In January 2019, at the Textile Conclave of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Gandhinagar, Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani announced that the textiles and garment industry will soon have a standard India-specific apparel size. The Ministry has already sanctioned the “Size India” project under the Research and Development Scheme. The National Institute of Fashion Technology is the implementation agency for rolling out the project across India and will develop the Indian size charts.
According to Irani, “our country has a capacity to cater to huge demands, both domestic and overseas. But, never before in the history of our country was a study done to ascertain the strength and the magnitude of our domestic market. The Centre will soon embark upon a statistical study to actually categorise the domestic demand of the market so that it becomes a base for the creation and strengthening of the industry”.
Currently, the Indian textile sector follows a universal standard of size measurement, categorized as XS (Extra Small), S (Small), L (Large), M (Medium), L (Large), XL (Extra Large), XXL (Extra Extra Large) and so on. But after the completion of this project, the entire country will have a standard reference point for the ready-to-wear industry and all Indian brands will have the same sizes available for people. The support of Indian and international experts who have been involved in national sizing surveys is being taken for the project.
Under the project, NIFT plans to measure 25,000 people between ages 18 and 65 years, using 3D whole body scanners, across six different regions in the country i.e. North (New Delhi), South (Bengaluru), East (Kolkata), West (Mumbai), Central (Hyderabad) and North-East (Shillong). The National Sizing Survey will cost approximately INR 30 crores. The Ministry is contributing 21 crores and NIFT is pitching in 9 crores. This project will take 2-3 years.
Last year, at a press conference held at the NIFT-New Delhi campus, Noopur Anand, a professor at NIFT-Delhi and principal investigator of the project said, “this would be a scientific exercise where anthropometric data will be collected from a sample population of 25,000 to create a database of measurements that will culminate in a standardised size chart, truly be representative of the Indian population, which can then be adopted by the entire apparel industry. “The final outcome will be in numerical value. We don’t know yet, if we would be having just a single numerical marker or the more than one. Also, about 120 different anthropometric elements, including, height, weight, waist-size, hip-size, bust-size, would be included in the survey.”
The underlying idea of this project is to address the challenges of the export segment of the textile industry and the global Indian diaspora. Moreover, it will reduce the production costs and the waste inventories of the industry, thereby enabling the manufacturers and retailers to benefit the consumers by adjusting the prices accordingly.
14 countries in the world have their own national sizing charts. The United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe (France, Spain, Germany, Italy), Australia, Japan, Korea and China have their own sizing standards. Other countries adjust the size requirements according to these. India will soon join the ranks of the US, UK and Europe within the textile and garment industry.
India Outbound
February 15, 2019
source https://indiaoutbound.org/one-indian-size-fits-all/
No comments:
Post a Comment