Boden has joined with fashion tech firm Sizemic to conduct 3D body scans on 200 women to find out average size and shape of its customers.

The fashion retailer invited shoppers to its London headquarters this week to undergo a full body scan.

Boden staff carrying out a scan using Sizemic's 3D technology

Boden mobile scanning technology

Boden staff carrying out a scan using Sizemic’s mobile unit

Boden wants to ensure its clothing is “representative of the real sizes and shapes of our customer base,” the British retailer’s head of insight and strategy Susan Deer said.

Sizemic’s mobile white light scanner takes approximately eight seconds to gather 800,000 data points on a participant’s size and shape, and the electronic data software takes more than 150 measurements a second.

Sizemic will now analyse the scan results to create average body shapes for Boden shoppers across different sizes, which could impact how Boden sizes clothing in the future.

“We won’t be necessarily change our womenswear sizes off the back of our findings, but we want to see how Boden customers size up against industry standard measurements,” said Deer.

Sizemic owner Andrew Crawford said: “This technology goes beyond standard measurements and gives insight into the shape of Boden shoppers across different sizes.”

Boden invited shoppers from sizes 8 to 14, aged 30 to 55, who signed up to its Boden Insider mailing list to participate in the study.