Recently I made an online order for some clothing that I wanted to fit properly and be extra flattering. It’s Valentine’s season, you get the idea. But because of the nature of the outfits they were non-refundable. That being said, it was crunch time on sizing. 

I’ve always been good at sizing clothing online because I despise trying on clothes in store. Why? Not because of low confidence or lack of sizes, but because every store I go in has a different size guide. In one store I’ll be a size Large, and the next store over I’ll be a size 2XL. And if I’m especially unlucky, I’ll have those sort of size discrepancies in the same store.

That brings me to this most recent online purchase: I ordered half a dozen items, all from the same company, and they ranged in sizes from the “smallest” being a Medium and the “largest” being a 4XL. Are you kidding me?!

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a size Medium or a size 4XL, but it would be nice to know definitively which one I am!  

You see, there’s no standard for sizing. There’s no golden rule saying this measurement = this size. Lettered sizing is completely arbitrary and if anyone tells you otherwise, they’re wrong. No store knows what they’re doing with sizing! They pick a specific set of measurements to be considered “medium,” maybe they use the median numbers of some sample pool of women (but I doubt it), and then they adjust all the measurements down and up to make the sizes around this so-called “medium.” 

That’s where my favorite trick comes in:

Know your measurements. 

Every piece that I ordered from this recent shipment fits me perfectly! Yes the Medium fits great, and yes the 4XL fits great! You know why? Because on each item they have a size guide that tells you the inches or centimeters for bust, waist, and hips that each piece is made to fit. 

That is the trick!

Almost every website that sells clothing will have a “size guide” with inches. Don’t just look at the numbered size guide! The “Large = US 12-14” crap is better but still unpredictable. Look for the inches or centimeters, then compare them with your measurements. Ta-da! The perfect fit!

A quick note on measurements:

It won’t benefit your body or your mind to fudge your numbers. We just talked about how arbitrary sizing is, so don’t “try to fit” into a Medium if a company’s size guide is telling you that you should buy a different size for your body! No one will see that tag except you. No one will know your measurements except you. And at that, no one cares except you!

But if you buy clothes that aren’t made for your specifications, you know what you will see in the mirror? You won’t see “Medium,” you’ll see clothes that are too loose or too tight on your body. You’ll see discomfort and disappointment where you could be focusing on wearing things that you want to wear. 

There are plenty of other conversations here about companies having poor size ranges and different body types looking certain ways in different styles of clothing, but my point here is to not let clothing size numbers bother you.

If you clicked on this blog then I know you’ve heard people say…

“sizes don’t matter”

but I’m here to tell you it’s not just that they don’t matter it’s that…

Sizes literally mean nothing.

In today’s society, clothing sizes are no more than a tag number that help stores distinguish which pieces to put on which rack. Don’t concern yourself with a store’s arbitrary organizational practices; buy whichever clothes fit your body. You’ll be happier and more confident with the end result. 

And if their number still bothers you? Cut off the tag! In a year’s time you won’t remember what size that cute dress was, and neither will the company you bought it from.