Dress size charts

What is a dress size chart?

A dress size chart is one brand's own table mapping a size label to a set of body measurements, almost always bust, waist and hip. It describes the body the pattern was drafted for. It does not describe the finished dress, and it does not bind any other brand.

That single fact explains most dress sizing confusion. A size 10 is a row in a table, and the table belongs to whoever printed it.

Is there a standard dress size chart?

No. Reference documents exist and brands use them voluntarily, but no authority checks what number goes on a dress. The table below lists the documents a shopper is most likely to hear cited, and what each one actually governs.

Compare that with menswear, where a dress shirt is sold on neck and sleeve in inches and a chest is quoted as a number, and you can see why a dress size carries the least information of any size label in apparel. It is a rank, not a dimension.

What measurements do I need for a dress size chart?

Three, and sometimes a fourth. Take them over the underwear you intend to wear, with the tape level all the way round and snug without compressing.

1. Bust — around the fullest part of the chest, tape level across the back, arms down.
2. Waist — the narrowest part of the torso, usually just above the navel. Do not hold your breath.
3. Hip — the fullest part of the seat, feet together, tape parallel to the floor.
4. Hollow to hem — from the hollow at the base of the throat straight down to where you want the hem to sit, standing in the shoe height you plan to wear. Formal and made-to-order dresses ask for this; most high street dresses do not.

Ease is the part the chart does not show

Ease is the difference between the body measurement printed in the chart and the finished measurement of the garment. A brand can publish one body chart and hang it on a fitted sheath and on a swing dress in the same season. The charts agree. The dresses do not. If you want to know how a specific dress will sit, you need its flat measurements, which is a different table and one many brands never publish. The distinction is worth reading in full on body measurement versus garment measurement.

What do numeric and letter dress sizes mean?

Numeric sizes are a rank order within one brand's own grading. Even numbers are the common misses run in the United States; odd numbers are conventionally juniors; plus ranges usually run even again with a W suffix. In the United Kingdom the numbers are different again, and the familiar conversions between UK, US and EU numbering are trade conventions rather than published equivalences, which is why they break on individual brands. There is more on that in the international conversion chart.

Letter sizes appear on knit, jersey and wrap dresses, where stretch absorbs a wider range of bodies. A letter carries less information than a number because one letter often spans two numeric rows. It also hides cut. The clearest evidence sits in published blank specifications for shirts, where the same letter names two different garments: a ladies-cut Gildan G500L Medium publishes a 17.5" chest, while the unisex Mediums in the same catalogue publish 20.0" to 20.5". That is a three inch gap on one letter, and the same logic applies to dresses cut for different silhouettes.

Why does the same size fit differently between brands?

Six things move independently, and every one of them is a private decision.

1. The fit model — the sample size is fitted on one real person, and that person differs by brand.
2. Ease — how much room is added to the body measurement for the intended silhouette.
3. Grading — how much is added at bust, waist and hip when stepping up one size. Brands step by different amounts and in different proportions.
4. Label drift — the measurements attached to a given number have moved over decades, which is vanity sizing.
5. Fabric — a stretch knit forgives a mismatch that a woven twill will not, at the same stated size.
6. Tolerance — the cut-and-sew tolerance on the production line, before anything reaches you.

None of those is a defect. They are design choices. The problem is only that the size label reports none of them.

How do you read a brand's own dress size chart?

1. Find out which kind of table it is — look for the words body measurements, or garment measurements, or laid flat. If the page does not say, assume body.
2. Check the units and the rounding — a chart in whole centimetres and a chart in half inches do not carry the same precision, and converted charts are often rounded twice.
3. Check whether rows are ranges or points — a range means the brand has already told you the size covers a span, which is useful information about ease.
4. Take the largest of your three — for anything fitted, the widest measurement decides the size, then a seam gets taken in elsewhere.
5. Read the fabric and the fit word — relaxed, fitted, oversized and true to size are marketing terms, but stretch content is a fact and it changes the answer.
6. Treat the model note as one data point — the height and worn size of one model tells you about that dress on that person, and nothing about your bust to waist ratio.
7. Read the returns policy before ordering two sizes — buying a pair to compare is a reasonable tactic only if sending one back is free.

How do you measure a dress you already own?

A dress that already fits you is better evidence than any chart, because it is a real garment rather than a description of a body. Measure it flat and you have a target to compare against, whenever a brand publishes garment measurements.

1. Lay it flat — fasten the zip or buttons, smooth the fabric without stretching it, front side up on a hard surface.
2. Bust — measure straight across from seam to seam just below the armhole, then double it.
3. Waist — measure across at the narrowest point of the bodice, then double it.
4. Hip — measure across at the widest point below the waist seam, then double it.
5. Length — from the highest point of the shoulder seam straight down to the hem.
6. Write down which dress it came from — a flat measurement is only useful attached to the brand, style and size it was taken from.

The step-by-step version, including where to place the tape on wrap and A-line shapes, is in how to measure a dress.

Can ShirtMath measure a dress from a photo?

No, and it is worth being plain about it. The ShirtMath scanner reads a shirt laid flat with a scale card in the frame, and it leaves blank any reading it is not confident about. Dresses are not supported. For a dress, the tape is the instrument, and this page and the measuring guide are the method.

What ShirtMath does do is compare published garment measurements rather than trusting size labels, which is the same habit this page is asking you to adopt by hand. The reasoning behind that is set out in the methodology.

Where to go next

Common questions