Fashion brands across the board are making moves to become more inclusive in their sizing, going beyond the industry’s standard of sizes 0 to 12 for womenswear. In March, Reformation rolled out permanent extended sizing to a collection of styles that included 1X to 3X, as well as 14 to 24. In October, Universal Standard announced sizes 00 to 40.
It makes sense that fashion brands would finally pay closer attention to sizing, considering it’s a massive market reported to be worth $22 billion and growing at a rate of about 6% a year, according to NPD Group. And while a lot of existing brands are scrambling to roll out a wider range of sizes, new direct-to-consumer brands are making size inclusivity a priority from day one.
Enter Laws of Motion, a DTC womenswear brand that launched last week with its hero product, “The Alpha” dress. The brand, which is promoting itself via Instagram and other social media channels for the time being, spans sizes 00 to 24, offering 99 micro-sizes within that range. Think bra company ThirdLove offering half cup sizes in its bras, but for dresses.
“We took a million data points on women’s bodies. We got data on 10,000 real women’s bodies, and we aggregated 99 micro-sizes that account for shape and size,” said Carly Bigi, founder of Laws of Motion. Bigi declined to share more info on the women involved and data collected. The line, she said, is designed to fit 95% of women. As the brand grows and launches more products in the coming months (Bigi declined to share any specifics at this time), the ultimate goal is to gather as much customer feedback as possible to create clothes that fit 100% of women.
“Newer brands that are launching today see what is going on in the market, and they are being smart about it. The trend of even calling a range plus-size, that’s something that is also going to go by the wayside. It’s just going to be the range of sizes, versus specifically calling out a plus-size range,” said Colleen Babul, stylist operations manager at online and mobile styling company Snap+Style Business.
To order a dress from Laws of Motion, women simply go to the brand’s website and take a quiz, entering a few data points. They include height, weight, bra band size and cup size, favorite denim brand and size, and finally torso length (short, average or long). It takes about one minute to complete. From there, the brand’s proprietary algorithms spit out the perfect dress for that woman’s measurements.
Once an order is placed, Bigi said Laws of Motion is in constant communication with the customer to let her know when the dress enters production, when it has been made and when it ships. Bigi hands out a personal phone number to all customers, answering nearly every call or text message personally. Currently, the brand is just five people, but growing.
The production process is also something Bigi spent a lot of time thinking about, she said. Sustainability, another buzzy topic in the fashion industry at the moment, is core to the company’s operating model.
“We manufacture using a digitally enabled and on-demand manufacturing process in Brooklyn, which we have designed from the ground up. It takes 10 minutes to make a dress, and we have a zero-waste promise to our customers that we achieve through the way we actually create the product itself,” Bigi said.