How designer sizing runs, brand by brand

A garment marked 38 can be a US 2, a US 6 or a US 8, and nothing printed on it tells you which. Lemaire's chart calls a 38 a US 8. Totême's calls a 38 a US 6. Totême's same chart, one column over, calls a 38 a US 2, because that column is Italian and the Italian ladder starts two rungs higher. Three answers, one number, and the number is the only thing most people read.

That is a Toronto problem more than a Paris one, because most of what these houses sell here arrives in a box. You can get a coat onto your own shoulders at Holt Renfrew, at 50 Bloor Street West since March 1979, and in two rooms, one on Avenue Road, one on Richmond East. The rest is a courier label and a wait. Stop reading the label.

Three charts, one body, three Italian numbers

Take a woman who wears a US 4. Totême's chart puts her at EU 36 and calls that IT 40. Lemaire's puts the same US 4 at FR 34 and calls that IT 38. Acne Studios, on its Canadian guide, puts her at EU 36 and calls that IT 42.

Same body, three Italian numbers, each published by the house selling the garment. None is lying. Each decided where its smallest size should sit, and the conversion table underneath shifted to match.

Why the systems disagree

The arithmetic most people half-remember is Italian equals French plus four, each step adding four centimetres of chest. It holds until a house decides its 34 ought to flatter, at which point the ladder moves a rung and every column with it. Lemaire prints FR 34 beside UK 8 and US 4. Totême prints EU 34 beside UK 6 and US 2. Neither is wrong. They answer different questions.

Footwear does the same inside one brand. Lemaire's women's shoe chart runs EUR 36 against IT 35, and EUR 38 against IT 37, a full size apart in adjacent columns on one page. If a chart cannot reconcile EUR and IT for a shoe, treat its dress column with the same suspicion.

Japan sizes the person, not the garment

Japanese houses number the wearer. Pleats Please Issey Miyake runs 1 through 5 against height, a 1 cut for 150 to 155 cm and a 5 for 171 to 175. The pleating stretches, so the width barely moves between sizes. The number is the length.

Then the same house contradicts itself. The main Issey Miyake women's line runs 1 through 3, and its 1 covers 156 to 160 cm. A woman of 163 cm is a 3 in Pleats Please and a 2 in Issey Miyake, in the same shop, on the same afternoon. One house, one rung apart.

Tokyo menswear asks for the flat numbers instead. Auralee's jersey tees are sized 3, 4 and 5, and the stockists print the chart: the brushed organic cotton tee runs about 54 cm across the chest in a 3 and 56 cm in a 4, the shoulder moving two centimetres alongside. The label says 3, the chart says 54 cm, and only one is a measurement.

Houses that drape grade differently from houses that tailor

A house that drapes puts the ease in the body and leaves the shoulder alone. The Totême chart its stockists publish runs from 117 cm around the chest at EU 32 to 137 cm at EU 42, four centimetres a size, while the shoulder crawls from 20.4 cm to 21.4 cm across the whole run. Six sizes, one centimetre of shoulder. So Totême runs generous, and going down a size will not fix a shoulder seam that sits halfway to your elbow. That is the pattern, not the size.

The Row was founded in 2006 by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and named after Savile Row, a street where nothing is sized at all, and the house kept the habit. Fit is set piece by piece. Anyone who hands you one rule for The Row is guessing, and the guess costs you a return.

Knitwear is harder, because a chest measurement on a knit is half the story. An eight-gauge lambswool and a two-ply cashmere with the same 54 cm half-chest sit differently on the same shoulders, and the cashmere keeps whatever shape you give it in the first month. More in the cashmere guide.

The measurement that settles it

Lay the garment flat, face up, seams straight. Measure armpit seam to armpit seam and double it. Subtract your own chest; what remains is the ease: 10 to 15 cm for a shirt you want close, 20 for a jacket, 30 and up for a coat meant to go over one.

Do the same across the shoulder seams, point to point, because that is the number a tailor cannot rescue. A waist comes in and a sleeve shortens. A dropped shoulder that sits wrong stays wrong. For trousers and denim the honest measures are the flat waist, the rise and the leg opening, laid out in how to measure jeans. The rise decides whether you like them.

The number on the label is a marketing decision, and the number on the tape is not.

The numbers to keep about yourself

Across the back, shoulder point to shoulder point, taken over a shirt. Full chest or bust at the widest point, tape level, arms down. Inside leg from crotch to floor, in the shoes you actually wear.

Waist is the number everybody knows and the one that helps least, since two houses can hang the same waist off a 24 cm rise and a 31 cm rise. Keep them in your phone in centimetres, because every European and Japanese chart is, and converting under fluorescent light is how people end up with a 42.

Where to try before you guess

TNT's Yorkville flagship is at 87 Avenue Road, ten to six six days, noon to five on Sunday, and carries Totême. HAVEN is on the second floor at 190 Richmond Street East, noon to seven, and stocks Auralee and Lemaire. Holt Renfrew on Bloor has The Row.

Carry a soft tape. Ask for the flat measurement of the next size before anyone goes to the stockroom, because a good salesperson has it and a great one has already measured. Shoulder first, chest second. If a shop will not give you a garment measurement, buy it somewhere that will.

Common questions

Does Totême run big or small?

Totême runs generous, especially in outerwear. The chart its stockists publish starts at 117 cm around the chest in the smallest size, EU 32, and adds four centimetres a size after that. Sizing down takes four centimetres off the chest and two millimetres off the shoulder, so a shoulder that sits wrong stays wrong.

What does a size 38 actually mean?

A 38 means nothing until you know which country's ladder the label counts in: it is a US 8 at Lemaire, a US 6 in Totême's EU column and a US 2 in Totême's IT column. Work out the system before you convert anything. The IT column on a brand's chart is that brand's opinion, not a standard.

How does Japanese sizing compare with European sizing?

Japanese houses size by the wearer's height rather than the garment's width. Pleats Please Issey Miyake runs 1 to 5 against heights of 150 to 175 cm, while the main Issey Miyake women's line runs 1 to 3 against 156 to 170 cm. The same number means a different body across two lines of one house.

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