I purchased a men’s medium crewneck off a rack last winter because it was the last one in my color and it fit better than three separate “women’s large” sweatshirts I already owned put together. Way better. Like, I normally wear a women’s large medium-small tight across the shoulders comparative. I stood in that dressing room running calculations through my head because something about that shouldn’t have added up, and then it clicked, painfully. The medium in men’s had more actual room in the body and the sleeves than a women’s XL did from the same store, same season, same weight fabric. Someone sat at a desk and decided that “large” on a women’s tag should mean less material than “medium” does on a men’s and nobody ever questioned it after that.
That right there is the scandal.
Not the sweatshirts themselves. The labels.
The number on the tag doesn’t match up with the number on the measuring tape
I started taking measurements after that, straight up tape measure and ruler defined inches, because I didn’t trust any tag in my own closet. My men’s medium hoodie, chest measurement wise, comes in at 23 inches, flat on the floor, pit to pit. My women’s large hoodie from a totally different brand that I had previously thought padded generously and was only worn down after two years? Measures 20 and a half inches.
That’s two and a half inches of physical, useable fabric you’re not getting if you roll with the women’s sizes. Two and a half inches that’s been poached by sizing expectations and funnelled into what’s supposed to sound larger than medium but isn’t. Nobody explains that part to you when you start shopping. You just end up drifting around in dressing rooms paranoid that you’ve gained weight in your shoulders alone, which is impossible.
Here’s the crazy part, though. The sizes on every brand’s men’s sizing chart at that store are stunningly, almost disappointingly uniform. Straight across, smaller sizes start at Small and climb in two inch increments for the chest measurement all the way up to XL. Boring, consistent as clockwork, nothing feels like a guess. Women’s charts, and I checked at least four or five against stuff in my closet, vary based on what you’re buying, sometimes between seasons let alone brands. One brand’s “large” oversized tee will give you more room than that same brand’s “large” fitted crewneck released the same year. That’s not style, that’s refusing to reconcile your grown folks numbers.
I used to think that mens cuts just wouldn’t fit my frame right, shoulders sitting uneven, sleeves always around twice the length of my arms. Guess what? They wouldn’t… if I didn’t buy them in the first place. I tried buying a women’s medium the other day out of pure curiosity and you were not lying about those shoulders, ladies. Bought a men’s small to compare and almost didn’t notice when I put it on. Shoulders sit wider on men’s because the whole garment is sized bigger across, not because it’s cut to accommodate muscles you happen to lack.
Pull up the size chart for the men’s section and buy one size down from what you think you need. Seriously. Check the number of the chest and sleeves against something in your closet that fits and all of a sudden it’s not magic, it’s basic arithmetic.
I stopped buying anything with “women’s” printed on the tag
I own eleven men’s sweats now. I’ll be honest, I did not intend to end up with that many. My excuse is that I bought them one at a time,each one just padding at more thickness, warmth, or pricelessness than the womens equivalent two sections down felt they were owed until finally my entire winter upper body rotation was from the men’s section. I don’t love every brand’s cuts. That’s fine! Men’s doesn’t work for every body just like women’s doesn’t, some run looser, some tighter, and if I had stopped to really think about it I probably would have bought more instead of less.
The friend I convinced to try mine on in public, at a coffee shop, just laughed it over her jacket and then refused to take it off the rest of the afternoon.
Said nothing about it, didn’t even offer any back handed compliments on how it “fit like it was supposed to”. But she kept it on the whole time we were hanging out and that right there said everything she needed to.
Nobody realized it was a “men’s” anything. It looked like a sweatshirt. Because it was one.
I’m not advocating that you ditch women’s cuts cold, you do you kid but unless you’re actually going to measure the things you’re taking into consideration based on what someone else says should be true about the shape of your body vs what you know to be true based on things that actually fit you. Brands will sell you “Women’s Large” yoga pants that will fit you like a #%$&! sleeping bag just like they’ll sell you “Relaxed Fit” button ups that aren’t so much relaxed as they are _UN-measured_. It’s a scam.
Buy the numbers that fit, there’s your shopping mantra and take it everywhere. Men’s, women’s, hiking or booty shorts doesn’t matter. Ain’t nothing gendered about getting the right size tee.
Terry works a menswear shop floor in Newcastle and is a big and tall specialist himself. He writes about sizing that holds up, measures things before he believes the label, and has strong opinions about the phrase relaxed fit.
