You’re doing a late night gift run. It’s midnight, three tabs down, your brother’s birthday is tomorrow and you made a promise that this year you wouldn’t get him just another gift card. You find yourself on a page you got to via one-click-too-many googling “where’s wally pyjamas men’s”, because apparently your brother appreciates that idiotic red and white stripe enough to warrant owning pajamas with it printed across the entire entire thing. You click on the listing because they look perfect, then panic slightly when you click on the dropdown for sizes and it’s just S, M, L, XL with no numbers next to them. You know what his t-shirt size is. You do not know his pajama size, because unless you work at a pajama company no-one cares about pajama sizing until they’re scrolling through the internet with their mouse hovering over “ADD TO CART” and a gift that needs to arrive tomorrow.
Before we dive in further here’s my hot take: most men get pj sizing wrong by assuming it’s the same as t-shirt shopping.
Pjs are not shirts. They’re more similar to buying a tent, if we’re being comparable to clothing at all, in that you absolutely do want room to move around but there is a wrong way to be roomy and a right way and the difference between the pants falling down or barely staying up is determined by exactly two measurements. Two, not five, not a whole “fits checker” everything needs to beTrueFalse type deal, just two. Your actual chest and waist measurements, not the number style shirt you usually wear. And then, critical note, the length. The length of both top and bottom because holy hell does that matter and it’s the one thing nobody else seems to think you should check.
Get rid of your normal size, use actual measurements
I’ll level with you I used to just grab whatever size I would grab if I were buying a hoodie and consider myself done. Bought an XL in a set once because I’m an XL in basically everything else and while the top fit fine…completely fine actually, the bottoms were maybe three inches too high on my waist and I looked like I was wearing someone’s granddad pants at a barbecue. Was sitting there reading Where’s Wally on the grass and realised that PJ brands, especially the smaller-scale printed ones you tend to find when you’re searching for a specific theme like that, are not cut like regular clothes are. An XL from brand A might have the same measurements as a Large from brand B and with cheaper print-focused brands you can’t even necessarily trust how they look on the model. The guy in the pictures is almost always wearing them way too lose and with the weird, hip-level camera angle you can’t even tell if the bottoms are sagging or just hanging at his heels.
The play then, and I mean this every.single.time, is to grab a measuring tape and get the chest and waist numbers before trusting any size letters. Around the fullest part of your chest, under your arms, not tight at all, just what you actually are. Same deal with waist, where your pajama drawstring would normally sit. Jeans generally sit low on your waist these days and if you measure with the PJ measuring guide at your jeans waist you’re gonna end up with pants that are too big. Then you match those two measurements to whatever size the brand says those two numbers are. Not to the medium your eyes are automatically assuming and pretending like the two sets of numbers mean. I messaged my roommate Callum what size my brother’s measurements took me as before I ordered them just to double check I hadn’t forgotten how big he was (everyone knows measurement memory GAMEBUSSSS) and he replied with “mate just size up it’s pajamas no ones gonna see you in them,” to which I wanted to say “yeah but only if they’re too big is that what you want, do you want me to gift him pants that slide down every time he breathes?” but he also has a point. Size charts across PJ brands are inconsistent enough that sizing right based on numbers alone is tough, so my recommendation is to just size up from what the numbers tell you unless the numbers are pushing XL or higher. Larger on the waist you can fix with the drawstring, too small and you’ll look like a claustrophobic toddlergifted pajamas..
Length is where it really goes downhill
This is honestly the piece I think is more important. You can be spot on with chest and waist but still end up with pants that feel like slapping snowpants on if you don’t pay attention to the length. Nobody thinks about inseam and sleeve length until it is INSTANTLY TOO LATE and your pants are sitting right on your ankles when they’re probably supposed to graze the tops of your shoes. Printed sets are the worst for this because bundles of them get made to the same standard lengths for all the printed material they sell that season.
Doesn’t matter if it’s cartoon cats or looking for Wally, they use the blanks they have on hand which were already cut to whatever the company thinks is the standard length of an adult male. MyWhere’s Wally set might be quarter of a size shorter in the pant than a solid color blue set from the same brand because where clothing brands do differentiate is usually in color, not fit.
Would probably grab the inseam measurement if I was being really truly thorough. Find a pair of pants he already owns that are about the length you want, lay it flat on the ground and measure crotch to hem. Then compare that to the number provided by the pijama set listing. Same concept with the shirt too, if they provide a sleeve length. A lot of sets won’t list either which sucks because having to size up to account for them running short feels backward as hell but pants that are too short can’t be altered (sorry I hate having to break it to you guys but there is no magical seam wizard) and sleeves are by far the most common review comment I see when it comes to funny prints. More than how they fit the actual body.
To put a simple point on it: Measure your actual body for the width sizes, measure an existing garment for the length you like, and otherwise forget the size label is even there. It’s not sexy advice, will take you an extra five if you actually have a measuring tape handy (do you have a measuring tape?!) but it’s why I end up wearing the gifts I buy other people versus them sitting nicely folded in a drawer.
Jamie is in his early twenties, lives in Manchester and makes menswear content for a living. He writes about whatever’s actually trending this week, fast and a bit chaotic, and he’ll happily tell you when he got it wrong.
