Will it fit you?
Copy the measurements off any second-hand listing, wherever you found it, put your own next to them, and find out before you buy. No account, nothing saved.
Where to find these numbers
Good listings put them in the description. If they are missing, ask — most sellers will measure a piece for you, and a seller who will not is telling you something useful.
| Measurement | Room we allow | How it is taken |
|---|---|---|
| Chest, pit to pit | 8 cm all the way round (4 cm on the flat figure) | Listings usually call this "pit to pit". Take it flat, armpit seam to armpit seam. We double it to compare with your bust. |
| Waist | 2 cm | Across the flat waistband, doubled. |
| Hip | 4 cm | Across the widest point, doubled. |
| Inside leg | none | Crotch seam to hem, along the inside of the leg. |
| Insole | 0.5 cm | Heel to toe inside the shoe, not the size on the box. |
The allowance is the gap between a garment matching your body exactly and it actually being wearable. A top measuring precisely your bust will be skin tight, which is why its chest, doubled from pit to pit, is allowed eight centimetres over your bust before anything is called snug.
Why the label is no use
A size 12 from 1998 is not a size 12 now, and two brands on the same high street today will not agree either. Second-hand makes it worse, because a rail can hold thirty years of drift at once. The garment's own measurements are the only thing that survives all of that.
Doing this without the typing
This page asks for your measurements each time because it remembers nothing about you. Rewear is the version that does not: sellers enter the centimetres as ordinary fields, you save yours once, and every listing measured for fit then says where it lands on you without you typing anything.
It is free to list and there is no selling fee — sell something for £40 and you keep £40.
Get the app How to measure a garment