Switching patternmakers, graders, or factories doesn’t mean starting over on your fit and sizing (at least it shouldn’t). You’ve worked hard to achieve your brand’s signature fit and particular sizing. There is no need to throw that away. With the right tools, open communication, and quality checks, you can find a better-fit service provider or production partner without risking a worse fit for your products.
What is your current fit and sizing?
The first step of keeping a consistent fit when you change service providers or production partners is to know what your current fit and sizing is. Take a look at your brand’s size chart. Analyze customer reviews and return rates. Do your styles run true to size? Are your customers happy with the fit of your current products?
Ideally, you also have some documentation on the development and production side, not just the sales side. Spec charts, grade rules, and pattern files hold the precise fit and sizing information. If you don’t have access to these files, I recommend asking your current patternmaker or factory for a copy of this information.
How to make sure your fit and sizing comes with you
A new patternmaker, grader, or factory will probably ask for your size chart and what size range you want your styles graded in. This alone is not enough to ensure the same fit and sizing, though. Size charts usually just list the bust, waist, and hip measurements. Without additional information, each grader is left to interpret how other measurements change with each size. There can be quite the variation depending on their preferences and any size standards they are using.
If you want to make sure your brand’s exact fit and sizing follows through to the styles your new provider is working on, bring them a grade rule or a full graded spec sheet plus the graded pattern of a current similar style. With this information, your new provider will be able to see exactly what has been done before and replicate that in your new styles to keep everything consistent.
This is one of the biggest benefits of having a tech pack and pattern file for each of your styles. You own the fit and sizing and are able to communicate it to any production partner! It gives your brand the freedom to switch factories or service providers without uprooting the fit you’ve worked so hard to perfect.
How to communicate your current fit and sizing
While referencing pattern files and tech packs are the ultimate way to keep your fit and sizing consistent when switching providers, there are a few other things you can do to make sure the new provider understands your brand’s unique fit.
When onboarding with a new provider, share about your brand’s target customer, what purpose the garments serve for them, and any special requirements or considerations that are important to your brand. Like many of the brands I work with, your brand might intentionally have “non-standard” fit and sizing in order to solve a wardrobe problem for a specific market niche. In your conversation with your new provider, highlight what makes your brand’s fit or sizing different and why.
In addition, photos of your current products can be a helpful reference for how a style is supposed to fit.
It also never hurts to provide your fit model’s measurements and the size she wears in your brand. Knowing who the style fits is an additional reference for how your style should fit.
How to confirm the fit and sizing are still the same
Once your new patternmaker, grader, or factory has worked on your new style, how do you confirm that it is, in fact, consistent with your existing products? Ask for a spec sheet. Then, compare the measurements to those of your current products.
If it is the same or similar style, the measurements should be the same. If it is a new style, the measurements will be different, but the change in measurements between sizes should still be the same for each point of measure. For example, if there is a ½” difference between the shoulder width of the S and the M on your existing style, it should be the same difference between those sizes for the shoulder width of your new style.
Anytime you are developing a new style (with a new provider or past one), I recommend getting a pre-production sample (PPS) and potentially a size run of samples before committing to a production run. When switching providers, this sampling lets you double check everything looks good and consistent. You can try these samples on multiple people to confirm that the fit and sizing is as you intend.
What to do if your brand’s fit and sizing is already inconsistent
You may be reading this and thinking “this is great, but what do I do if the styles in my collection are already inconsistent?”. You aren’t the only one. Your brand has probably grown over the years. What worked when you started out has now evolved, but not all your styles have kept up. Perhaps you’ve improved each collection, but haven’t gone back and updated previous styles. Maybe you switched patternmakers, graders, or factories early on and you didn’t realize how much would change with the switch.
Whatever the reason, you can recover and work towards more consistent fit and sizing across your whole collection. Start by identifying which styles and sizes fit the best. This will tell you what to base your fit and sizing off of. If your base sizes are consistent, but the other sizes are off, consider having certain styles re-graded to match your best-fitting sizing.
If the base sizes are inconsistent, you might need to do more reworking. Choose a consistent fit model and have her try on each piece to see where the issues are. Again, look at your sales data and reviews to see which styles are working well and can serve as consistent blocks for the other styles.
Changing patternmakers, graders, or factories doesn’t have to mean overhauling your fit and sizing. With the right information, conversation, and a new provider that understands what your brand is about, you can find the right-fit team and keep the same fit and sizing your customers have come to love.