Apparently in some higher-end men's clothing stores, all the pants are originally too long, and an in-store alteration service will hem them to just the right length for the customer.
This should be extended to women - but not just hemming! The most difficult part of finding pants that fit, in my experience and in the experience of the few women to whom I'm close enough to discuss the fit of our pants, is the way they fit around the waist-hips-pelvis-tummy-buttocks region. Every woman's curves wax and wane slightly differently, and it's hard to find pants that adapt perfectly to the finicky details of this area of one's body.
So what they should do is have the top of all the pants (i.e. the non-leg portion) be perfectly cylindrical, the circumference of the widest part of the hips. Then, when the customer finds a pair she likes, she gets fitted by the alteration service, who will insert darts into her pants to make them fit her curves appropriately. No more gapping in the back while pinching in the tummy, no more big pouches of extra fabric on the sides of the hips, no more fitting only the largest part of one's buttocks and being too big everywhere else. Darts aren't that hard to do for someone who is moderately skilled with a needle - my mother has done them for me in about 10 minutes, and I would even venture to do it myself on, say, a pair of thrift-store pants whose fabric wasn't too fussy.
So what do we need to get clothing stores to implement this service?
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