As a Cameroonian living in Germany, trying to fit in garments with standard European sizes have sometimes been quite a challenge. Having wider hips/bottom and/or bust but yet a relatively smaller waistline is a very common silhouette, X-figure, amongst many women of African origins and women of color in general. It’s then a struggle to get a size that fits right cause the commonly found garments in the mainstream markets are not always/usually made with the above mentioned proportions in mind. Fit deficiencies are common, either the hips fit but the waistline is quite loose or the waist fits but the dress is too tight on the hips or can’t even go through. Unless of course there’s excessive stretch in it… which can’t be the solution in my opinion.

The curvy hourglass-like silhouette symbolizes beauty and feminity in the African culture and unfortunately garments that fit these proportions are underrepresented in mainstream fashion. To address this issue, we developed a size chart based on the highly rated Gabriel Pattern System (https://modeinstitut.de/gabriel-formel/) using real measurement data from curvy women.

A good fit is also ensured for the narrower H-figure body shape with a separate existing tested size chart.