At that time, they were similar in concept to the EN 13402 European clothing size standard, although individual manufacturers have always deviated from them, sometimes significantly.
[2] As this was largely successful in men, the same approach was attempted in the early 20th century for women using the bust as the sole measurement.
[5] In the 1940s, the statisticians Ruth O'Brien and William Shelton received a Works Progress Administration grant to conduct the most ambitious effort to solve this problem.
The various combinations of height and girth resulted in nine sizes for each numerical upper-body measurement, which was highly impractical for manufacturing.
Variations include the height of the person's torso (known as back length), whether the bust, waist, and hips are straighter (characteristic of teenagers) or curvier (like many adult women), and whether the bust is higher or lower (characteristic of younger and older women, respectively).
The sizes seen in catalogs generally have roughly the following measurements: [citation needed] [citation needed] [citation needed] With the average American woman's height (20 years and older) at about 5 ft 4 in (162.1 cm) (Department of Health 2012), both standard and catalog size ranges attempt to address a variety of weights or builds as well as providing for the "shorter-than-average" height woman with "petite" and "half-sizes".