Size guides

How to measure yourself — and why it still won't be enough

Four minutes, three measurements, done properly. Then the part every other guide leaves out: why doing this correctly can still send you the wrong size, and what to do instead.

By Sulaimon Salako, CEO of Styla · 27 July 2026 · 6 min read · How we source our data

Let's deal with the awkward bit first, because you may have been here before.

The standard advice is: measure yourself, check the brand's size chart, order that size. If you've done that and the garment still arrived wrong, the usual assumption is that you measured badly. Usually you didn't. Measuring correctly and following the chart can still produce the wrong size, and the reason has nothing to do with your technique.

So: how to do it properly, and then the honest account of what it does and doesn't get you.

Before you start

• Use a fabric tape, not a builder's tape. A ribbon or a phone charger cable plus a ruler works in a pinch.
• Thin clothing or bare skin. A jumper adds an inch or more.
• Wear the bra you'd wear with the garment. This is the single most overlooked variable — a different bra can move your bust measurement by two inches, which is more than a whole size at most brands.
• Stand normally in front of a mirror. The mirror is how you check the tape is level around your back, which is where most errors happen.
• Don't hold your breath or pull tight. You should be able to slip one finger under the tape.

The three measurements

1. Bust

Around the fullest part, usually across the nipples. Keep the tape level all the way round — check the back in the mirror, because it tends to ride up. Arms down at your sides, breathing normally. If the tape dips at the back, your number will read small.

2. Natural waist

The narrowest part of your torso, typically an inch or two above your belly button — not where your jeans sit, which is usually lower. Can't find it? Bend sideways; the crease that forms is your natural waist. Level tape, normal breath, don't suck in.

3. Hips

The fullest part of your hips and seat, usually 7–9 inches below your natural waist. Feet together. This one is easiest to get wrong by measuring too high — go to the widest point, even if that feels lower than you expected.

Write all three down with the date. Bodies change, and a measurement from two years ago is a guess.

Now the part other guides skip

You have three accurate numbers. Here's what they will and won't do.

A size chart is only true about the brand that published it

Your measurements are facts. The size they translate to is not. Comparing published charts, a 42-inch bust is a size 12 at Eloquii and a size 16 at Gap. Both charts are correct. Neither transfers to the other.

So "I measured and I'm a 14" isn't a conclusion. "I measured, and at Old Navy that's a 14" is.

Your three numbers will often disagree with each other

This is the most common reason charts fail people, and it's not an edge case. If your bust puts you in a 14 and your waist puts you in a 10, the chart has no answer — it was built assuming those two move together.

What to do: order for the largest measurement of the part that can't easily be altered. For tops and dresses that's usually the bust; for trousers and skirts, the hips. Taking in a waist is routine. Letting out a bodice or a shoulder often isn't possible at all.

And be sceptical of "it's easier to take in than let out" as blanket advice. It's true of side seams. It's false for shoulders, armholes and necklines — which is how people end up in a garment that fits nowhere.

Sometimes the chart has no row for you

Not metaphorically. Birdy Grey's dresses chart runs XXL to a 43″ bust and picks up again at 46″ for 1X. A 44″ bust has no size. Aritzia's bottoms chart skips 29″ to 30.5″ at the waist.

If your measurement lands in one of those holes, no amount of careful measuring helps. We've mapped every one we've found.

Body measurements aren't garment measurements

Most charts list the body a size is designed to fit, not the garment's dimensions. The difference between them — ease — is a design choice that varies by fabric and cut. A stretch knit and a woven blazer with identical body measurements fit nothing alike. Some brands, Zara among them, skip the brand-wide chart entirely and publish per-product garment measurements instead.

If you don't have a tape measure

A lot of people don't, and don't want one. You can get most of the way there from a garment you already own that fits well: note the brand, the category, and the size on the label. "I'm a 12 in Gap jeans" is genuinely usable information — it's a measurement expressed in a different unit.

That's the input our own tool takes, for exactly this reason. No tape, no photos.