How we got standerized clothing measurements

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   In the early 1860s, the style of menswear began to change from close fitting, custom tailored clothes to more loose fitting, ready-to-wear clothes. New technology allowed manufacturers to mass produce large quantities of standardized clothing, and a shift in the social stigma of ready-to-wear clothing helped turn the tides toward more mass-produced clothing. The real turning point in the history of mass-produced clothing, however, came with the American Civil War. When the war began, most clothing, including soldier’s uniforms, was still custom-made in homes or small factories. As the war progressed and the demands for uniforms increased, manufacturers expanded their operations to larger factories in an effort to efficiently meet the growing demand for uniforms. Along with the expansion of factories, manufacturers realized that using individual measurements to produce uniforms was timely and costly, and they would be able to produce more uniforms if they could use standardized sizes.

Before manufacturers could begin mass-producing clothing according to standard sizes, they had to study and evaluate the measurements of soldiers to find general sizing trends to use as guidelines for their sizing system. Their evaluations revealed certain sets of measurements that reoccurred on a regular basis. These reoccurring measurements were used to mass-produce ready-to-wear uniforms in a few general sizes, which were then shipped off to soldiers. When the Civil War ended, the measurements used to mass-produce soldier’s uniforms carried over to the general public market and were used to create a commercial sizing system for men’s clothing.