Before the numbers, one thing worth saying plainly: the size on a dress label is a manufacturing decision, not a fact about you. It has drifted by roughly four sizes since the 1950s, it differs between two shops on the same street, and it describes a garment rather than a person. Your measurements are the real information. This page turns them into whatever number a given shop happens to use.
Nothing you type here is stored or transmitted. All calculations run in your browser.
How to measure
Three measurements, taken with a soft tape, standing normally rather than holding your breath.
- Bust: around the fullest part, tape level and parallel to the floor all the way around, wearing the bra you would wear with the dress. That last detail moves the number by an inch or more.
- Waist: around the narrowest part of your torso, usually just above the navel. If you cannot find it, bend to one side and the crease shows you where it is.
- Hip: around the fullest part of your seat and upper thighs, usually 7 to 9 inches below the waist. Feet together.
No tape measure? Use a length of string or a strip of paper, wrap it the same way, mark where it overlaps, and lay it flat against a ruler or a yardstick. A phone charging cable works in a pinch. Measure each one twice, and if the two readings differ, trust the larger.
How the calculator works
Each measurement is matched against a standard misses size chart, which gives three candidate sizes. Usually they disagree, and that is expected: the chart describes one set of proportions, and almost nobody matches it exactly. We recommend the largest of the three, because a garment can be taken in at a seam but cannot be let out beyond the fabric that exists.
The formula
UK = US + 4 · EU = US + 32 · Italy = US + 38
Each measurement maps to the smallest size in the chart whose value is at least your number, so a size that would be too tight is never recommended. The conversions hold across the standard range.
Worked example
Standard misses size chart
Measurements in inches, with centimeters in parentheses. This is a widely used contemporary chart, not a legal standard, for the reason explained below.
| US | UK | EU | IT | Bust | Waist | Hip |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4 | 32 | 38 | 32 (81) | 24.5 (62) | 34.5 (88) |
| 2 | 6 | 34 | 40 | 33 (84) | 25.5 (65) | 35.5 (90) |
| 4 | 8 | 36 | 42 | 34 (86) | 26.5 (67) | 36.5 (93) |
| 6 | 10 | 38 | 44 | 35 (89) | 27.5 (70) | 37.5 (95) |
| 8 | 12 | 40 | 46 | 36 (91) | 28.5 (72) | 38.5 (98) |
| 10 | 14 | 42 | 48 | 37.5 (95) | 30 (76) | 40 (102) |
| 12 | 16 | 44 | 50 | 39 (99) | 31.5 (80) | 41.5 (105) |
| 14 | 18 | 46 | 52 | 40.5 (103) | 33 (84) | 43 (109) |
| 16 | 20 | 48 | 54 | 42 (107) | 34.5 (88) | 44.5 (113) |
| 18 | 22 | 50 | 56 | 44 (112) | 36.5 (93) | 46.5 (118) |
| 20 | 24 | 52 | 58 | 46 (117) | 38.5 (98) | 48.5 (123) |
Letter sizes map roughly: XS covers 0 to 2, S covers 4 to 6, M covers 8 to 10, L covers 12 to 14, XL covers 16 to 18, and XXL starts at 20.
Why no two shops agree
There is no enforced standard for US women's clothing sizes. A voluntary one exists and has been revised over the decades, but no brand is obliged to follow it, and most do not. Each label cuts to its own fit model, which is a real person whose proportions become that brand's size 6, and adjusts the labels to suit the customer it wants to attract. The result is that your size is genuinely different in different shops, and neither shop is lying.
Then there is the drift. Size labels have moved steadily downward while the bodies they describe have not, so a dress labeled 8 in the late 1950s corresponds to roughly a modern 0 to 2. This is why vintage clothing runs so much smaller than its tag promises, and why sewing patterns, which never played this game, feel two or three sizes larger than shop clothing. None of it is a measure of you. It is a measure of marketing, and the only durable answer is to know your inches and let the label sort itself out.