There is a British Standard specification for women's standard sizes (intended for the RTW industry).
BS 3666I don't have access to it, nor do I wish to shell £102.
I do have a 1967 book "Sizing, Pattern Construction and Graging for Women's and Children's Garments" by Philip Kunick. which is about how the first version of BS3666 came about in 1963. Part of the introduction reads:
...a survey of some 5,000 women was carried out by the Clothing Industry Development Council in 1951 ... The results of the survey were published ..... in 1957 under the title 'Women's Measurements and Sizes'.....
British Standards Institution completed its work on 'Size Codes for Women's Outerwear' which was published on 18th September 1963. The complete standared will be found in Chapter 3Chapter 3 gives the list of sizes, from size 8, hips 34-35" Bust 32-33' through to size 32, hips 55-57" bust 53-55".
Chapter 4 though is much more interesting, Measuring technique, Measurements and Sizes is about how they measured those 5,000 women; taking 42 different measurments from each one.
In the end they came up with short 5'1", medium 5'4", tall 5'7" and very tall 5'10", small bust (4" smaller than hip), medium bust (2" smaller than hip) and full bust (same as hip) and came up with charts covering all of those in sizes 8-28.
The scan shows just how many possible sizes there are, and no wonder that RTW only makes the few most common.
The rest of the book is about pattern construction, ease and grading.
The other three scans show all the measurements that were taken.
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