Why are there no standard clothing sizes?

In the Netflix comedy The Good Place, set in a heaven-like afterlife of that name, there are retail stores and restaurants that offer only perfect things. There’s Your Anticipated Needs; All Chocolate Everything; The Small Adorable Animal Depot. And there’s a clothing store called Everything Fits! Anyone who’s ever shopped for clothing for a female body will relate to this last one strongly.

That clothing that fits properly has become something available only in a fictional nirvana seems bonkers. After all, once upon a time, it was the norm. In a time before ‘standard’ sizing, everything did fit. That was to be expected.

That’s because ready-to-wear clothing – garments picked from a rack of identical items - has really only been a thing for a relatively short time in history, especially in women’s clothing. Until the early 20th century, most women’s clothes were made-to-measure, either by women themselves or by professional dressmakers or tailors. In that setting, clothes could be made to fit the body measurements of the wearer. Sizing, as we know it, wasn’t necessary.

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Now, going shopping for clothes feels like a lottery. Venture into the fitting room of an unfamiliar store and you’ll be obliged to carry two or three sizes with you, in the hope that one will work. Shopping online is even trickier: we can’t rely on a size in one brand corresponding to the same size in another. My quick survey of eleven local labels (see table) reveals the measurements for a size 12 woman vary by as much as 10cm in the bust, 7cm in the waist and 11cm in the hips. A woman who fits a size 12 in a Twenty-Seven Names dress with a bust of 92cm would swim inside a Trelise Cooper size 12, which has a bust of 100cm. Similarly, The Warehouse says a size 12 has a waist measurement between 74cm and 78cm. That’d be no use to a customer at Ruby, where a size 12 has an 80cm waist.

This is immensely frustrating for women.

“It's confusing, and it can be emotionally taxing,” says stylist Emma John, who is used to navigating the sizing system.

“And more often than not, the people that are missing out are women whose bodies are changing - maybe through midlife - or those whose bodies are different sizes or shapes outside the ‘norm’. No one knows what size to trust… and potentially they don't even know that there isn't a standard size.”

Rather than blaming the sizing system, Johns reckons, women often blame themselves or end up thinking of their bodies as ‘wrong’ and in need of shrinking to fit.

The variation in size seems to stem from brands determining their own sizing scales, rather than following an industry standard (which does not exist). While we seem to have agreed standards for shoes and to a large extent for men’s clothing; for women’s garments it’s down to brands themselves to come up with their sizes based on their own preferred scale. Brands that design in-house use a ‘fit model’ to test their designs, and then scale the sizes up or down from there.

John explains the issue this creates: “The fit model might be a size 10, or they might be a size six… and it's just a standard fit. So potentially what they're not doing is taking into consideration different body shapes – or changes like a tummy or thickness in other areas."

Different brands target customers whose body types and ages might be taken into consideration - this may be why brands aimed at an older market seem to have more generous sizing.

So-called ‘vanity sizing’ is relevant too; the idea that – for better or worse – psychologically, many of us prefer to wear a smaller-labelled size, and we might even be prepared to pay more for it. Vanity sizing has ramped up over the decades; what might be labelled a size 8 garment in a store in 2025 could easily carry a size 14 label on a garment from the 50s, 60s or 70s. Humans are larger now, in general; the product of better nutrition and healthcare and genetic variation over time. We’ve gradually become taller as well; women in NZ grew by over 9cm on average between 1896 and 1996.

Local label Ruby now offers sizes 4-24 in its garments, and will custom-make items outside those sizes. General Manager Emily Miller-Sharma acknowledges the situation we’re in with the clothing size lottery is partly caused by the fashion industry.

“It is part of society. It influences culture as well as it reflects it. And so a really strong compulsion that I have is to continually make progress towards what we think is a more positive society. I mean it shouldn't be a positive that we are doing this, it should just be normal. But let's acknowledge the reality: it is kind of unusual and so we just think it's important. And also there's a business case for it.”

Miller Sharma says that over the 17 years she’s been at Ruby the brand’s sizes have been tweaked in response to its changing customers and their feedback. But, she notes, bodies come in infinite variations.

“There's no standard size. And there have been some quite broad sizing studies I know, in the United Kingdom, to try and get a sense of a general rule for let's say a size curve. However, it's very difficult. For example, one person’s circumference measurements might be the same as somebody else's, but one might be five foot four and one might be five foot 11.”

Jeans are garments that feel particularly fraught when it comes to finding a good fit. No matter what size or shape you are, finding a pair of jeans that fits feels like a mission requiring endurance and mental strength.

Johns thinks there’s a few reasons for this, including not only the brands’ individual fits, but also the different types of denim used, different cuts in jeans and “the advent of the stretchy jean versus the more rigid jean".

"A more rigid jean without stretch in it is probably going to actually fit you much better, funnily enough. But it can be hard to try on because you're feeling it’s so tight. And do you trust that it's going to give to your body? Generally it will soften, and the more you wear it; the less you wash it, the better it is," she says.

Different types of denim can also affect how jeans fit.

“That might mean that you're going to get a wildly different experience [between fabrics]: you might be a 28-inch waist in a blue denim but you might have to get a 31 in a dark. And it depends on whether it's got stretch or it's a rigid denim.”

Black denim jeans are also often smaller fitting, she says.

The solution to all this angst is not likely to be found in systemic change.

“I don't think it's ever going to change,” says John.

“I think it's going to be about embracing the brands that you know fit well, and also don't be afraid to try other brands.”

Miller Sharma recommends knowing your measurements – bust, waist and hip.

“Knowing that gives people so much power when it comes to shopping - most brands now will have at least bust waist hip measurements on their websites to let you know about where you sit, remembering that what we call the grade or the difference between one size and another – so let's say a 14 and a 16 - is typically five centimeters in circumference. And most people sit somewhere between a size, and most people do not have standard bust-waist-hip measurements. Rather than being a 16 all over, they might be a 16 and 18 and a 12. And that's also completely standard.”

Getting to know a good tailor or alterations service is also useful; small alterations can make a huge difference in how a garment feels.

Changing our thinking will also help. The size on a label does not define us, Johns says. She’s used to taking several sizes into the fitting rooms with clients, and she says she often won’t share with them what size they’re wearing.

“Just because I want them to see the fit first. And you can tell from a woman's face when something fits well, it's comfortable and she's rocking it.

“There’s a little light bulb moment that happens when I share with a client that no one else is ever going to see this size label. If you really want to, cut it out as soon as it's at home. And forget what label size it is. Does it look good? Do you feel good in it? Are you more confident wearing this - and is it comfortable? Can you sit down? Can you dance? Can you run after your kids? Can you walk in high heels in it? All of those things matter more than the actual size.”