Joint European standard for size labelling of clothes

The joint European standard for size labelling of clothes, formally known as EN 13402 Size designation of clothes, is a European standard for labelling clothes sizes which has been partially adopted, and aims to make it easier to find and select fitting clothes. The standard is based on body dimensions measured in centimetres, and as such aims to allow for finding fitting clothing sizes by measuring the body with a tape measure (for instance at home) or by comparing to already fitting clothing which conforms to the EN 13402 standard. The standard can therefore contribute to more environmentally friendly trade as it can lead to less return of clothes bought on the internet.
The standard aims to replace several older national clothing size systems in popular use before the year 2007, but the degree of introduction of the new system has varied from country to country. For bras, gloves and children's clothing it is the de facto standard in most of Europe already, while China has introduced the standard for all types of clothing. Few other countries are known to have followed suit.
The Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs has commissioned a study to categorise female body types with a view to harmonising Spanish clothing sizes with EN-13402.
Background.
There are three approaches for size-labelling of clothes:
Traditionally, clothes have been labelled using many different ad hoc size systems.
This approach has led to a number of problems:
Therefore, the European standards committee CEN/TC 248/WG 10 started in 1996 the process of designing a new modern system of labelling clothes sizes, resulting in the standard EN 13402 "Size designation of clothes".
It is based on:
EN 13402-1: Terms, definitions and body measurement procedure.
The first part of the standard defines the list of body dimensions to be used for designating clothes sizes, together with an anatomical explanation and measurement guidelines. All body dimensions are measured, preferably without or as few as possible clothes, in centimetres, except for the body mass.
The standard also defines a pictogram that can be used in language-neutral labels to indicate one or several of the following body dimensions.
EN 13402-2: Primary and secondary dimensions.
The second part of the standard defines for each type of garment one "primary dimension".
This is the body measure according to which the product must be labelled.
Where men's garments use the chest girth, women's clothes are designed for a certain bust girth.
For some types of garment, a single measure may not be sufficient to select the right product. In these cases, one or two "secondary dimensions" can be added to the label.
The following table shows the "primary" (in bold) and "secondary dimensions" listed in the standard, leaving out the redundant words "girth", "length" and "size" for better overview.
EN 13402–3: Measurements and intervals.
The third part of the standard defines preferred numbers of primary and secondary body dimensions.
The product should not be labelled with the average body dimension for which the garment was designed (i.e., not "height: 176 cm."). Instead, the label should show the range of body dimensions from half the step size below to half the step size above the design size (e.g., "height: 172–180 cm.").
For heights, for example, the standard recommends generally to use the following design dimensions, with a step size of 8 cm:
For trousers, the recommended step size for height is 4 cm:
The standard defines similar tables for other dimensions and garments, only some of which are shown here.
Men.
The standard sizes and ranges for chest and waist girth are defined in steps of 4 cm:
Example: While manufacturers will typically design clothes for "chest girth" = 100 cm such that it fits "waist girth" = 88 cm, they may also want to combine that "chest girth" with neighbouring "waist girth" step sizes 84 cm or 92 cm, to cover these drop types (−16 cm and −8 cm) as well.
The standard also suggests that neck girth can be associated with chest girth:
The standard further suggests that arm length can be associated with height:
Women.
Dress sizes.
The standard sizes and ranges for bust, waist and hip girth are mostly based on a step of 4 cm, for larger sizes 5 cm (hip) or 6 cm (bust and waist):
Bra sizes.
The European standard EN 13402 also defines bra sizes based on the "bust girth" and the "underbust girth". Bras are labeled with the under bust girth (rounded to the nearest multiple of 5 cm), followed by a letter code that indicates the "cup size" defined below, according to this table defined by the standard.
The standard sizes for brassiere are based on a step of 5 cm:
The secondary dimension "cup size" can be expressed in terms of the difference
and can be labelled compactly using a letter code appended to the "underbust girth":
Letter codes.
For clothes where a larger step size is sufficient, the standard also defines a letter code. This code represents the bust girth for women and the chest girth for men. The standard does not define such a code for children.
Each range combines two adjacent size steps. The ranges could be extended below XXS or above 3XL if necessary.
EN 13402-4: Coding system.
The fourth part of the standard is still under review. It will define a compact coding system for clothes sizes. This was originally intended primarily for industry use in databases and as a part of stock-keeping identifiers and catalogue ordering numbers, but later users have also expressed a desire to use compact codes for customer communication. Writing out all the centimetre figures of all the primary and secondary measures from EN 13402-2 can – in some cases – require up to 12 digits. The full list of centimetre figures on the pictogram contains a lot of redundancy and the same information can be squeezed into fewer characters with lookup tables. EN 13402-4 will define such tables.
An earlier draft of this part of the standard attempted to list all in-use combinations of EN 13402-3 measures and assigned a short 2- or 3-digit code to each. Some of the industry representatives involved in the standardization process considered this approach too restrictive. Others argued that the primary dimension in centimetres should be a prominent part of the code. Therefore, this proposal, originally expected to be adopted in 2005, was rejected.
Since then, several new proposals have been presented to the CEN working group. One of these, tabled by the European Association of National Organisations of Textile Traders (AEDT), proposes a 5-character alphanumeric code, consisting of the 3-digit centimetre figure of the primary body dimension, followed by one or two letters that code a secondary dimension, somewhat like the system already defined for bra sizes. For example, an item designed for 100 cm bust girth, 104 cm hip girth and 176 cm height could bear the compact size code "100BG". This proposal was agreed upon in 2006, but later disregarded. A paper by Bogusławska-Bączek published in 2010 showed that there were still significant difficulties in identifying clothing sizes.