The Perfect Fit- Featuring Courtney Lorking

Essentially, a car is simply the largest and most expensive piece of clothing we all buy. You wrap it around you, yet other people can still see your face in it, and your choice of vehicle is as much a fashion, and branding, statement as any scarf, shoes or chiffon. We choose cars, much like clothes, first with our eyes, and because their sense of style aligns with our personal brand. And, much like finding just the right sized pair of jeans, we really want our cars to be the perfect fit for our lifestyle, just as the Mazda CX-30 is the perfect fit for a young, urban Mum like Courtney Lorking.

Humans really do like measuring things. Indeed, it’s quite possible that cave paintings are just an early example of a bloke saying “Look how high up I can reach” – although this assumption has no anthropological basis.

Today, of course, we know how far the sun is from Earth, and we’ve counted how many times a hummingbird flaps its wings every second (80 is the record). Scientists at High Point University in North Carolina even worked on a mathematical analysis that calculated the maximum number of hotdogs a person could theoretically eat in 10 minutes (it’s 83, apparently).

(Measuring the beauty of a car’s design is slightly more subjective, of course, but as you can see from the pictures, the Mazda CX-30 would rank at the top of any list of compact SUVs because, as we shall discuss, it has the perfect proportions for its size.)

So, sun? Check. Hummingbirds? We’ve got them covered. Hot dogs? Of course. And yet somehow when it comes to buying a pair of jeans online, we’re left to rely on something as far from exactitude and scientific measurement as cave paintings are from Caravaggio.

Sure, online those jeans might say size eight, or size 10, but the companies actually making the clothes use those numbers as more of a rough guide, or they change them, or ignore them entirely.

It's not just annoying, either. We now waste a staggering $500 billion a year, globally, on returning clothes to e-commerce clothing retailers that don’t fit.

And it’s why the term “hedging” isn’t just for gardeners and stock brokers, but for online shoppers, too. Have you heard of people ordering a few different sizes of one garment, and then just free-returning the ones that don’t fit? That’s hedging, and it’s happening all the time.

But there is a better way, and a clever company in Melbourne called Bodd is at the cutting edge of creating the perfect fit, every time.

The whole process at Bodd was such a blast and so easy. Going into the workshop to get my body scanned took all of 60 seconds, the device spun me on the spot and created a 3D image of my body. Then, as fast as it started, it was over and a QR code with all my details popped up.”

Courtney was equally fascinated to watch the 3D printer creating an exact replica of her body, from the toes up, but that process takes eight hours to complete, and she had shopping to do, so it was back into the CX-30 and zipping off to the Linda Britten boutique in Prahran to begin  the process of designing a gown, using her exact measurements, with the comfort of knowing that she wouldn’t have to go back to the store for any fittings, because Linda would be able to use the completed 3D mannequin instead.

“I was just in awe of the process and I think it is game changing for the way we shop,” Courtney says.

“The idea of a perfect fit really does carry across how I live my life — from cars to clothes, everything must be comfortable. I don’t have time for things that don’t fit my lifestyle. Who knows, maybe it’s because I know I deserve to feel good, or the sleep deprivation making my fuse just that little bit shorter than even an ill-fitting pair of jeans can trigger me.

"Mum life and high fashion don’t normally go hand in hand, let me assure you, but the more I thought about it, the more I decided I was the perfect candidate to test both the Mazda CX-30 and the Bodd printer,” Courtney explains.

“Once we arrived, we learnt all about the Bodd 3D scanner and printer, and how it is a nifty device that allowed me to see my exact measurements, to the millimetre, which made shopping a breeze.

“As a mum, shopping at the best of times is a mission, let alone trying anything on with a toddler pulling on me, demanding we abort the mission. So this isn’t just a time saver for me, it’s more than that.

"I was also happy to discover that the snazzy Mazda CX-30 felt like the perfect fit for me, and inner-city Melbourne, as well.”

Courtney was impressed with how easy the little Mazda was to park, how good the visibility was from the driver’s seat and how responsive and thrilling the 2.0 litre E-Skyactiv engine was.

“Our CX-30 was also a groovy champagne colour, which was eye-catching and, let’s be honest, who doesn’t like being noticed?” she laughs.

“I loved the way it darted around the city, but it still had plenty of oomph out on the highway as well. Mazda is known for design and refinement of its fleet, and the CX-30 was no exception. It’s truly city chic and looks right at home on the coolest streets in Melbourne.

“I really didn’t want to get out of it, or to go home.”