Brazilian clothes will have to respect ‘rectangle’ and ‘spoon’ biotypes

Entering a dressing room can be an embarrassing experience for an important part of the female population in Brazil. Having to ask for the GG size when your hips are too wide, or the dummy 34 when you are short, is usually accompanied by comments from the seller or curious glances from those nearby in the store.

If it depends on the ABNT (Brazilian Association of Technical Standards), this problem should no longer exist. The entity has just approved NBR 16933, a standard that aims to standardize sizes and measurements for women’s clothing in the country.

“NBR 16933 institutes centimetrage on clothing labels”, says Maria Adelina Pereira, manager of the Brazilian Committee for the Standardization of Textiles and Clothing at ABNT. “It doesn’t matter if for a given brand one pants size is 44 and for another it is 50: if the consumer knows how much her hip is, this should be enough for her to find the piece she needs”, he says.

The initiative was eagerly awaited by garment manufacturers and pattern makers. As shown in the report of sheet, since 2012, Brazil has been in limbo when it comes to measures to define the size of women’s clothes.

The ABNT committee chose two of the five main female biotypes in Brazil to base the reference standard. They are: “rectangle” and “spoon”, identified in the anthropometric survey of the Brazilian population, the Size BR, conducted between 2006 and 2015 by Senai Cetiqt (Technology Center for the Chemical and Textile Industry of the National Industry Service).

In Brazil, 76% of women have the rectangle biotype: when the chest and hip circumferences are approximately equal, with a poorly defined waistline. The other biotype chosen was that of the “spoon”: when the hip is larger than the chest and its side is well defined and rounded – it is the one that most resembles the popular “guitar”, although this biotype represents only 8% of Brazilian women.

ABNT NBR 16933 determines dimensions in centimeters for each biotype, taking into account the perimeter of the head, neck, shoulders, bust, waist, hips, back, thigh, knee, calf and ankle.

Over the years, each chain or confection has sought to create their own size references. Recently, for example, Renner invested in 3D technology to improve the modeling process, with the development of 14 physical mannequins designed from the scan of real bodies. Brazil has not had official measures for women’s clothing since 2012.

In that year, the previous 1995 norm, NBR 13377, which dealt generically with referential measurements of the human body, was revoked. In 2009, the NBR 15800 was created, with children’s measures, and in 2012 the NBR 16060 was launched, with reference measures for men.

According to Maria Adelina, the idea was, together with the male standard, to publish the female standard, but there was no consensus among the members of the committee that discussed the standard. Large retail chains, clothing companies that supply large chains, fashion education institutions, pattern makers, Senac (National Commercial Learning Service) and Senai Cetiqt participate in the group.

Many retailers had been refusing to give up their standards to adopt a national benchmark. Hence the delay of almost ten years in the discussion of a referential table for women’s clothing.

“But, with the pandemic, the big chains had to adapt their operation to the online sale of clothing and, as a result, began to show details of the measures, which helped in the process to conclude the standard”, says Maria Adelina.

The other biotypes identified in the Senai Cetiqt survey are the triangle (the hip is much larger than the chest, without a marked waist), the inverted triangle (when the chest circumference is greater than the hip and the woman does not have a marked waist ) and the hourglass (the woman appears to be proportionate on the chest and hips and has a well-defined waist). These biotypes represent, respectively, 8%, 5% and 3% of the female population in Brazil.

Retailers Want To Offer Meter Mirror Or Photo Metering

“Now, the department stores are preparing for initiatives that help consumers to better understand their measurements, such as a measuring mirror or measuring by photo, to facilitate the purchase and prevent the clothing fitting from becoming a testing moment”, says Maria Adelina .

Maria Adelina believes that the next collections should already arrive in stores with the centimeter indications. By knowing the measures themselves –or the measures of those who want to give a gift– the purchase of clothing becomes much more assertive, she says.

“At the same time, the fashion industry can indirectly help consumers to take care of their health,” he says. “If the waist measured 80 centimeters in a given month and jumped to 90 in the following month, this could signal a hormonal problem or binge eating”, says the specialist. In the same way, he says, a sudden decrease in measurements in a short period of time can indicate a health problem.