Buying secondhand online removes the one advantage a shop has: you cannot hold the garment. Measurements put some of that back, but only if you and the seller are measuring the same thing in the same way. Most disappointments come from a listing that was accurate about a number that meant something different to the person reading it.
Build a reference garment first
Before you look at a single listing, measure two or three garments you already own and wear often, and write the numbers down. One that fits closely, one that fits loosely, and one that you would describe as the ideal version of the thing you are shopping for.
Lay each one flat on a table, buttoned or zipped, smoothed but not stretched, and measure:
- Chest or bust: from armpit seam to armpit seam, straight across, laid flat.
- Waist: across the narrowest point, or across the waistband if it has one.
- Hip: across the widest point, usually 20 to 25 cm below the waist on a skirt or dress.
- Shoulder: seam to seam across the back, between the shoulder points.
- Sleeve: from the shoulder seam along the outside of the arm to the cuff edge.
- Length: from the highest point of the shoulder (or the collar seam) to the hem.
- Rise and inseam on trousers.
Photograph the tape on the garment if it helps, but keep the numbers on your phone. These are the numbers you will compare against for the rest of the year, and they are more useful than any size chart because they come from clothes you already like.
The ambiguous measurements
A handful of measurements are routinely written in ways that mean two different things. Ask about them directly.
Pit to pit. The flat measurement from underarm seam to underarm seam, straight across a laid-flat garment. Some sellers double this and call it “chest”. A doubled 52 cm is a 104 cm chest; the same garment listed as “52 cm flat” is a very different size. If a listing gives one number without saying which, ask.
Waist. On a garment with a waistband, this is the waistband measured flat, and it should be measured with the garment done up. On a stretch waistband, ask whether it was measured relaxed or stretched, because the difference can be several centimetres. If the number is smaller than the circumference you would need, the elastic is doing work you may not want.
Length. The difference between measured from the collar seam and measured from the shoulder point is real, and so is the difference between a coat measured to the hem and to the centre back neck. Ask where the tape started.
Inseam. Measured along the inside leg from the crotch seam to the hem, not from the waistband. A “30 inch inseam” quoted as the full leg length is a common error.
What to ask a seller
If the listing already has clear measurements, you need less. If it does not, a short, specific message gets a better answer than a general question:
- Could you give me the pit-to-pit measurement flat, and the length from shoulder to hem?
- Is the waistband measured relaxed or stretched?
- Are the measurements taken with the garment laid flat, or on a mannequin?
- Has it been washed, and has it shrunk at all?
- Has the garment been altered — taken in, shortened, or let out?
- Are the sleeve and hem lengths original?
A seller who answers these is usually also accurate about flaws, which is the other thing you cannot photograph properly.
Photos lie, but in predictable ways
Photographs distort shape. A garment shot flat looks wider and shorter than it is; a garment on a mannequin looks narrower and longer; a garment on a person looks like the person. Photographs also hide flaws that measurements reveal — a stretched waistband, a shrunken sleeve — and they hide the things measurements cannot reveal, like smell and softness.
Two useful habits: look for listing photos that include a tape measure or a coin for scale, and look at the inside of the garment. A seller who photographs the inner seams and the label is telling you something about how carefully they inspect. A seller who photographs only the front of the garment, once, on a hanger, in dim light, is not.
Compare, then decide
Once you have the numbers, do the arithmetic against your reference garment. A shirt that measures 2 cm narrower across the chest than your best-fitting shirt will be tight; 4 cm wider and it will look oversized. These are the differences you can feel, and they are worth being precise about.
Two cautions. First, fabric matters as much as numbers: a knit with elastane measuring 2 cm small may be fine, and a stiff cotton shirt measuring exactly right may not be. Second, vintage garments vary more than modern ones, because they have been washed, hung, worn and stored differently, and because sizing was less standardised when they were made. A tape measure and an honest seller are the only reliable combination.
One thing measurements cannot carry across a listing is weight. Cloth has a heft that you can feel through a photograph only in the way it hangs, and it changes how a garment wears: a heavy wool coat and a thin one can measure identically and be different purchases. If weight matters to you, ask the seller what the garment feels like compared with something ordinary, or look for a listing that mentions fibre weight in grams or ounces per square metre.
If a listing has no measurements, no inside photos and no answer to a direct question, that is information too. There will be another one along next week.