Chapter VII: Fitting
If you plan to enter this industry as a fitter, analyze your personality. If you like people, enjoy helping others and have a sense of kindness, you will be a good corsetiere. These qualities are absolutely necessary for your success.
A "professional" in this business knows figure types so well that she can tell the minute a customer approaches- even before taking a measurement-just what figure type this woman is. Her eyes might say: "This woman is a thick-waisted, top-heavy half size, and I'll recommend 'so-and-so's' corselet to her. She is either a 40 or 42C."
Actually, of course, you measure her first-a simple procedure if you follow the basic rules as they are explained later in this chapter.
Figure Types
The Sub-Teen or Teenager
The young girl of twelve or fourteen who enters the corset department for the first time today may well be your best customer tomorrow. She is shy and extremely self-conscious about her new curves. You will have difficulty in getting her to try on a girdle or brassiere. She may just guess at the size and want to take the garment home to try it on in the privacy of her own room. The corsetiere must, in a very impersonal way, make this young girl feel perfectly at home in the fitting room and overcome her self-consciousness by being friendly, helpful and impersonal. Let her know that her first bra and her first girdle are very important for fashion coordination, grooming, health and beauty.
There are definite faults to be found in the junior miss figure. She has a prominent derriere which usually cannot be flattened as the texture of the flesh is generally too hard and muscular to be molded. This line can be refined, though, with a good panty or girdle.
The young figure can be refined without being confined. Under the small, pointed breasts of the junior figure there is sometimes a very prominent bony or muscular rib line, especially if she is athletically inclined. When you start to measure, you will be surprised at the large ribline measurement compared to the small bustline measurement. Do not be fooled, however, by this. You will find many young girls have barrel-like figures, and some have over-developed bustlines for their size. Many juniors wear as large as a C cup in a size 32 brassiere. This type is extremely self-conscious. She wants to wear sweaters like her classmates.
Most young juniors want strong, durable cotton brassieres for everyday school wear with one very lacy, glamorous garment to wear under party dresses for special occasions. Her girdle or panty girdle must have eye-appeal because she comes to your department armed with prejudices about "corsets." Her garment should be comfortable enough for dancing, basketball, or sitting all day in a classroom.
The greatest number of complaints in junior miss wear are about the "seating" capacity of panty girdles. If you will keep in mind that most figures are as different in length through the crotchline as they are through the bustline, you will be more thorough in fitting panty girdles correctly and be able to give the customer more comfort.
The Active Twenties
The young woman from nineteen to thirty is probably the easiest person to fit. Her flesh is soft enough to mold comfortably into a good foundation. She is still young enough not to have developed any great figure problems. Her bustline does not sag very much. She has no "tummy" problem and her derriere is usually not too large.
Try to fit her in a light-weight, youthful garment that will give her a longer figure. Talk to her about keeping her muscles strong with good posture.
The Middle Years
The young matron in her thirties may have several figure problems. She should be easy to fit, however, as she is usually a very fashion-conscious woman who wants a comfortable, youthful foundation that will make her feel and look twenty again. The muscles in her bustline have sagged somewhat, and she may have a prominent or dropped stomach either from childbirth or from lack of exercise. She will appreciate your help the most because you can make her forget that, on the morning she came to see you, she found her first gray hair or had felt particularly tired after a late party.
You will accomplish this by giving her the lift that she definitely needs. You will win her everlasting gratitude with a light-weight garment that weighs only a few ounces but is built to control a maturing figure. If she has a real problem such as an arching back or a bad stomach due to childbirth, she may require a very firm garment. Find out first what her problems are and what kind of work she has to do.
The Sagging Fifties
The women who came under this category in the 1880's were tired old ladies. Today they are smart-looking matrons who want good figures on which to drape their outer apparel. They are actually the easiest figures in the world to corset. The flesh is soft and may be easily and comfortably molded into a firm and more youthful silhouette.
Fitting this figure is a matter of study-re-distributing the flesh by lifting the bustline into firm brassiere or corselet pockets, then flattening the tummy and back.
The biggest problem of this age is the thickened waistline. Women are apt to go back into that barrel-like look of the teens, but they can be helped with a good foundation. Watch waistline measurements, particularly on this figure, and try to select a garment that will not require costly alterations. The longer this figure is between the bustline and the waistline, the younger she appears.
The matron may really need strong support or even an inner-belt garment for dropped stomach muscles. Get to the root of any problem before the customer undresses. This saves her time and embarrassment in the fitting room.
The Sixties and Seventies
Some one of these days a sweet little old lady who is very set in her tastes will find her way into your shop and insist on a back-lace or front-lace corset. She may not even let you fit her properly because for years she has been buying corsets "over-the-counter," just as her mother did. No amount of good selling can convince her that a light-weight garment would make her feel younger and more comfortable.
Measuring
Many manufacturers, as we have said before, offer fitting charts and instructions to their retailers. I do not want to belittle the value of this information. The more knowledge you acquire, the better off you are going to be. But, when you are measuring the customer you may be slightly confused. One chart will tell you to take a ribline measurement and add five inches to it t6 get the brassiere size, and to judge cup depth by looks. In other words, a size 34 brassiere would fit a woman with a 29-inch rib cage, and you would have to determine, by looking at the customer, whether she was an A (small), B (average), C (larger than average), or D (extra large) -
Bra Measurements
The method I use in my class, and the one which I find to be the easiest and the most accurate for a bra measurement, is to put the tape measure around the chest line of the woman and the upper fleshy part of her back at the top of the arm pit. Then measure the woman around the point of the breast. The chest measurement is the bra size. The difference between the chest measurement and the point-of-the-breast measurement goes as follows: one inch indicates an A cup; two inches, a B; three inches, a C; and four inches, a D cup. You can practice this on yourself and on members of your family. It is as accurate as measurements go, but there are factors which can slightly change both the cup and the bra size and make exceptions to the rule. Here are two such exceptions:
1. The woman's chest measurement is 36 inches and her bust measurement is 38 inches. You would assume she would be a 36B. However, you might find that she has a very heavy breast and would be more comfortable or better-fitted in a C cup. Whenever in doubt, take both sizes into the fitting room.
2. You may also find that the customer has either a very bony protruding rib cage under her breasts, much fat tissue, or is very muscular. She may be fitted properly in what her measurements call for, but she may not be comfortable. If she measures the same as the woman in the previous example, you may find that she is more comfortable in a size 38B-putting it to the tight hook adjustment-than she is in the size 36 on the last hook of the brassiere. Elasticized bras are especially comfortable for the customer with a heavy rib cage.
I mentioned before that there are a number of women who can truthfully say: "I have a drawer full of bras that I never wear." The reason for this is that they either do not bother to be fitted correctly or that the fitter has gone by measurements alone, without keeping the two exceptions noted above in mind and trying on different types.
Many of us in the corset industry have to be facetious at times and so we might refer, behind the scenes, to the girl who has a round, shallow breast as a "fried egg" type. Even as she matures and gets a heavier breast, she still has a wide spread figure. The styles of some manufacturers tend to hug the breast and mold it into a figure which brings the breasts closer together.
Then there is the opposite type of woman who wants a bra which will spread the breast and give her a better center division for her outer apparel. As you familiarize yourself with the merchandise in your stock, you will soon be able to determine-with the help of your employer and her assistants-which styles accomplish these ends.
Strapless bras which have vertical wiring hug the breast, and those with circular wires will separate and spread. Be sure, when fitting a circular wire bra, that the wire rests on the rib cage of the customer and does not press into the breast tissue. There are no statistics on the causes of breast cancer to prove that wired brassieres contribute to this malady; but, to be safe, when making these fittings keep the customer's comfort in mind and health will take care of itself.
There is one other feature to consider in studying a woman's anatomy in relation to bras. Some women's breasts are placed lower on their bodies than others, and, instead of just lifting a pendulous breast to the normal point, these women often tighten the straps to raise the bust higher- to what is above their normal bra level. This practice can wear grooves into a woman's shoulders over a period of years. This customer should be advised not to wear her straps too tight. Also tell her that there are shoulder pads available to help relieve and distribute this pressure. When the woman whose breasts are placed higher than usual on her body gains weight, she is apt to look like a little pouter pigeon. This woman does not have to wear a bra strap at its tightest, but instead should let her figure drop to a normal-looking position.
Just remember the all-important factor: comfort comes first in fitting brassieres. When a woman is comfortable in her bra, she will naturally have more grace in her body and better posture.
Girdles
Always keep a mental picture in your mind of the basic geometric fitting chart of figure types. The perfect figure in the corset and brassiere industry has a 10-inch difference between waist and hips and between waist and bust. When we say perfect, we are not talking about perfect in the sense of "ideal" but perfect meaning a "balanced" figure. A size 40 woman can have a perfect figure in our industry as well as a size 32. (If a woman has a 29-inch waist, she should have 39-inch hips. When corsets were made mostly of cloth, this ratio had to be embodied in the design of the garment. Today, with the use of elastic and stretch fabrics, the garment will allow some leeway for the fitter in both directions.)
This will be simple to follow if we continue to talk about one set of measurements. The woman with the 29-inch waist and the 39-inch hips can wear an average garment-she can also wear an average garment of all-stretch fabric if her hips measure 41 inches or 37 inches, giving you a 2-inch leeway for fitting. If the difference between the waist and hip measurements does not fall into this range, the woman is either straight-hipped (less than 8 inches difference) or a hip-heavy type (more than 12 inches difference). There are garments designed especially for each type.
I once had a customer who had a 38-inch waistline and 54-inch hips. She was a retired school teacher on a pension, paying about $40 to have special garments made for her hip-heavy figure. I assured her that there were several ready-made garments that would fit her, and I showed her a "four-sectioned" girdle made with strong leno-elastic for controlling heavy hips. It was beautifully made of top quality materials and retailed for $18.50. She could have two for the price of one of the girdles she had been buying. You have never seen anyone so happy.
The other extreme figure, which the industry calls the straight-hipped figure, may have a 38-inch waist and a 43- or 44-inch hip measurement. You often find this figure type in women just over the middle-age mark. She has thickened at the waist (sometimes due to menopause), her flesh has become flabby, and she no longer has muscle tissue in her derriere. You will recognize this type the minute she walks into your shop.
Now you have the picture of the three basic figure types. This should be thoroughly understood before going on to the length of girdles.
When talking about girdles or panty girdles, we refer to the skirt lengths of garments which go from as short as 11 inches in some that are almost elongated garter belts, to 18 inches or more. The length of a girdle- found on the box-is the length from the normal waist to the bottom edge and has nothing to do with overall garment length since the corset may go above the waistline. Look over your family and friends-sometimes you will see a short girl with long legs or a tall girl with short legs and vice versa.
Panty Girdles
When fitting panty girdles, watch the crotchline. Women differ in "length" from front to back as much as they do in their bust measurements. Be sure that the panty is long enough in the crotch to allow good sitting room, otherwise the garment will ride down at the waist and will not control the waistline. The measurements that you take for panties are the same that you take for panty girdles. The length of the panty leg will be determined by the customer's thigh muscles and flesh and also by her use of the garment. Some women prefer to wear panty girdles all the time, but there are others who use them as part of a complete corset wardrobe.
You will find girls who want very short panty girdles for active sportswear and others who want long-legged panty girdles to wear under sheaths or tight-fitting pants. Again, it is a case of measuring first and then determining the customer's needs.
Corselets
Many of the customers who throw up their hands at the mention of corselets have never even tried one on. Such a woman thinks negatively of "so much corset" without realizing that a light-weight corselet usually weighs less than a bra and girdle combined. If you think either the occasion or her figure calls for a corselet, you can bring out this fact in your conversation. Trying one on will inevitably open her mind. Most women, once they see themselves in this elongated look, are sold on sight- especially if the garment is light, supple, and provides plenty of control.
Corselets are especially wonderful for the half-size, dumpy figure for a very good reason. The longer a woman looks from her bust to her hips, the taller she looks. The taller she looks, the thinner she looks. Once you get this short-waisted figure into a corselet, she will be so pleased with the change in her looks that she may buy two. Have this "little" woman put her dress back on over the corselet as a final "clincher."
During the 1930's, a government survey showed that 65 per cent of the American women were five feet four inches tall or less, thirty-five per cent were between five feet four inches and five feet seven, and only five per cent were over five feet seven. Now, with more vitamins and more knowledge about prenatal care, we are bearing taller children. Within this decade, these figures could increase by eight or ten per cent.
However, judging by half-size dress sales, the half-size is still in the majority. A designer once described a half-size as the result when you squash a perfectly-proportioned rubber doll-her waist, arms, and upper thighs thicken. By the same token, if you stretch the doll out, she would become generally thin and stringy. This is the tall girl with no bust or hips. In a corset department, the tall woman with a heavy bust or hips is about one out of every thousand customers.
Now that you are aware of the value to be found in corselet fitting, how is it done? All corselets are sold by bust measurements. This might confuse you at first when you see only 38B or 42C on the box. But study the labeling further and you will see that it is also marked for figure type.
You take all measurements in corselet selling even if the box is marked just by bust size. The same factors apply in finding figure types as in fitting girdles and bras, e.g.: if the customer measures 38B bust, 28-inch waist and 38-inch hips, you would fit her in a 38B average corselet. If she measures 38C and the rest of her measurements are as above, she would be a 38C average corselet.
The box will be marked "half size," "full hipped," "straight hipped," etc., just as girdles are marked. If the customer is a short-waisted half-size figure with a 38C bust and smaller hips, she would be a straight-hipped half-size in 38C.
Corselets are really wonderful for suggestive selling with ready-to-wear. There are certain clothes that call for beautifully fitted corselets-wedding gowns, basque dresses, long-looking fitted sheaths and, by all means, knitwear.
Ensembling Girdles and Brassieres
A woman should never have a "rubber tire" above her waist once you have properly fitted her. If she has no excess flesh, heavy bone, or muscle in the rib cage, she can wear anything. But, if she is not perfect-and less than 5 per cent of your customers are-she will want to wear a high-waisted girdle with a short or three-quarter length bra or a shorter waisted girdle and a longline bra.
Many older women who have the most fat at this particular spot also have the most trouble with pressure of any kind on the rib cage. This customer is happiest in a bra that has plenty of elasticity through her ribline.
Garment Use
Now that you have studied the figure, taken the measurements, and judged the length, you visit with the customer to find out what she expects the garment to do. Is she in and out of a car all day, playing chauffeur to her family? Is she bending over a garden or scrubbing floors? Does she play golf? This active woman will want an all-elastic or all-spandex girdle to give her support with lots of freedom. Perhaps she is conscious of her age or has sagging stomach muscles from childbirth or as a post-operative condition. She might be a woman who just feels better in a more controlling garment-possibly a cloth-paneled garment or one with boning.
Now you have all three measurements, figure type and garment use. These are the thoughts you carry back to the stockroom while you pick out the right garment.
Never ask a customer what price garment she prefers. She may be embarrassed if she has to say "$5" and she may be insulted if she expects to spend $25. The best way to handle this is to bring in different priced garments and make your recommendations first on what the garment will do for her. You will find that even the budget-minded woman will spend more on a foundation if it is "just right for her." That is why stores which have a trained staff of corsetieres can always "trade up" in their corset and brassiere departments.
Fitting Mastectomies (breast amputees)
With over 50,000 cases of mastectomy, this is a problem that we in the industry face daily. To understand this customer you must realize that she has gone through several emotional and physical changes. Sometimes she feels that she is only "half a woman." If she had weight and muscle tissue in her breast, she will actually feel off balance as she walks. If she is married, she will be worrying about her husband's reaction to her figure change. There is usually more scar tissue than just across the breastline. If the cancer spread through the ligaments, there will be deep indentations under the arm, into the rib cage and sometimes into the arm itself. Both the side cavity and the breast cavity must be artificially filled.
There are various mastectomy bras on the market. In one, an air-filled plastic pocket is inserted into the bra and taken out for laundering. Another excellent type is filled with liquid and feels like the weight of the lost muscle tissue. Mastectomy bras are also made from foam rubber. These bras are available in all sizes and are elongated at the sides to fill the side cavities.
You fit your customer in the size which she wore before surgery. If both breasts have been removed, you take a chest measurement (rib, etc.) and fit her in the bra that goes best with her figure.
Once you have finished your first fitting with tact and kindness, you will be so rewarded by the customer's appreciation that the next fitting will not be difficult at all.
Maternity Fittings
Although I have performed or supervised many maternity fittings, I still went to my own doctor, my best source of information, before writing this book. She is a member of the staff of a famous New York hospital and is a well-known obstetrician and gynecologist who says: "I don't recommend maternity girdles to my very strong, very young, muscular patients. I do, however, like to have my other patients wear them. They are especially important to the girl who is having her second or third child and to the woman who has a lot of lifting and physical work to do. For the weak-muscled girl who is carrying a heavy baby and suffers from backache, a maternity girdle helps to distribute and carry the weight and relieve the backache."
There is another type of maternity girdle customer-the girl or woman who must keep her job as long as her boss will let her stay and who must look as well-groomed and well-rested as possible.
The next time you see your own doctor, tell him that you are interested in maternity garments, and ask to be shown some pictures of the embryo in its various stages of development and the different ways that the mother might carry it. Or, stop at your public library and look at medical drawings.
For the young figure who wants just a little help, there are inexpensive, light-weight maternity garments made of power net that can be adjusted month-by-month with side lacings or series of hooks. For the slightly more mature figures, there are garments with cloth and elastic sections. For real problem cases, there are very heavy maternity girdles with sturdy panels and heavier lacings.
You fit the garment to the girl as she is in your fitting room, then teach her how to adjust it monthly. Most women buy at least two garments so they can launder one each day. Sometimes a customer will ask to take a girdle on approval to show her doctor.
Pre-natal bras are sold in the girl's regular size with adjustments for letting out. A girl's breast fills out all around as the glandular changes take place, so it is sometimes wise to start with a larger cup even if the rib size is her regular size.
Again there is the girl who sometimes prefers to buy a new bra every month or so. Of course this is expensive and unnecessary.
Many new hospitals are now putting small nurseries for the babies next to their mothers' rooms, going back to the way nature intended for mothers to nurse their babies when they are hungry and to hold them close.
Your customer who realizes that a breast-fed baby is the healthiest baby will be asking you for nursing bras. Sometimes a frantic husband will run to you from her hospital bed, knowing that you sold his wife her maternity bras. Try to fit her with a nursing bra before childbirth and she will be happy that you prepared her-and her husband will be forever grateful.
You will find that the happy, satisfied maternity customer will return to you after childbirth if you have really helped her. She will again trust you to sell her a comfortable post-natal controlling girdle that she can wear with confidence, you will be building a clientele.
Surgical Fitting
If an osteopath or a doctor of medicine sends you a patient who requires a post-operative garment or a slightly-boned garment for a weak back, you can help her with a girdle that has an inner belt for dropped stomach muscles or a boned-back foundation.
But, if she has a real problem that calls for the prescription of a surgical garment, do not fit her. You could do her more harm than good. Some large stores have a surgical department. Otherwise this customer must go to a surgical store.
If you are interested in becoming a surgical fitter, write to S. H. Campe Company, Jackson, Michigan, for further information-or drop into a surgical department or store for guidance on training.
Summary of General Fitting Rules
There are certain basic rules to remember in fitting all figure types.
- Measure the figure carefully to determine the correct bust, waist, and hip dimensions.
- Select the type of garment to be fitted
- Be sure that the garment is of sufficient length and watch the customer's stocking length for garter adjustment.
- Always have the customer sit down in her garment and sure that the bones, if any, in the corset are the proper length and do not dig into the flesh.
- Attach garters correctly in a straight line and teachthe customer to keep garters straight to prolong the life of both the corset and the hosiery.
- Make sure there is no roll of flesh above the waist of a girdle or at the top of a corselet.
- Be sure that the crotchline of a panty girdle is long enough and that the customer knows how to get in and out of the garment.
- Be sure that the customer is pleased before she leaves the department, thus saving on credits and returns.
- Always have your customer lean forward when you hook her brassiere. This is especially important if her breast is at all pendulous. In this way, the nipples of her breast fall directly into the center of the bra pocket. In the case of a long-line bra, fasten the first four hooks and then have her stand up while you finish fastening.
Good fitting saves the customer dress alteration charges and saves the time of your alteration department.
In class we have the girls judge each other's figures and do practice fittings. If you cannot attend a class, you can start on your own family and friends and eventually get your coworkers to let you watch them work without offense to the customer.
After reading this material on fitting, you can readily see why some women should never buy a garment "over-the-counter," as sometimes these figure secrets do not show under outer apparel.
Read as much as you can in the trade press about the merchandise you carry and about this industry with which you have become associated.
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Last updated January 30, 1998