Sizing
At Rumors, we size by measurements. Most of the time, sizes on vintage tags cannot be trusted! Sizes have varied greatly over the years and from one brand to the next. Not to mention, clothing can be either shrunken or stretched out by previous owners. Trying things on is your best bet to ensure a great fit, but if you love shopping for vintage from Instagram, Etsy, Depop, etc. knowing your measurements will help you to know if something will fit before you commit to buying! Taking your own measurements from your body can be difficult. What we recommend is taking your best fitting pair of jeans and long sleeved shirt or jacket and measuring them instead.Below is a step by step guide that will walk you through it!What you’ll need:
A tape measurer.
*We recommend a soft, flexible tape measurer, but a retractable tape measurer or yardstick will do in a pinch.
A long sleeved shirt or jacket that fits you just right.
Your best fitting pair of jeans or pants.
**Note: if you shop primarily for high-rise jeans, you’ll want these to also be high rise. Taking measurements from a low rise pair would give different results.
Write down your measurements and save them in your wallet or in a note on your phone!
Shoulders
With your shirt or jacket laying flat, measure from shoulder seam to shoulder seam. If you are measuring something that has no shoulder seam, like a raglan sweatshirt, measure at the point where the shoulder naturally falls.
2. Pit to pit
This measurement is used a LOT! It is an important one for buying T-shirts especially. This is your chest or bust measurement but is often referred to as “pit to pit”.
With your jacket or shirt laying flat, measure from one armpit seam to the next without stretching.
3. Sleeve
Measure from the shoulder seam (or where shoulder naturally falls if there is no seam) to the end of cuff.
This measurement is especially helpful for those with long arms who are always looking for vintage with sleeves long enough to meet their wrist!
4. Length
Measure from either side of the collar down to the bottom edge.
5. Waist
This measurement is very important for buying pants and jeans! It can be tricky, though. Very high rise jeans will hit you on the smallest part of your waist. Low rise jeans may hit somewhere on your middle-upper hip. Obviously your hips and the smallest part of your waist are very different measurements.
We recommend finding your best fitting pair with the rise just where you like it and laying them flat without stretching.
Measure from edge to edge along the waistline and DOUBLE this number.
These measure 16”, so their waist measurement is 32”.
5. Hips
Another important one for buying jeans. Lots of times vintage jeans are difficult if you are curvy because they didn’t make enough room in the hips!
Find this measurement by going edge to edge just below the fly, then double it.
These measure 21” across, so they have 42” hips.
7. Rise
Measure from the crotch seam up to the top of the waist band.
Usually, a high rise or super high rise will measure 11-14” Anything less than 11” rise will not likely hit the smallest part of your waist, so when shopping for jeans, remember waist and rise go hand in hand.
A low rise will hit on your upper hip, so you’ll need a bigger waist size than if you were shopping for something with a high rise!
8. Inseam
Measure from the crotch down to the edge of the hem
There ya have it! With these 8 measurements, your online vintage shopping experience should go much smoother.
Stop in the shop on a Friday or Saturday and Allison would be happy to help you with measuring if you need it!