The chaos of the sizes

We all know how difficult is to buy an item online if you don’t know the brand yet. Why? Because there is a huge range of measurement depending on the country. I did a trip in a mall placed near my home in Madrid in order to get and idea about the differents sizes of several brands that fit me. Nowadays we have international brands everywhere, so even inside a country you can find several sizes that fit you.

First of all I’ve visited ZARA where I know exactly my sizes for bottoms (M) and for tops (S), for dresses I usually use S and for coats mostly XS because I like to wear them tight. In Spain you can equate these sizes with the numeric measurement in this way:

XS (34), S(36), M(38), L(40), XL (42)

Second store visited was H&M, and I founded that the size that better fitted me in all the items was one less than in ZARA. For example for bottoms 36 and for tops 34.

Then I decided to visit MAJE which is a French brand and I found different sizes for me again: size 2 for bottoms and dresses and size 1 for tops. In MAJE sometimes is written 38 in the labels instead of 2, and 36 instead of 1. SANDRO is another French brand that I love. It belongs to the same company than MAJE but the sizes change. Its incredible! Don’t you think? This is a caos of sizes hahaha. Summing up SANDRO go one size under MAJE, I mean 1 is 34, 2 is 36 and so on. I have chosen as the item that fits me best after my research an amazing dress by MAJE. In fact, I bought it. I attach below the picture.

Comparing with TOPSHOP brand, we discover the British sizing, where European size 34 or S would be size 6 in UK. So my sizes are 8 (36, S ) for tops and 10 ( 38, M ) for bottoms.

I am also a fan of PINKO, an Italian brand, that sizes starting from 38 that would be the 34 Spanish ( we follow the classic European sizing ); so in PINKO I need size 40 for tops and 42 for bottoms.

Finally, I went to a boutique which has several American brands and I tried some DKNY garments on and I needed once again others sizes like 2 or XS for tops and 4 or S for bottoms.

The conclusion is there are several sizing in the world. I have found today 7 sizes that fit me. These sizes has been developed to fit the mostly common silhouettes of the population of one continent or country. Even inside the same continent you can have different kind of sizes depending on the regular or popular fashion measurement of each country. The countries that lead some independent sizing like Italy and France, have been big fashion referents and manufacturers in the Fashion History.

We haven’t finish yet. Even knowing your size equivalence in every country you are not over. Clothing is made with up to 1/2″ tolerance, so the same dress may not fit you exactly the same way. This means you can find any differences in the “identical” items. I tried 2 more identical dresses size 38 in MAJE store and I don’t really notice any difference, but I sometimes did find them in other brands like ZARA.

This is a chart where you can see the main sizings in this world:

Good luck looking for your size friends!!

XXX