Name: How could AI fix fashion’s fit problem? | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-11-16T20:15:42.000Z
Duration: 6 min 25 s
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Past simple

I started making my own clothes when I was 14, fell in love with Savile Row.

Gerund

Started interning in tailoring when I was 15.

To-infinitive

And every summer we thought, as soon as there's a womenswear tailor, I would really like to work for her on sapelbury.

But for 200 years, it was just menswear tailoring.

Fast forward a few years, and Phoebe opened the first womenswear tailors on the iconic London street.

One thing that they all had in common is they would all come in and say, high street sizing is so bad.

I don't think we can trust high street sizing at the moment.

So I think being able to just go by how it looks and forget about the number is always my go to.

If you can reduce the returns, that would be ideal.

If sizing with standard would help, might be looking at a size 8 for something else, and

then it might be a size 10 in something completely different.

And it could be disheartening when you think that you're one size in particular.

Finding the perfect pair of jeans that fit is a challenge I'm sure many women can sympathise with.

And that's because there's no universal sizing, meaning that a size 10 can be too big or too small.

It's just so hard to get a pair of jeans that fit.

So we put it to the test with pairs of jeans all in the supposed same size.

Okay, so that one's coming out at 40 centimeters, and the smallest one here coming out at 33.

So that's a 7 centimeter difference on the half, which means it's 14 centimeter difference on, you know, the full circumference.

So 14cm difference means there's three and a half sizes different between the biggest and the smallest.

Phoebe founded the Fit Collective, a tech startup that uses AI to help brands solve the clothing sizing problem.

As far as we know, we're the first solution that is really comparing all of their manufacturing data that's called PLM data, and

So we're the first solution that's looking at when you make a dress that has a neckline this deep or a sleeve that long or a length that long or a hem that wide.

So how do your customers actually feel about it?

And so comparing this huge data set of PLM data and commercial data is the first time that now you can actually see where those threads are and be able to pull on.

Changing this small thing is going to have this huge financial impact.

The average return rate for clothing bought online is around 50%.

And it's this data that's extremely useful.

So you've got transactions which people bought two sizes.

Did half the people keep the bigger size and half the people keep the smaller size?

You've got returns and you've got reasons why they returned, and

also written commentary about why people are returning.

And you've got reviews and you've got customer service emails.

Fit Collective takes all of this data to drill down into how each garment is performing, using artificial intelligence to read, summarize and analyze all the feedback from customers.

Crucially, the text solution means that you can wrap all of that up and deliver it in a really succinct message to the production team.

For example, take 5cm off the length of this jumpsuit to reduce the returns by 4%, which is going to save you 312,000 pounds.

You know, being able to distill all of that data, all of that feedback into a single sentence that they can take action on in 30 seconds.

Fit Collective is now working with about 10 brands.

I can see those contracts growing significantly over time, and

then that's going to bring a lot more brands into using Fit Collective.

People in the fashion industry often move around, they talk to each other.

When something works, everybody wants a bit of it.

And so I see that as being the growth vector for Fit Collective.

And I wouldn't be surprised if we're working with 100 brands in a year's time.

And a number of high street retailers are already putting the tech to the test.

So what have they found out since deploying the AI?

Halternecks are our highest returning neckline type.

We can then take that straight back to our garment tech team and they can then definitely look into all the patterns of our halter necks and understand, okay, is it from a particular supplier?

We've really changed our strategy from the data we've got from Fit Collective, that it was actually really unprofitable online.

So it's more of an in store experience only.

And then we've learned that our US customers as well actually need more fit guidance and than our UK customer.

But some say the fashion industry is a bit more complicated and believe there should be more wiggle room.

Each designer, each retailer has its own interpretation of what the shape, the fit, the size should be.

Some will like a more comfortable fit, some will like a tighter, more body hugging fit.

That's part of their, that's part of their interpretation of the fabric and the trends of the season.

So a lot of UK designers that sell very successfully in Japan, for example, we work with many of them over the years, have to redesign their collections completely because the body shape in different parts of the world is different, take action.

The Fit Collective is on track to expand.

Ultimately, the biggest bonus is that we've had a really big financial impact for our brands.

So some of the brands we've been working with the longest have had a 10% reduction in their return rate since this time last year, which is really fantastic.

And that's kind of returns are increasing for all brands year on year.

So to have such a big impact has been really powerful and just shows what we're capable of.