Buying clothing when the listing has no size chart: what you can infer, and when not to risk it

Several of the supplier listings behind our clothing publish no size chart at all. That is a real gap and we would rather name it than paper over it with a table we invented. It is also a gap you can partly close from the outside, because a listing leaks more information about fit than it looks like it does. Here is what you can read off it, and the point at which the honest answer is to stop.

Why the chart is missing

A size chart is produced by whoever graded the garment. When a listing has been assembled from a factory's own product page, there is frequently nothing to copy: the factory sells to buyers who already know its block, and the chart was never written down in the first place.

It also goes missing when one listing covers several colourways produced in different runs, or when a seller has decided that publishing numbers invites arguments. None of those reasons tell you the garment is bad. They tell you the information is not there.

We say so on the page when it is the case. The alternative is inventing a chart, and an invented chart is worse than no chart, because it looks like a fact and you would be right to rely on it.

What the size range tells you

A range that stops at XL and a range that runs to 3XL were graded for different markets. The second has been stepped further in both directions from its base, which means the maker expected a wider spread of bodies.

What a short range does not tell you is where the middle sits. A four step range is not automatically a small range. What it does mean is that there is nowhere to go when the block runs narrow, and with the clothing that reaches us from overseas suppliers the block usually does run narrow. If you are at the top of a range that stops at XL, that is information.

Letters that skip are also worth noticing. A range offered as M, L, XL, 2XL with no S has probably been built from a larger base, which occasionally means the opposite of the usual warning.

The model note is the most valuable line on the page

If a listing says the model is 168cm with an 84cm bust wearing size S, you have a data point tied to a real body wearing the actual garment. That is worth more than a chart, because a chart describes intentions and a model note describes an outcome.

Use it as an anchor rather than a rule. One body in one size tells you roughly where the middle of the range sits. It tells you nothing about how much each step adds, which is the other half of the problem.

With no model note, photographs still carry a little. Look at where the hem lands relative to the knee, where the sleeve ends relative to the wrist bone, and whether the waist seam sits at the natural waist or above it. Those three tell you about the cut even when they tell you nothing about your size.

Read the photographs for the clips

Studio photographs of a garment that does not fit the model are pinned at the back. Look for gathering along the spine in a three quarter shot, a waist that pulls in sharply at the back only, or one sleeve hanging with a fold the other does not have.

A pinned garment is being shown a size too large for the model. That tells you the sample is bigger than she is and nothing about your size, and it does tell you the fit in the photograph is not available to anybody.

Scale cues are mostly useless. Shoes and props vary too much. The most reliable one in a clothing photograph is a hand: an adult palm is roughly 8cm to 9cm across, which gives you a usable read on collar width, cuff width and strap width even when nothing else in the frame is measurable.

Fabric and construction forgive, or they do not

Composition first. Any elastane at all, even three to five per cent, means slack. A woven fabric with none has no give in any direction, and a close bodice in a woven is the least forgiving garment there is.

Then construction. Smocking, shirring, a tie waist, a wrap, a drawstring, a raglan or dropped shoulder, a loose button through with no darts: all of those absorb a wrong guess. Gathers do the same thing, which is why a ruched front is a lower risk buy than a plain one at the same measurement. A fitted bodice with princess seams, a set in sleeve and a back zip absorbs nothing at all.

A garment cut deliberately large is a separate case. The oversized long coat is cut big on purpose, so the question is whether the shoulder and the sleeve work, not whether the chest number is exact. Being between sizes on a piece like that is close to irrelevant.

Finding the chart somebody else published

The same garment is often sold by a lot of sellers out of one factory. Copying a distinctive phrase from the description into a search engine, inside quotation marks, frequently turns up another listing of what is visibly the same piece, and that listing may publish a chart.

Treat it as indicative rather than proof. It is probably the same factory and possibly the same grading, but you have not established either. It is worth more than guessing and considerably less than numbers on the page you are actually buying from.

Reverse image search does the same job when the description is too generic to search. Both methods work best on distinctive garments and worst on a plain black dress.

When not to risk it

Do not risk it when the garment is fitted, has no stretch, and has no chart. That combination is three strikes and it produces most of the unwearable parcels in the world.

Do not risk it when you are between sizes, when the only option offered is one size, when you are buying for somebody else's body, or when the piece is the centre of an event with a fixed date. Do risk it when the piece is forgiving, when it is cheap enough that being wrong is annoying rather than painful, or when it has no size at all. A printed tee on a standard United States chart is a different kind of purchase from a fitted dress with no numbers anywhere.

And ask us first. We take no returns, so a wrong size is money you do not get back, and that is a poor outcome for both of us. Email before you order and we will go and read the supplier's own measurements for that specific garment rather than quote you a general table. It takes us a day and costs you nothing.

Questions people actually ask

How do you know what size to buy with no size chart?

Infer from the fabric composition, the construction and any model note, then compare against a garment you already own measured flat. If the piece is fitted with no stretch, do not guess: ask the seller for the measurements before ordering.

Can I find a size chart for the same garment somewhere else?

Often, yes. Searching a distinctive phrase from the description inside quotation marks turns up other sellers of the same factory garment, and one of them may publish a chart. Treat it as indicative rather than proof.

Is elastane enough to make a size guess safe?

It helps a great deal. Even three to five per cent gives the garment somewhere to go. It will not rescue a fitted bodice that is two sizes out, and stretch fabric shows your contours rather than hiding them.