A RETAILER has paid a fitting tribute to the modern woman by increasing its clothes sizes. The reasons why are more complicated than CHRIS TITLEY first suspected

POSTERS on the first floor of Marks & Spencer's Pavement store in York show a tousle-haired women exclaiming "Yes! Yes! Yes!" She is supposed to be delighted by the store's autumn collection. But she might just as well be expressing her thrill at climbing into clothes a size smaller than before.

M&S bosses declaring their latest range of women's fashions to be bigger and better will be at least half right. Their clothes are roomier than ever.

The waist of a size 12 used to be 27 inches; now it is an inch larger. Ditto sizes 14 and 16. Half an inch has been added here and there to bust and hip sizes too.

Why? Because "British women have been getting bigger" an in-store leaflet explains. It tactfully adds that this is down to "changes in lifestyle and diet and better nutrition in childhood".

These body shape developments were confirmed by an M&S survey, involving thousands of women of all ages. More than 100 measurements were taken of each woman. This information was scanned into computers to create a 3D picture of shapes and sizes.

All this activity led experts to declare the average size of millennium woman to be 14. That's a far cry from the skeletal status of most supermodels.

But the increase wasn't in all the same places - waist size had expanded more than bust or hip size. That's why women struggled to find a decent fit.

This exciting breakthrough demanded equally dramatic adverts, M&S believed. So the retailer's first concerted TV commercial campaign features a woman running up to a hilltop, divesting clothes as she does so.

Naked at the summit, she throws her arms heavenward and declares, ecstatically, "I'm normal!" The woman in question is 27-year-old model Amy Davis, a size 16.

Rick Buckland, Marks & Spencer's regional manager based at the Pavement store, said the measurements survey "underlined what we already suspected". The "blocks" - or templates - for their clothes were redesigned accordingly.

"It started with this autumn season," Rick said. "So far the feedback's been very good."

The change was partly about confidence, he said. "It's very important for our customers to be confident.

"If they were picking up a 12, and had always worn a 12, they were finding they had to wear another size. We had to re-establish customer confidence in that fit."

It was particularly important, given Marks's reputation.

"Most customers will say 'I am an M&S size whatever'. And customers have become very good at knowing that if they shop in another retailer that an M&S size 12 will be someone else's size 14."

Aha, now here's another problem. One size definitely does not fit all. Stores may use the same numbers - 12, 14, 16 and so on - but they do not use the same measurements. So why can't the fashion industry agree, and use the same "blocks"?

"We would love to love to see an industry standard, but it's highly complicated," said Rick.

That's a sentiment echoed by Leeann Suter. She is brand manager for Dorothy Perkins in York, one of the Arcadia group of stores that also boasts Racing Green, Principles and Evans.

Not only do sizes differ between stores, she says, they differ within stores between seasons.

"One fashion season you might wear tailored clothes. These are more flattering, you would be a size 12. If the next season it was fashionable to wear tight-fitting knitwear you would be a 14."

Of course it is not just waist/bust/hips size that has to be taken into account.

"I am 5ft 2ins, I am a 12/14," said Leeann. "I have a friend who is 6ft, she's a 12/14.

"She wants a long leg in a trouser, while I wear a petite leg in a trouser. That's where the problems start. Different stores do a different fitting in the leg."

Last year, the Arcadia Group re-sized all its women's clothes after a similar survey to that just undertaken by M&S.

Other research also discovered regional size variations: Bradford women are smaller than Wakefield women, for example.

In the end, Leeann says, it comes down to experience. Women learn which shops and lines suit their shape, and which size to choose. Now M&S will have to wait and see whether its customers say Yes! Yes! Yes! to the new sizes.

Picture taken from the new M&S television advertising campaign