Go beyond the limits: how will the size grids in stores change?
The usual size system, on which the fashion industry has been built for decades, is starting to fail. More and more customers are faced with the fact that clothes no longer fit the way they used to, and brands are forced to look for new ways to adapt to changing body parameters. This phenomenon has already received its own name — size volatility. — Izvestia). Izvestia investigated why traditional size grids were not ready for the new reality, how designers are trying to solve this problem, and whether the future of fashion could be more personalized.
The body as a variable
Until recently, clothing size was considered one of the most stable consumer characteristics. A customer could wear the same size for years, and brands could build production and sales based on relatively predictable audience parameters. However, today this logic is starting to change.
One of the reasons for this trend was the proliferation of GLP-1 class weight loss drugs. According to Circana, a research company, 80% of consumers taking such medications expect to need new clothes in the near future, and 55% have already updated their wardrobe. It is this phenomenon that Business of Fashion analysts call size volatility — "size variability".
GLP-1 drugs are a class of drugs that mimic the action of the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which is involved in regulating blood sugar levels and feelings of satiety.
As Alexandra Levitina, an international expert on image and style, founder of ALFS and lecturer at MGIMO, notes, this means the emergence of a fundamentally new consumer reality for the fashion industry.
— It turns out that the size no longer remains constant, and the wardrobe is now being changed as the appearance changes. Whereas before, clothes were bought to fit your current physique and worn for years until significant changes occurred or things lost their appearance," the expert explains.
The peculiarity of the situation lies not only in the fact of weight loss, but in the speed and nature of the changes. The body can transform faster than it did before, and not only the total weight changes, but also the volume distribution. As a result, a person can formally remain in the usual size range, but clothes begin to fit him differently. This is becoming a new challenge for the industry.
The size crisis
The phenomenon of size volatility has drawn attention to a problem that existed in the fashion industry long before the term itself appeared. Even in conditions of relatively stable body parameters, clothing size was rarely a universal and unambiguous characteristic.
According to Vogue Business, 91% of buyers admit that their size depends on a particular brand. Another 43% cite a poor fit as one of the main reasons for not buying, and 36% are faced with inconsistencies in dimensional grids. A Russian study of the "To be Precise" project showed that the parameters of the same letter sizes may vary by 6-16% from different manufacturers.
The practice of so—called vanity sizing has gone even further - artificially reducing the size on the label. A study by the British company Tellar, which analyzed 500 UK 10 size items from 50 brands, showed that almost three quarters of items did not meet the traditional parameters of this size.
As Anna Lebsak-Kleimans, CEO of Fashion Consulting Group, notes in an interview with Izvestia, the problem lies not only in the diversity of human figures, but also in the structure of the industry itself.
— Modern fashion works in a multicultural labeling system: Russian, European, British, American and Asian sizes exist in parallel, and the letter XS, S, M and L do not have a single standard at all. The same S marking for different brands can mean both the Russian 42nd and 44th size, and M - both 46th and 48th, — says the expert.
However, the problem is not limited to the lack of a unified notation system. Even if all manufacturers used the same labeling, the issue of clothing fit would still remain open. The fact is that any grid is based on an average model of the human body.
Valeria Tukhanova, PhD, Associate Professor at the HSE Faculty of Creative Industries, explains that the design of clothing is based on regulatory and technical documentation, which describes typical figures of the population.
— In the Russian Federation, product design is carried out on the basis of GOST, which provides information on the classification of typical figures of women and men by height, size and fullness groups, — the expert notes.
Such standards are necessary for mass production, but they inevitably simplify reality. Dimensional grids are created based on standard shapes, whereas in reality each person has a unique combination of anthropometric characteristics.
— The anthropological characteristics of a person indicate that each figure has its own unique body shapes, which are characterized by a set of morphological features: height, chest circumference, weight, shape of the chest, abdomen and back, degree of musculature development, development and distribution of the subcutaneous fat layer and other parameters, - explains Tukhanova.
That is why two people with the same size of clothes can have completely different proportions and look different in the same thing. Moreover, the standards themselves become obsolete over time.
— The formation of GOST requires the measurement of all citizens of the country and is an extremely time-consuming process. Over time, proportions of figures, ratios of groups of figures, and other characteristics of the population change," the expert says.
But even when it comes to correctly designed clothes, another factor comes into play — the psychological one. According to Anna Lebsak-Kleimans, size exists not only as an objective characteristic of the body, but also as an element of self-identification.
— The size exists in the mind of the buyer. It can be called "self—labeling" - the subjective size that a person attributes to himself as part of the desired image. This is especially noticeable in women's fashion, where XS, S or M designations have long gone beyond technical labeling and have become associated with ideas about slimness and attractiveness," the expert explains.
Research published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology shows that consumers often rate larger clothing less positively, even if it objectively fits the figure better and provides a better fit.
Dimensionlessness as an answer
If the traditional size system is getting worse at describing real shapes, then the industry inevitably faces the question: what can replace it? While brands are not ready to completely abandon size grids, they are increasingly trying to make clothes more flexible and less dependent on the exact parameters of the body.
The luxury segment was one of the first to catch this request. Balenciaga Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli presented the collection Unsized — A Lightness of Being, built around the idea of adaptive clothing. Drawstring straps, built-in straps and elastic elements allow you to adjust the fit and wear the same thing with different body parameters. "Clothes can adapt to different bodies, and that was the key point for me," the designer noted.
Although such solutions have appeared on the catwalk, today they are gradually becoming part of a broader market trend. According to Alexandra Levitina, the industry relies on three main areas: new materials, adaptive design and looser silhouettes.
— The first is elastic materials. For example, fibers with the effect of adapting to different body types. The second is constructive adaptability: adjustable belts, drawstring straps, a smell instead of a rigid fastener. And finally, the silhouette is a loose fit and drapery that allow clothes to work on different shapes," the expert explains.
These solutions are most actively being implemented today in clothing categories where precise fit is not critical. We are talking about dresses, knitwear, shirts, outerwear, sports and casual items. This is where designers get the most freedom to create models that can adapt to shape changes without losing their appearance.
However, the possibilities of adaptive design are limited by the very nature of clothing design. As Valeria Tukhanova emphasizes, product design is still based on basic dimensional features.
— When designing light industry products, the main dimensional features and auxiliary ones are used. For shoulder products of women's and men's clothing, the main size feature is the chest circumference. For women's waist products — hip circumference, for men's — waist circumference, — the expert notes.
At the same time, the fit itself depends not only on the size, but also on the chosen silhouette. The more fitting the product is, the more it depends on the accuracy of the measurements.
— There are four types of products according to the degree of fit in the waist area: tight-fitting, semi-fitting, loose-fitting and very loose-fitting. For the first two types, accurate measurements are critically important, for the rest they are secondary," says Tukhanova.
In addition, the same measurements do not guarantee the same fit. The appearance of clothing is influenced by the features of the body, the proportions of the figure, the shape of the chest and the distribution of body volume.
— In the classification according to the metric index, there are five groups: narrow-complex, medium-complex, broad-complex, bulky and bogatyr. These differences characterize the ratio of chest circumference to human height," the expert notes.
That is why even the most modern adaptive solutions do not eliminate the need for design work. In mass production, clothes are still created based on a standard figure, and then scaled to other sizes using gradation. However, as the size difference increases, it becomes more and more difficult to maintain the original proportions of the product.
The future after dimensions
However, responsive design is only part of the answer to the problem of size volatility. Even the most flexible designs cannot take into account all the features of the body, and mass production still requires a certain standardization. Therefore, in parallel with the change in clothing itself, the industry is beginning to change its approach to its choice. According to Alexandra Levitina, this process is already underway and is gradually becoming the new norm for online commerce.
— They are already influencing, so the big players are moving from a simple number in the product description to a visual fitting. For example, ASOS launched such a service in February 2026, and Google has a similar technology that shows the approximate fit of a thing based on a buyer's photo. A person focuses less solely on the size chart and gets a visual idea of how a thing might look on his figure, which reduces uncertainty when buying, the expert notes.
The emergence of such services is largely due to the fact that the traditional sizing system is getting worse at its main task — helping the buyer make a decision. When the same size can fit differently not only for different brands, but also for the same person in different periods of life, the parameter table ceases to be a sufficient selection tool.
For retailers, digital fitting is becoming a way to reduce the number of refunds, which remains one of the main problems of e-commerce. For buyers— it is an opportunity to see how a thing will look on their own figure, and not on a model from a catalog.
The next step may be the appearance of personal digital avatars that will be used to try on clothes in different stores and brands. According to Valeria Tukhanova, it is in this direction that the industry is developing today.
— A promising direction for the development of the fashion industry is the spread of technologies for virtual fitting rooms for clothes, shoes and accessories in a digital environment. Over time, this will become a ubiquitous phenomenon. Each person will have their own digital avatar and the availability of the technological ability to try on products in different brands," the expert believes.
In this model, the buyer will no longer have to compare the size grids of different manufacturers or try to guess how the thing will fit on the figure. The system will be able to automatically match the parameters of a digital avatar with the design of a specific product and predict its fit.
— This will reduce the time of wardrobe selection and will allow you to purchase products tailored to individual characteristics. For brands, this will be an opportunity to study customer needs in depth and reduce production costs to meet product demand," Tukhanova notes.
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