as compared to adult’s clothing. This chapter begins with the historical manufacturing background for teenager and children’s clothing. A critical discussion on the manufacturing trend for teenage and children clothing is given in Section 1.2. Next, in Section 1.3, the social psychology of the children clothing is discussed. Section 1.4 reviews the rise of consumption in clothing for teenager and children. The last section of this chapter is the conclusion and future trends.

Keywords

Clothing consumption; Clothing manufacturers; Conscious consumers; Fast fashion; Tweens and teens; Socio psychology of clothing

1.1. Historical: manufacturing clothing for children and teenagers

Clothing was styled and designed only for adults throughout the 18th century [1]. There were no clothes styled specifically for children during this time because children were considered as mini adults who wore the adult styles [2]. Furthermore, the children’s clothing construction was much stronger than the adult clothing so that the clothes could last longer. The clothes were normally made bigger so they could be worn by multiple siblings.

Slowly, starting from the year 1800s until during the sewing machine Industrial Revolution in 1845, there was a change in how clothes were produced. During this time, the sewing machine was introduced and it became possible to mass produce clothes. With this new concept of production, design patterns were introduced for children’s clothing [3]. From this point onward, there were different clothing classifications for adults and children. Clothing design for adults was according to the needs and wants of the adults and design for children was applicable only for children. Since style and fashion were just being introduced to children’s clothing, manufacturers mostly designed clothing for children as if they had no taste and desires [4]. Generally, parents bought clothes for their children according to what they perceived was good and not because this was clothing that their children wanted [5].

The Industrial Revolution also initiated the development of factory-made clothes instead of custom-made or made-at-home styles [6]. Mass production began when women started going to work and they no longer had the time to sew their own children’s clothes. Factory production also made children’s clothes much sturdier and more reliable by introducing different types of fasteners like zippers, buttons, and snaps to secure the clothing on the children. In addition, these new fasteners allowed children to become much more independent in being able to dress themselves [7].

Transformations were seen slowly in the beginning of children’s clothing manufacturing. But in time, changes began to occur rapidly because of better manufacturing technology. Children’s wear saw the transition from handmade clothes sewn at home to being produced in factories as ready-to-wear (RTW) clothing. Those factories made clothing that would be sold to anybody through catalogs; today clothing is sold online where customers can buy items using a computer or they can still order over the telephone.

In the next section, the discussion focusses on the different trends in clothing manufacturing for today’s growing children’s and teenagers’ clothing market.

1.2. Introduction: manufacturing clothing for children and teenagers

Today the children’s clothing business has evolved into one of the most successful clothing manufacturing industries. Clothing manufacturers have been challenged to meet the demands of children and young teenagers for new trends and designs. Manufacturers are geared toward supplying attractive-looking clothing to the retail market to entice these new-age consumers. The setup of the children’s clothing market today is fast-moving and stylish. The retail market sells clothing that is inventive and eye-catching, catering to children’s senses and desire to have beautiful clothes that are aesthetically pleasing [8].

Children’s clothing manufacturers must always stay attuned to the needs of the market. There’s been a huge boom in the children’s clothing industry, and to be able to compete actively, these are some of the current manufacturing interests.

1.2.1. Fast fashion trending

The fashion manufacturing cycle has changed and become more rapid in order to appeal to consumers for consistent purchases [9]. Formerly the fashion product life cycle ran about 4–6 months. But now, the cycle is only within 4–6 weeks—this trend is known as fast fashion [10]. According to Fletcher, “Fast fashion—low-cost clothing collections based on current, high-cost luxury fashion trends—is, by its very nature, a fast-response system that encourages disposability” [11]. Furthermore, fast fashion has arisen along with the globalization era, technology adoption, the age of consumerism, and also the green era. According to a report in Forbes, Zara is the leader in fast fashion retailers, providing the opportunity for young buyers to have continuous renewed looks [12].

Fast fashion enables more buying power among young women who constantly thirst for something new by giving them affordable apparel [13]. According to Claudio, fast fashion was able to create the new “must-haves” to youngsters because of the quick and rapid process of the new developments that assist in the process of ideation, creation, and construction [14]. The fashion products provide the marketplace with different styles aimed mostly at young women. Teens, especially girls, are known to be very excited about having new things to purchase, and since fast fashion is cheap and new, they can buy more [15,16].

1.2.2. Size and fit

For most apparel consumers size and fit are the main criteria for purchasing ready-to-wear clothes [17,18]. Especially, the clothing worn by children is expected to fit the shapes and sizes of individuals so that the wearer feels comfortable. The comfort level is anticipated to be high for children with different levels of growth [19,20]. The same-aged children can vary in growth rate depending on different factors like diet, genetics, social and environmental factors, etc. The variation in growth patterns will result in variations of body sizes and shapes [21]. Without having a good sizing system that caters to all of the different size ranges it will eventually be difficult to choose the right clothing that fits [22,23]. This topic will be discussed in depth in Chapter 2 as the understanding of body sizes and shapes is crucially needed to develop a good sizing system. Understanding of the sizes and shapes is made possible by conducting an anthropometric survey [24].

1.2.3. Teenagers: a new clothing size group

Teenagers today are very unique. They want to be classified as their own group of consumers [25]. Therefore, the need to customize a different size chart totally on teen sizes is demanded. Previously, only three different size groups were considered: babies, children, and adults. Currently, teenagers no longer want to be clustered under children but instead want to be seen buying in their own section of a store, which is an additional size to the clothing grouping [21]. Teenagers feel that they are becoming more adventurous at selecting their clothes and care a great deal about their appearance and comfort like adult consumers do [26]. By having this new size label specifically for teens, this will stress more-sophisticated expression than buying under a label for a girl’s or boy’s size [27]. However, the tweens are still sized under children groups. Studies also have shown that there is an increased number of obese young people who require another size chart [28]. There are still scarce numbers of plus size retail shops for tweens and teens carrying attractive assortments of clothing. Some retailers do offer plus size clothing but with limited and unattractive selections [29].

1.2.4. Conscious consumers

Today the demand for clothing manufacturing is really high among the contract manufacturing countries. According to one report, the fashion industry is one of the most important sectors in the world that creates jobs and clothes for people all over the world [30]. Although this sector has created work for millions of people, much of the work is still done under unacceptable conditions and the wages are extremely low [31].

The competition for manufacturing is great among the countries with large populations like China, Indonesia, and India and also the underdeveloped countries such as Bangladesh...