Quote:
Originally Posted by RoseRodent
I hate the industry for constantly saying that girls must fit into sample sizes - yes, but if you made samples in a size 2, 4, 20 then that would be the sample size! I think it's lazier too, it's an awful lot easier to make clothes that hang on a flat-chested girl with no hips, it's far more challenging to make clothes that have to go around corners. They do turn up at shows with a box of shoes in assorted sizes, so if you can bring shoes in all sizes from 5 to 13 then you can bring different sizes of clothing. To a certain extent they do force people into sizes that don't fit, but they at least start out with the idea that you might be different sizes, so why not the same with the clothes?
Thing is that models are just that - models. They're really just walking, talking mannequins used to sell clothes. So samples are made to a standard size, which is a UK size 8, so all models must be a size 8 or under. My mum has a very old Westwood dress that she bought in a sample sale years ago, and that's a size 8. I remember her telling me that that was the only size available.
And it's also cheaper to make something in a size 8 than a size 16. Less fabric, if you think about it logically. And if you're making a couture dress with fine fabric woven from the backsides of guinea pigs fed on gold leaf somewhere in the Himalayas, you'd want to use less fabric.
Usually, also, there's only one or two samples made. So not much chance to make more than one or two different sizes. And models have to go for fittings anyway - if you look closely at runway shows you can see pinning and tacking on the clothes to make them fit the model.