Here is a fantastic web app created by web developer Anna Powell-Smith.

What Size Am I? allows you to get a visual image of where your body measurements stand in regards to standardized body sizes used in the clothing industry. [note: wait a little for the app to load]

You simply need to move the top sliders to your own bust, waist, and hips measurements, which creates your personal curve.

Then you can select a mainstream brand on the right, and see how their measurement system relates to you ( in yellow the company you choose / in light grey in the background, all the other companies).

I love the easiness and clarity of this tool.

Body measurements are being so ill-treated and used in the media to define arbitrary ideals, that it's a relief to have a publicly available visualization tool that tells things just the way they are.

Also, you see that the industry does not have one standard, but so many different ones that the idea your body should fit certain criteria begins to crumble (and many fitting room crisis become explained).

I wish this tool was used more widely and that we could feed it with more brands - not only mainstream ones but also ethical / local clothing companies, and for both genders. The possibilities are so exciting.

For more information: Anna's own words here.

MAKING A BODY

I am currently making French 18th century stays, as an investigation into the history of clothing, materiality and the body.

The french expression for stays is 'corps baleiné' ['whaleboned body'].
Similarly, the name of a particular kind of stays worn at the king's court is 'grand corps de cour' ['tall body for court'].
The artisan specialized in making them in the 18th century was called the 'tailleur de corps' ['tailor of bodies'].

Isn't is striking that the word for this item of clothing, which molds and transforms the shape of the body, is the word CORPS ['BODY']? Not 'corsage' ['bodice', as is sometimes translated in english], but 'body'.

As if there was no difference between your natural body and this second one.