[maire]

It is more than just the age of tailoring vs undergarment making that is the problem. If tailoring was the only issue, we would just tailor women's undergarments and declare success. The real issue is that women's bodies are far more variable than men's bodies. Most garment designing software gets around this by fitting exactly the hardest part of the body and then scaling everything else. Bras are one of the more difficult parts of the body to fit although the hip area (pants) are also difficult to fit for the female form.

Pants actually illustrates the problem in a way that everyone (men as well as women) would understand. You can't just take a few measurements and expect success. You have to know how the measurement is distributed. Is the added inches on the stomach? Is it on the hips? Is it on the posterior? I won't go into the many crotch measurements - but they are also important.