Measuring Your Body for Clothing

If you want to start shopping online, knowing your body measurements is important for pick your right size. There are many brands with different size chart for clothing that runs big and small. Different fabrics, updated cuts, and vanity causes size inconsistency amongst brands. The only thing you will need is measuring tape. Down below are some instructions when taking measurements for your outfit.

What You Should Measure

Chest/Bust

This measurement is used for tops and dresses. 

Women: Place one end of the tape measure at the fullest part of your bust and wrap it around your body to get the measurement, keeping the tape parallel to the floor.

Men and kids: Place one end of the tape measure at the center of your chest. Wrap it around your body, keeping the tape parallel to the floor.

 Waist

This measurement is used for tops, dresses, and bottoms.

Most clothing brands use the measurement of the “natural waist” for their guides. To measure your waist, find the narrowest part of your waist, located above your belly button and below your rib cage.

Note: Some brands use a “low” waist measurement. For this, you would measure at the point where your trousers would normally ride.

Hips

This measurement is used for bottoms and sometimes for dress.

Stand with your hips together and measure the fullest part of your hips. Be sure to go over your buttocks as well. It might be challenging to keep the tape consistently level when you do it alone; it is recommended that you a friend assist you with this or that you do it in front of a mirror.

Inseam

This measurement is used for bottom such as trousers and jeans.

The inseam is the distance from the uppermost part of your thigh to your ankle. It is easiest to measure the inseam based on a well-fitting pair of pants. Measure from the crotch to the cuff on the inside seam of the leg. The number of inches, to the nearest ½”, is the inseam length. It is best to measure your inseam with a pair of shoes on so that you can ensure the hem hits at the right point on your shoes.

For women, keep in mind that the accurate inseam measurement depends on weather you are wearing heels or flats. The hem should hit at the middle of the heel shaft or should hit slightly above the flat shoe. It would be best for women to take two measurements for inseams – one for trousers you would wear with heels, and one for trousers you’d wear with flats.

Neck measurements

Neck measurement is commonly used for sizing men’s dress shirts. Many dress shirts sold in the U.S. actually use the neck size in inches as the “size”

Wrap the measurements tape around the base of your neck, going around your Adam’s apple. Ensure that the tape is consistently level and that you’re not wrapping the tape too tightly around your neck. This measurement is your true neck measurement. For your dress shirts measurement. For your dress shirt neck measurements, add a half inch to a round number (i.e., 14 inches should be rounded up to 14.5 inches) or round up to the nearest half inch (i.e 14.25 should be rounded up to 14.5

How Measurements Correspond to Sizes

When shopping online the first thing you should look at is the sizing chart. Brands and Manufacturers will always provide measurements of the bust, waist, hips, and length for online shoppers. Each brand and designer use a different scale.

Measuring Can Make Shopping More Successful

Measurements will help ensure you that you have chose the correct size when shopping online. It also cut the hassle of having to return merch to exchange for sizes.