Plus & in-between

The bust measurements no brand has a size for

"I'm between sizes" is said like it's a fact about your body. Often it's a fact about the chart. We audited every size chart we hold and mapped the holes — measurements where a brand publishes no size at all.

By Sulaimon Salako, CEO of Styla · 27 July 2026 · 4 min read · How we source our data

If you've measured yourself properly, found your number sitting neatly between two sizes, and concluded your body is the awkward variable — this article is the correction.

Size grids aren't continuous. They step. And when a brand publishes a range for each size, somebody has to decide where each range stops and the next one starts. Sometimes those decisions leave a hole.

The clearest example

If your bust is 44 or 45 inches, Birdy Grey does not make a size for you. Not a size that runs slightly small. No size. The chart goes from 43 straight to 46.

And notice where that hole sits: precisely at the seam between straight sizing and plus sizing. XXL is the top of one grid, 1X the bottom of another, and the two were graded from different fit blocks. Nobody joined them up.

Every hole we've found so far

These are brands that publish a range per size, so the gaps are literal — measurements with no corresponding size:

A 37.5″ bust has no size at Aritzia and no size at Birdy Grey. Two of the most popular brands in their categories, and the same measurement falls through both.

The other failure mode: no gaps, but wide steps

This is worth being precise about, because it's a different problem that feels identical.

Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Lane Bryant publish a single measurement per size rather than a range. Technically their charts have no holes — you round to the nearest size. But the steps between sizes can get wide, and a wide step means the "nearest" size can still be well over an inch off.

The grading gets coarser as the sizes get bigger. At the bottom of Old Navy's range you're never more than half an inch from a published size. At the top you can be more than an inch off in either direction — the same body precision that a size 8 shopper takes for granted isn't offered to a size 16 shopper.

That pattern shows up across the mainstream brands. It's the quiet version of the same problem.

What to do when you land in a hole

Size up, not down. The gaps we've found are wide enough that the smaller size will be tight rather than close. Tight is unwearable; roomy is alterable.

Cross the straight-to-plus line. The gaps cluster at that boundary, and dedicated plus-size brands often cover the range continuously. Lane Bryant runs from a 42″ bust to 68″ in even 2-inch steps with no holes anywhere. The body that "isn't a size" at Birdy Grey is unremarkably mid-range there.

Check whether the brand has a second system. Aritzia's trousers use alpha sizes with gaps; its denim uses numeric waist sizes with none. Same store, same body, and one rail has your size.

Stop treating it as information about you. A gap in a chart is a decision somebody made in a grading meeting. It isn't a verdict.