Dress sizes - it's an emotive subject. Whether it's a critical discussion on the latest celebrity to achieve size zero or an article on the merits of the perfect size 10, you can't get away from it. But ask any woman her opinion of clothes shopping on the high street and it's clear that dress sizes are far from perfect anything.

For many of us the frustrating experience of finding we're a size 14 in one shop but a 16 in another, or even worse, hovering between two sizes in the same shop, is all too common.

All of us shop by the size we believe we are, or by the size we believe is right for us. We're increasingly wrong, it seems, as the size on the label does not mean what we thought it did and once again it just doesn't fit.

If that sounds familiar, you're not alone. Two size 12s can differ by several centimetres even in the same store and when you take American sizes, European measurements and all the variation on small, medium and large into account, then it's little wonder that we women are confused.

So what is going on?

A clue is perhaps in the term ?dress size?. There haven't been any changes in sizing information in 50 years, when the majority of women mainly wore dresses. Today we are just as likely to wear trousers and separates, which need to fit better and hang well from different places, depending on the look and the cut. And just think how much has changed in 50 years; it's a completely new world today ? our diet, our lifestyles, our attitudes to clothes are re-shaping the population. But most clothes sizes just don't reflect these changes.

Hopefully, things are about to change. Fed up of the increase in customer complaints and the sheer scale and cost of unwanted returns, a few far sighted retailers have recently completed a large scale analysis of the size and shape of the UK population. It's called SizeUK and is the first sizing survey since the 1950's. What's more it's the very first time that the shape of the population has been captured and analysed, as well as size.

Using 3D whole body scanners on 10,000 people, this far-reaching survey has provided a range of highly accurate measurements of the size we are today. It has additionally broken down the information in to the shapes and sizes we are at different times in our lives, providing invaluable data for retailers and manufacturers to ensure their clothes fit their own customers perfectly in all the right places.

Companies using the survey information include high street giants like M&S and independent fashion houses such as David Nieper. This fashion house has used SizeUK's findings across its ranges. There are no short cuts; every item in its nightwear and outer wear ranges has been designed exactly to fit its customers? shapes.

Managing Director Christopher Nieper said: ?As a women's clothes designer, the shape of the body and how it is to be enhanced is key. Part of this is how we size up and down. The difference between a size 12 and a 16 is not a simple overall increase. There are essential design differences to various parts of the garment to get the look and feel right.?

This approach has produced clothes collections which not only look stylish but fit well in all the right places and therefore feel right too. In addition it means every time a customer orders a size 14 or 12 or 16 it will be the same as the last size 14, 12 or 16.

?It's a level of detail which many clothes manufacturers fail to address,? continued Christopher. ?But to us, and our European counterparts like Basler, these are the things which matter hugely to the women who wear our clothes.?

For further information please visit www.davidnieper.co.uk.