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Have you seen a toddler? They're all bums and tums. But if you look at a mannequin of a toddler, it's a little shrunken adult body, like a little alien. If you're making clothes and using that as the model, it's not going to work." That's why Janice Wang, the 31-year-old entrepreneur and chief executive of Alvanon has built a business to create anatomically accurate mannequins using three-dimensional scanners. Ms Wang also diversified into consulting, after clients began asking her questions such as: "I need to target 18-30 year olds on the East Coast of the US; what should my ideal shape be? Larger in the hips or smaller on the legs?" It is this, that defines the niche she has created: her company is attempting not only to make mannequins, but to provide any service related to size issues, including questions of inventory and stock planning.

YOU have the style, the color, the fabric and it's hanging in the store, but if the fit isn't right you can forget about a sale. Size is an issue and consumers' shapes have cha nged ove r the decades - we are now taller and heavier with different prop orti ons compa red to our 1950s counter parts. Even in the lingerie sec tor we are noting a change with the increased sales of larger sized bras for the younger market. Getting the right bod y size and prop ortion s for your

Alvanon and IFTH Collaborate to Release Most Extensive Series of French Body Measurements for the Apparel Industry

Alvanon, the global size and fit expert, today announced a collaboration with the Institute Francais du Textile et de l'Habillement (IFTH) to create standard French sizes for the apparel industry. The study, conducted by IFTH in 2006, which included more than 11,500 scans of French citizens in 37 different sites in France, provides powerful insight into how to improve fit for the French body for apparel brands both in France and those seeking to gain a competitive advantage in the market.

Speaking with style: Janice Wang, CEO, Alvanon

With western high street stalwarts like Marks & Spencer, Topshop, Zara, H&M and C&A all setting their sights on China's 700m middle-class consumers, the pressure is on to make sure their investments generate as many sales as possible. Adapting their clothes sizes to Chinese body shapes is one sure way says Janice Wang, CEO of size and fit expert Alvanon.

US: Retailers must tap into changing Chinese body shapes

Selling clothes in China requires just half the number of sizes to reach the same percentage of the population as in the US, according to the results of China's largest ever body measurement study. The survey, by global size and fit expert Alvanon, also showed that the younger generation in eastern China is growing taller and heavier.

Retail study gets to the bottom of Chinese body shapes

Western retailers wanting to expand in China will need a much smaller range of clothes sizes than in the US, according to a body measurement study released today. It shows that Chinese women have much narrower variances in bust, waist and hip than those in the west.