By Oluah, Ekwutosi Beatrice
The major purpose of this study was to develop a standard apparel sizing system for women in Nigeria. Specifically, the study was designed to: collect body measurement data from the women population in Nigeria; determine the number of size groups among the Nigerian women population; develop size chart for the female population; determine the percentage of women in the different shape categories; determine differences in body shapes among women across geo-political zones in Nigeria, determine the effect of age on the control dimensions (height, hip and bust) of the women population; produce prototype garments for each size group of the women population; determine the labeling system for the size chart that was developed in this study and develop mathematical models for generating secondary body measurements for the Nigerian women. The study answered seven research questions, and tested seven hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The area of the study was Nigeria. The study adopted the research and development (R&D) design. It was carried out in seven phases as follows; phase I: collection of body measurements from the population, phase II development of a size chart for the population, phase III construction of prototype apparels for the size groups, phase IV: fit testing the prototype garment to confirm the size chart, phase V: labeling/designating the size chart. The study was conducted in five out of the six geo-political zones in Nigeria. The population was made up of all the female teachers in the well over 87,000 government owned secondary schools in Nigeria. Multi stage, stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select five hundred (500) teachers from the five states of the selected five geo-political zones in Nigeria. Two instruments were used for data collection and they are Body Measurement Guide (BMG) and Fit Evaluation Scale (FES) mean, percentages, ANOVA, Post Hoc t-tests, inter-rater reliability index, Chi-square, correlation coefficients (r) and multiple linear regression were used to analyse the data that was collected. Major findings of the study include: four major size groups namely short, medium, tall and very tall in the women population in Nigeria, five major shape categories in the women population namely, the triangular shape, the inverted triangle shape, the rectangular shape, the apple shape and the hourglass shape. The percentage of the women in each shape category are as follows: 9.2% of the women belonged to the ideal shape category, 72.1% belonged to the triangular shape category, 3.4% belonged the apple shape category, 2.1% belonged to the rectangular shape category and 13.2% belonged to the inverted triangular shape. The most predominant shape among the female population in Nigeria is the triangular shape. Women’s body shapes differ as a result of ethnicity, age affects the control dimensions (height, bust and hip), height increases with age, bust increases with age and hip increases with age. The prototype garments offered reasonable fit to the fit models. The most appropriate method of labeling the size chart that was developed in this study is using the size code alongside wordless pictogram. Secondary body measurements can be generated mathematically using multiple linear regression instead of quadratic linear regression. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that apparel manufacturers in countries from where apparels are imported into Nigeria should take note of the prevalent shape among the Nigerian women (triangular). This will enable them produce better fitting apparels for Nigerian women. The Nigerian government is encouraged to make good use of the information generated in this study by making policies that will encourage mass production of apparels in Nigeria by Nigerian entrepreneurs.