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You found it. Now, will it fit?

Every other guide on this site helps you find a garment. This one starts a minute later, at the size dropdown, where a decision has to be made on information the shop half-hides and half-invents.

What does the size on the label actually mean?

There is no law anywhere that says what a size 10 is. No standards body owns the number, nobody audits it, and no two brands have agreed on it. Each one builds its clothes on a fit block, which is a set of base body measurements it drafts the first sample to, then grades up and down from to make the rest of the range.

Two brands choosing different base bodies produce two garments with the same number on the label and several centimetres between them. That is the whole explanation for a wardrobe holding four different sizes that all fit.

The number is a label. The centimetres on the size chart are the garment. When they disagree, the centimetres are right.

Which four measurements should you know by heart?

This is a ten minute job that removes most of the guesswork from every purchase afterwards. You need a soft tape measure, and you should measure over underwear rather than over clothes, because a jumper adds a couple of centimetres and puts every comparison out from then on.

  1. Bust or chest. Around the fullest part, tape level all the way round and flat under the arms. Breathe out normally first.
  2. Natural waist. The narrowest part of your torso, which is usually above the belly button and above where jeans sit. Bend sideways and it creases there.
  3. Hip. Around the widest part, usually seven to nine inches below the natural waist. Feet together, tape level at the back.
  4. Inside leg. From the crotch seam of trousers that already fit you, straight down to the hem. Measuring your own leg with a tape is far less accurate.

Write them in centimetres. Almost every international size chart is published in centimetres first and converted to inches second, and converting back and forth is where rounding errors creep in.

How do you read a size chart correctly?

Charts come in two kinds and they are rarely labelled as either. A body measurement chart says what body the size is meant for. A garment measurement chart says how big the finished piece actually is, which is always larger, because clothes need room to move in.

The gap between those two numbers is called ease, and it is a design decision rather than an error. A tailored shirt might have five centimetres of ease at the chest and an oversized one might have twenty-five. If you compare your body measurement against a garment chart, everything looks enormous and you size down into something that will not close.

The tell is in the labels. Words like bust, waist and hip describe a body. Words like chest width, pit to pit, total length and sweep describe a garment lying flat.

How much can you learn from the model in the photo?

Most people judge a garment by the photograph, and the photograph is one person of one height wearing one size. Almost every retailer publishes both of those facts, usually in small text under the product description, and almost nobody reads them.

They matter most for anything where length is the point. A dress described as a midi is a midi on the model. Height difference between two adults sits mostly in the leg, so the same garment moves down the body of a shorter person and lands somewhere else entirely. That is how a midi arrives as a maxi and a cropped jacket arrives as a normal one.

Sleeve length, rise on trousers and where a waist seam sits all shift the same way. The fix is arithmetic rather than judgement: find the difference in height, expect most of it in the leg, and decide whether the garment can absorb it.

Is it a width problem or a length problem?

When a garment does not fit, it failed in one of two ways, and people routinely try to solve one with the other.

A width problem means the garment does not go round you comfortably, or it goes round with far too much room. That is a size problem, and changing the size number fixes it.

A length problem means the shoulder seam is halfway down your arm, or the waist seam sits on your ribs, or the hem is in the wrong place. That is a proportion problem, and changing the size number makes it worse. Sizing down to shorten a garment narrows it at the same time. The answer is a petite or tall cut, which is a redrawn pattern rather than a rescaled one, or a different garment.

When do US, UK and EU conversions stop working?

The conversions people memorise are real, and they are approximations rather than rules. UK womenswear to US usually drops four numbers. EU is usually the UK number plus twenty-eight. Australian sizing mostly tracks the UK. Japanese sizing runs on a different scale again.

Where this falls apart is at brands that grade from a base that does not match their home market's convention, which is common in contemporary labels sold internationally. The result is one full size of error, in whichever direction, with nothing on the page to warn you.

Treat a conversion as a way to find the right row on the chart, then read the centimetres in that row. The conversion narrows the search. The chart answers the question.

How much does stretch change the size you need?

The same measurement gap means different things in different cloth. A two centimetre shortfall in a rigid cotton poplin is a garment that will not fasten. The same shortfall in a rib knit with five per cent elastane is invisible.

This is why sizing up on stretch fabric so often backfires. The design expects the fabric to be under some tension. Remove that tension and the garment loses its shape and reads as a size too big, which it now is.

Read the composition before deciding. Any elastane at all means the garment gives. Nothing but cotton, linen or a heavy denim means it does not, and that is the case where sizing up is often the safer order.

How much does a wrong size actually cost you?

A size decision is only risky in proportion to how hard it is to undo. Two shops selling the same dress at the same price are not the same purchase if one pays for returns and the other charges for them and only offers credit.

Three things decide it. Who pays return postage, how many days you have from delivery rather than from order, and whether you get money back or a note saying you may shop here again. All three are usually on one page, and reading it takes less time than the return does.

Where returns are free, ordering two adjacent sizes is a reasonable way to solve genuine uncertainty. Where they are not, it is a way to spend more than the garment is worth finding out.

Does Snagfit know your size?

Snagfit finds the garment and hands you to the shop that sells it. It never asks for your measurements and never stores them, because the size decision happens on the retailer's own page against the retailer's own chart.

That means this part of the purchase is genuinely yours to get right, and it is the part that decides whether the whole thing worked. A perfect match on a garment that arrives two sizes out is a failed purchase with a successful search inside it.

Where does a size go wrong?

Each chapter takes one of them, names the number that settles it, and names the way the parcel arrives wrong when nobody checks. Start wherever you are stuck.

The thirteen sizing chapters

Reading a size chart

Which numbers on a size chart matter, and which ones can you ignore?

The numberbust, waist, hip and inside leg, in centimetres

Goes wrong asYou pick by the dress size you usually wear, which the chart never asked about.

Why a size 10 moves between shops

How can the same number be two different garments in two shops?

The numberthe shop's own fit block, and the ease it adds on top of the body

Goes wrong asThe size that fits perfectly in one shop arrives inches out in the next.

US, UK, EU and AU numbers

Is there a conversion that works, and where does it stop working?

The numberthe gap between the two countries' base sizes, usually four numbers

Goes wrong asA straight conversion puts you a full size out on brands that grade from a different base.

Measuring yourself properly

How do you take your own measurements so they match a chart?

The numberthe tape held level and snug, over underwear rather than clothes

Goes wrong asEvery comparison you make afterwards is out by the thickness of a jumper.

The model is not your height

The dress hit her mid-calf. Where will it hit you?

The numberthe model's height and the size she is wearing, usually in the fine print

Goes wrong asA midi on a tall model arrives as a maxi, and the whole reason you wanted it is gone.

Plus size and extended sizing

What if the garment simply does not come in your size?

The numberthe brand's actual top size, and whether it is sold out or was never made

Goes wrong asYou keep trying different words for the same listing, when the real problem is that the size range stops before it reaches you.

Shoe sizes, the worst of them all writing in progress

Why does one 39 fit and the next 39 not?

The numberfoot length in millimetres, which is what a size number is standing in for

Goes wrong asTwo pairs marked with the same number arrive half a size apart.

Petite and tall are different patterns writing in progress

Should you buy a smaller size to fix a length problem?

The numberwhere the shoulder seam, the waist and the hem each sit on the body

Goes wrong asSizing down to shorten a garment takes the width away with it.

Plus sizing and grading writing in progress

Why does a garment change shape as the sizes go up, rather than simply scaling?

The numberthe grade rule, the amount added at each size and where it is added

Goes wrong asThe size is right and the proportions are wrong, because the pattern was scaled rather than redrawn.

Sizing with no chart at all writing in progress

How do you buy vintage or secondhand when the label means nothing?

The numberflat measurements taken across the garment lying down, then doubled

Goes wrong asYou trust a decades-old number and receive something two sizes off.

Stretch changes the size you need writing in progress

Does a stretchy fabric mean you can size up safely?

The numberthe elastane percentage in the composition, and whether the knit is ribbed

Goes wrong asYou size up in a fabric that was already going to give, and it hangs like a bag.

What the reviews actually tell you writing in progress

How do you read fit out of a review section full of star ratings?

The numberthe reviewer's own height and usual size, next to the size they bought

Goes wrong asYou read the average rating, which measures happiness rather than fit.

Returns are part of the price writing in progress

What does the return policy do to the real cost of getting the size wrong?

The numberthe return window in days, and who pays the postage

Goes wrong asTwo failed sizes plus two paid returns costs more than buying the right thing once.

Questions about sizing

How do I know what size to order from a photo?

You do not order from the photo, you order from the shop's own size chart. Take your bust, waist and hip in centimetres once, write them down, then compare them against the chart on whichever product page you land on. The size number on the label is the least reliable piece of information in the whole process, because it means something different at every retailer.

Why is a size 10 different in every shop?

Every brand builds its clothes on its own fit block, a set of base measurements it grades every size up and down from. There is no legal standard tying a number to a body, so a brand aiming at a younger customer will cut a 10 smaller than one aiming at a broader market. The measurements on the chart are the real information. The number is a label sitting on top of them.

Do the size conversion charts between US, UK and EU actually work?

Roughly, and they break in predictable places. UK to US womenswear usually drops four, and EU is usually the UK number plus 28, but each of those is a rule of thumb built on one country's base size. Where a brand grades from a different base, a straight conversion lands you a full size out. Convert to find a starting point, then check the centimetre chart before you order.

How do I measure myself for online shopping?

Use a soft tape, stand normally, and measure over underwear rather than over clothes. Keep the tape level all the way round, snug enough that it stays put and loose enough to slide a finger under. Take bust, natural waist and hip. For trousers, measure a pair that already fits you flat on a bed rather than measuring your own leg, since it is far easier to be accurate that way.

The model is 5 foot 10. How will the dress look on me?

Find the model's height and her size in the product details, then work out the difference in the part of the garment you care about. A dress that is mid-calf on a 5 foot 10 model will sit closer to the ankle on someone 5 foot 3, because most of the height difference is in the leg. That turns a midi into a maxi, which is often the whole reason the dress appealed in the first place.

Should I size up if a garment is stretchy?

Usually not. Elastane in the composition means the garment is designed to be worn close and to give as you move, so the pattern already accounts for it. Sizing up in a stretch fabric removes the tension the shape depends on and it hangs loose. The exception is a rigid, non-stretch fabric in a fitted cut, where going up one size is often the safer order.

How do I buy secondhand clothes when there is no size chart?

Ask the seller for flat measurements: the garment laid out on a bed, measured across the chest from armpit to armpit, across the waist, and from the shoulder seam to the hem. Double the across measurements to get the way round. Compare those against a garment you already own and love. An old label number tells you almost nothing, because sizing has drifted over the decades.

Why do two pairs of shoes in the same size fit differently?

A shoe size stands in for a foot length, and different makers translate the same length into different numbers depending on the last they build the shoe on. Width and toe box shape also change how a length feels. The reliable move is to find the brand's stated internal length in millimetres, or to look for other buyers reporting that a model runs small or large.

Is petite just a smaller size?

No, it is a different pattern. A petite version shortens the distance between the shoulder and the waist, moves the waist seam up, shortens the sleeve and raises the hem, without narrowing the garment. Buying a size down to fix length takes the width away as well, so a long-waisted garment ends up short and tight instead of short and correct.

What should I look for in the reviews to judge fit?

Ignore the star rating and look for reviewers who state their own height and usual size next to the size they bought. Two or three of those are worth more than fifty ratings. Also look for repeated words: several people independently saying the shoulders are tight or the length runs long is a real signal, since nobody coordinates a complaint about a shoulder seam.

Does Snagfit tell me what size to buy?

No. Snagfit finds the garment and takes you to the shop selling it, and the size chart there is the shop's own. Snagfit never sees your measurements and never asks for them. This guide exists because the step after finding a garment is the one that decides whether the purchase works, and it happens on somebody else's website.

Is it worth buying two sizes and returning one?

Sometimes, and it depends entirely on who pays for the return. If returns are free and the window is generous, ordering two sizes is a reasonable way to solve an uncertain fit. Where the shop charges for returns or only offers credit, doing it twice can cost more than the difference between the item and a better-fitting one elsewhere. Read that policy before the order, not after.

Getting the size right only matters once you are confident the shop will actually send you the garment. That is a different question, and it has its own guide.

Read Who is selling it