Editorial: A bit of consistency, please

As a woman of a certain vintage, I wear a number of different hats. I am a daughter, a sister, a sister-in-law, an aunt, a wife and a mother (of sorts) to a fur kid and several indiscriminate insects. I am a friend, a colleague, a neighbour, a journalist, an employee, an editor and a boss. I am also a community member, a Kiwi, a team-mate, a taxpayer, a first home buyer and something to be pitied when spotted at the beach.

But quite aside from these core responsibilities, almost every time I step out the front door of my home or workplace, I become a consumer.

And it is my keen observations as a consumer which lead me to wholeheartedly support any moves towards developing a national sizing standard.

I have in my wardrobe several items from Australian labels ranging in size from a 10 to a 16. Each one of them fits and each one of them I wear with some regularity.

As someone not short on stature but short on time and even shorter on patience, a bit of consistency in terms of sizing standards would make a bloody nice difference to myself and countless others.

According to the Fashion Technicians Association of Australia (FTAA), whose job it is to know such things, in the 1920s and '30s, Australia was a world leader in the field of sizing studies for apparel manufacturing. How the mighty have fallen.

That same organisation tells us that Australian sizing standards for men and women were formally removed in 1998 and 2008 respectively because they painted such a distorted version of how Australian bodies actually appeared as to be rendered useless.

Other educated individuals now tell us we lag so far behind competitor countries the US, the UK, China, France, Germany and Spain - each of which have conducted large scale sizing studies - the "value proposition" of Australia's apparel sector has now lost serious ground because of our severe sizing discrepancies.

While detractors propose the adoption of a national sizing strategy will be difficult to compile and even harder to police, the FTAA has worked hard at providing a workable solution.

Putting aside the obvious benefits in terms of reduced waste and therefore reduced cost and increased bottom line, economics alone suggest the industry can ill afford to sit on the fence for much longer.