A nearly universal humbling experience: The scene begins as one gleefully heads for the dressing room with armfuls of clothing that look stunning on the rack. Behind the curtains in front of a full-length mirror, every attempt to squeeze into or swim out of each garment intensifies the frustration. One, maybe two items fit. Or worse, none. The expression, "size matters," takes on a whole, new angst-producing meaning.

Shoppers at clothing retailers, department stores and malls across America feel painfully like misfits every day as impulse shopping becomes revulsion. Trouble finding clothes to fit properly vexes each individual who goes through the humiliation. But an entire population of clothing shoppers pitching a fit about bad fits has become an emerging cause celebre for the $163 billion apparel industry. "Many retailers and manufacturers don't even realize what they are missing," says Susan Ashdown, associate professor of textiles and apparel at Cornell University, who consults on clothing size and fit issues for major merchandisers. "When a woman goes into a dressing room and tries on five pairs of pants and only one fits right, she's only going to buy the one. It is a big problem, but it is a hidden one, because there is no way to track the loss of what could have been additional sales." Studies show that more than one in three items of clothing purchased from catalogs goes back where it came from because of a bad fit. Overall, a nation with a bad case of the distressing-room blues is taking an immeasurable toll on the industry.

The apparel sector, like other consumer market segments, has grappled with the economy of late. Total sales in 2002 fell 2 percent from 2001 figures, and tumbled 7 percent compared with 2000. In women's apparel, the numbers are even more alarming, with a drop of 6 percent between 2002 and 2001, and 13 percent since 2000. Still, macroeconomic woes are only partly to blame for the apparel industry's diminished revenues over the past few years, experts say. Also credit a lack of attention to sizing issues for the poor track record, says Marshal Cohen, senior industry analyst at The NPD Group's Fashionworld research division, based in Port Washington, N.Y.

Consumer spending statistics on apparel over the past decade illustrates a clear trend. In 1993, households spent an average of 6 percent of total expenditures on apparel, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey. Today, households allocate only 4 percent of dollars spent to clothing, while spending on industries such as restaurants and entertainment have remained stable or even increased.

"Apparel companies blame the economy and September 11 for our slump, but why then is it that of the seven industries we cover - including electronics, restaurants and housewares - apparel was the only one that didn't meet prior year sales in 2002?" Cohen observes. "It is because other industries have continued to create products that the customer wants. Sure, right now, people have less money. But they still want to buy clothes. They still want to update their wardrobes. They just aren't finding what they want, and when they do, often it doesn't fit. And if it doesn't fit, forget it."

A stern indictment, perhaps, but apparel manufacturers and retailers must do better to keep up with the changing needs of consumers, and these days consumers are larger, more diverse and more demanding than ever. The size and shape of the "average" American consumer today is dramatically different from 60 years ago. Nevertheless, apparel companies still develop clothing lines based on the proportions of 1940s models. As poor fit and lack of comfort compromise clothes marketers' bottom lines, they are investing more into researching size issues and problems, a complex matrix of challenges ranging from new body hefts to an evolving zeitgeist with regard to normal, attractive and healthy appearances.

In fact, the apparel industry has teamed up with government, academic and research institutions to ante up $1 million for SizeUSA, the first-ever statistically representative census of American body shape and size. TC2, a nonprofit sewn products industry association in Cary, N.C., has fielded the survey over the past year, literally measuring the complete physical dimensions of 10,000 Americans from a range of demographic segments, using 3D body scanners in mall locations across the country. The goal of SizeUSA, which is expected to be completed in October, is to provide clothing makers with size and proportion readings of their target consumers in detail that was previously unavailable.

But some clothes marketers have discovered that they have had to go beyond physical measurements to satisfy consumers with apparel that fits. Demographic and geographic analysis of buyers' gender, race and ethnicity, and even education, now play a role in more accurately matching stocked inventory to customers of specific stores, in an attempt to reduce markdowns and increase sales. What's more, a new consumer attitude and acceptance of "living large" has apparel advertisers and their agencies paying closer attention to consumers' psychographic profiles, shopping behaviors and attitudes about body image so that they can strike a more genuine chord with their target audiences.