In your proposed system, the woman instead needs to measure her waist, hips, thighs, inseam, and probably some other things too. Having done some dress making in the distant past, I know it is easier said than done to measure yourself in the correct places. And it is not fun. But sure, if you offered jeans that were customizable on enough size points, as well as in styles, perhaps you could sell your jeans online without a lot of returns.

I think the key to the success of a new brand of jeans though is not just about how well it fits. Just take a look at all the women in ill-fitting skinny jeans out there! My hunch is that women on average have a less utilitarian attitude to fashion than men (men often just want something that looks decent and fits well?).

Perhaps instead of taking on the risk and challenge of building a new fashion brand, you could leverage the brands of others. Take measurements of all the popular jeans brands in all the major sizes and then write the matching tool. Its not as lucrative a revenue model (it would be affiliate), but it would help you test part of your idea.

Men have the same problem, btw. Size 32/32 jeans at Old Navy are not equivalent to size 32/32 Levi's 501s or size 32/32 Diesel "skinny jeans" and so on and so forth.

Anyway, I made a website for a large PANTS manufacturer. You'd measure your hips, waist, inseam and then put it into a web form and get a custom pair. After much promotion, we had an amazingly low number of customers. Like.... less than 50... for a site that we charged $300,000 to build. The men's version did a little better... but not much. The website is no longer available. Like the Kin and Google Wave, it was put out to pasture a few short months after going live.

You could try it again but I don't think shopping proclivities have changed much.

You accredited the low acceptance of the site you worked on to the theory that women want a shopping 'experience' possibly with friends and lots of physical connection (trying things on, feeling the materials, etc.). Are women still as interested in this, given how their relationship with the internet has evolved over the last 12 years?

Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it.

Yes, but you need a good return policy. Expect a lot of returns.

However, I still don't think women want custom jeans.

That's simply not true. Yes, there are a few brands that make everything in their own sizes but most denim manufacturers make jeans by waist size. Go to saks.com and check out their denim shop. Not a single brand sized by 2-4 as you say... everything sized by actual waist in inches. The others (Gap, J Crew, whatever) have repeat shoppers who know their sizes in that particular maker so it's not at all confusing or "broken".