Clothing Size Converter

The clothing size converter translates garment sizes between UK, US, EU, Italian, and other international sizing systems for men, women, and children. It is used by online shoppers ordering from international brands, travellers buying clothes abroad, and fashion industry professionals working across markets. Choose your garment type and current size to find the equivalent in any other standard.

How to Use the Clothing Size Converter

1. Select the garment type: tops, dresses, trousers, or jackets.
2. Choose your gender: women's or men's.
3. Select the sizing system your current size is in: UK, US, EU, or another standard.
4. Enter or select your size.
5. Read the equivalent sizes in all major international systems displayed in the results table.

The Formula

Clothing sizes are not calculated from a single formula; they are conversion tables derived from body measurements. The underlying measurements are:

For women's tops and dresses: bust measurement in centimetres or inches For men's shirts: collar size in inches or centimetres For trousers: waist and inside leg measurements

Example conversion relationships for women's sizes: UK size = US size + 4 UK size 8 = EU size 36 EU size = UK size + 28 (approximately)

For men's suits: UK/US sizes are similar; EU sizes are approximately 10 more than UK sizes.

Real-World Example

A woman wears a UK size 12. Find her EU and US sizes.

1. US size = UK size - 4 = 12 - 4 = US size 8
2. EU size = UK size + 28 = 12 + 28 = EU size 40

A UK women's size 12 is approximately EU 40 and US size 8. When shopping from a French or Italian website, selecting EU 40 is the correct starting point, though individual brands may size differently.

Why Clothing Sizes Vary Between Brands

International size labels provide a starting point, but they are not standardised beyond broad conventions. Brands design their clothes on specific fit models with particular proportions, meaning that even within the same country's sizing system, a size 12 from one brand may fit very differently from a size 12 at another. High-street brands may use different grading (the increments between sizes) than luxury brands. Vanity sizing, where brands label clothes with smaller numbers to make customers feel good, has also shifted nominal sizes over time. Always check the brand's specific size guide, which translates sizes to actual body measurements, before purchasing online.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the US use letter sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL) as well as numbered sizes? Letter sizes are used for approximate, non-specific fits and are common for casual tops, knitwear, and some dresses. Numbered sizes are used for more tailored garments where a closer fit to body measurements is needed. Both systems are used in the UK and EU as well, often interchangeably.

Are men's and women's clothing sizes on the same scale? No. Men's and women's sizing systems are entirely separate, reflecting the different body proportions they are designed for. A women's size 12 and a men's size 12 refer to completely different garments. For unisex garments, brands typically provide both men's and women's size equivalents in their guides.

What does Italian clothing sizing mean? Italian sizing for women's clothes is typically the same as EU sizing (size 40, 42, 44, etc.), though some Italian brands run small. For men, Italian suits often use chest measurements in centimetres, which differ from UK/US suit sizes in inches.

How do I find my correct size when shopping online without trying clothes on? Always consult the brand's specific size guide and measure yourself accurately. Key measurements for women are bust, waist, and hips; for men they are chest, waist, and inside leg. Compare your measurements to the brand's size chart rather than relying solely on the size label.

Also try these free tools:

• Shoe Size Converter
• Ring Size Converter
• Unit Converter

A conversion table worked from the relationships on this page

The relationships stated above generate a full conversion table, and doing the arithmetic in the open shows where the rule of thumb is reliable and where it starts to strain.

For women's sizes the two relationships are US size equals UK size minus four, and EU size equals UK size plus twenty-eight. Applied across the even-numbered range:

Both relationships hold at every row, which is what makes them useful as a first estimate rather than a curiosity. Four steps of two in UK sizes equal four steps of four in US sizes and four steps of two in EU sizes, so the three columns move together.

For men's suits the relationship is different, and this is the point at which a reader is most likely to use the women's offset by mistake. Men's UK and US suit sizes share the same number, and the EU equivalent sits approximately ten higher, so a 40 inch chest is a UK 40, a US 40 and an EU 50.

Two cautions attach to both tables. The women's rule is stated for the even-numbered UK sizes that most charts use; the odd sizes sit between the rows and are not covered by a whole-number offset. And the men's rule covers chest measurement. A pair of trousers sold by waist and inside leg is on a different scale again, with the numbers taken straight from the measurement in inches.

Measuring for a chart rather than reading a label

A size chart is a set of body measurements wearing a number, and the measurement is the part a shopper controls. Four measurements do most of the work, and each has a standard placement.

• Bust or chest: around the fullest part, with the tape level all the way round and under the arms. The tape should touch the body without compressing it. For a chest measurement the tape passes across the shoulder blades at the back.
• Waist: around the narrowest part of the torso, which sits above the navel and below the ribs. Measuring at the level of a trouser waistband usually returns a larger figure than the chart expects.
• Hips: around the fullest part of the seat, with the feet together. The tape sits level here too, which means it drops lower at the back than at the front.
• Inside leg: from the crotch seam of a pair of trousers that fit, or on the body from the highest point of the inner thigh to the ankle bone or the floor. Chart values assume the shoe the trousers will be worn with.

Two habits make the numbers usable. Measure over the layer of clothing the garment will be worn with, since a chart is usually built on measurements taken over light clothing, and write the numbers down before opening the brand's chart, because measuring to match a size already in mind introduces the bias the exercise was meant to remove.

The arithmetic between inches and centimetres

Charts differ in unit as well as in scale, so the conversion is part of the job. The international inch is defined as exactly 25.4 millimetres, which makes the arithmetic exact rather than approximate.

To go the other way, divide by 2.54. A chart that gives a waist of 74 centimetres is asking for 74 divided by 2.54, which is 29.13 inches, so a 29 inch waist sits inside the size and a 30 inch waist sits at the top of it. A bust of 88 centimetres is 88 divided by 2.54, or 34.65 inches, which lands between two common US sizes and is exactly the situation in which a brand's own chart matters more than the label. Trousers bought by inches need one more term, because the waist measurement and the inside leg are two separate numbers rather than one size with a grading step behind it.

What the size relationships assume

The tables above are arithmetic, and arithmetic carries assumptions that a label conceals.

• The relationships are rules of thumb over the middle of the size range. They are stated for adult garments and are not meant to cover children's sizes, petite or tall ranges, or maternity cuts, all of which are graded on their own scales.
• A brand's own chart overrides every figure here. Grading, which is the increment between one size and the next, is a design decision rather than a constant, and two brands can put the same number on garments cut for measurements that differ by several centimetres.
• The size number summarises a range, not a point. A size stands for a band of body measurements, and a shopper at the edge of a band fits one brand's size and not another's.
• Nominal sizes drift. Labels have been adjusted downwards over the decades as part of the same commercial pressure that produced the phrase vanity sizing, so a size carried in a wardrobe for a decade is not a reliable reference for a purchase made today.
• Letter sizes sit outside the numeric scale. Small, medium and large carry no fixed measurement equivalent across brands, which is why the numeric equivalent in a chart is the number to trust.

A note on the standard behind European sizes

European size designation follows the EN 13402 series published by the European Committee for Standardization. Part 1 defines the pictogram that appears on a label, part 2 defines which body dimensions are primary and which are secondary, and part 3 sets out the body measurements and the intervals between them that a size code stands for. The system labels a garment by the body it is cut for rather than by a country-specific number, which is why a chart listing bust, waist and hip in centimetres travels between markets better than one listing UK, US and EU numbers. The example tables in part 3 are informative rather than binding, so a brand is free to use different intervals, and many do. That single fact explains most of the disagreements a shopper meets when two charts for the same nominal size do not agree.