Before the American Civil War, ready-made (also called ready-to-wear) clothing and apparel existed but its variety was limited. Mainly coats and jackets (known as outerwear) and undergarments were purchased using predetermined sizes. Most clothing and apparel was made by tailors or by individuals or their family members at home.   The mass production of women's clothing and apparel developed more slowly. Women's outfits generally continued to be custom-made well into the 1920s. In that decade, factors such as the development of industrial production techniques, the rise of the advertising industry, the growth of an urban professional class, and the development of national markets accessed through chain stores and mail order catalogs, contributed to the success of the women's ready-made clothing and apparel industry. Ready-made articles of clothing and apparel were portrayed as modern and fashionable during a time when the new consumer industries were rapidly redefining the way Americans viewed mass-manufactured goods. Instead of seeing the purchase of mass-produced clothing as entailing a loss of individuality, American women began to accept the pieces of ready-made merchandise as convenient, affordable, and up-to-date fashion items that could be replaced easily as styles changed.  However, the new ready-made clothing and apparel often fit poorly. Each manufacturer created its own unique and sometimes arbitrary sizing system based on inaccurate body data or no body data at all. Garments of widely different dimensions were frequently labeled the same size by different manufacturers. This situation resulted in additional costs for alterations and large volumes of returned merchandise. This, in turn, increased costs for the consumer of ready-to-wear clothing.  In recent years, many different agencies have recognized the problems associated with the purchase of women's clothing and apparel and the need for a new, more modern sizing standard.  Using technology in body scanning as a means for taking body measurements is being developed  to "achieve unique coverage requirements of the human body," the system uses white light to take measurements more efficiently and with fewer errors than a person could manually.  In the United States, 11,000 individual bodies were scanned across the U.S.  The shape and size data from this survey is available to manufacturers, brands, and retailers to improve it.