Build a Sizing System That Actually Fits Nigerian Women

Most ready-to-wear clothing sold in Nigeria, whether imported fast fashion or locally produced pieces, is built on sizing charts derived from Western body measurement studies. Nigerian women, across Lagos, Abuja, Kano and beyond, routinely buy two sizes up, alter every second purchase, or avoid ready-to-wear entirely. This is not a minor inconvenience. It is a structural failure that costs brands sales and alienates customers. Your task is to build a practical, evidence-grounded sizing framework for a fictional (or real) Lagos-based womenswear brand targeting working women aged 22 to 40. The framework should account for the actual proportional differences that make standard sizing a poor fit: bust-to-waist ratios, hip curves, torso length. You do not need a laboratory. Use existing anthropometric research, conduct at least five informal measurement interviews with willing participants, and draw on any publicly available data from African textile or health bodies. Deliver a sizing guide document that includes: a set of at least four size categories with precise measurements in centimetres, a comparison table showing how your system diverges from EU and US equivalents, a one-page rationale explaining your methodology, and a short note on how a brand could communicate this system to customers on a product page or swing tag. Strong work will be grounded in real data rather than assumptions, will acknowledge what the research cannot yet confirm, and will produce something a brand could hand to a pattern cutter and actually use. Avoid decorative infographics that look polished but say nothing specific.