6 ms·

As long as you can find your size. I'm tall and thin, so if I want to buy something as basic as Levi's jeans, I have to go to a ton of stores and have limited c

As long as you can find your size. I'm tall and thin, so if I want to buy something as basic as Levi's jeans, I have to go to a ton of stores and have limited choices. Now I just get them on Amazon, problem solved. This is a problem that should have been solved years ago. You should be able to measure yourself very accurately and thoroughly, keep it on some sort of file that you can share what you need, and then use tools on the online sites to learn exactly how their products will fit.

notatoad 5y ago
yeah, this is a problem i've solved by learning what brands are internally consistent with their sizing. i know my size in Levi's, and as long as they don't suddenly start making 36/32 jeans fit differently than they used to, i'll keep ordering from them without having to worry about fit.
- spicybright 5y ago
  Guy jeans are real easy because those numbers are actual measurements. Woman's jeans just change that to a single number that changes through the years. Uhg, so annoying.
  - wyre 5y ago
    The inseam is but the waist usually isn’t. It’s just standardized between brands much more than women’s jeans.
  - tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago
    No they aren't. I got two pairs of jeans from the same (house) brand in the same store at the same time. I tried on one of them in the store, and naively assumed the other would fit too. There was a 5 cm (2 inch) difference.
    - robbrown451 5y ago
      I don't think she was implying that the sizes are always correct. But they are actual dimensions, i.e. inches. As opposed to "size 8", which is relatively meaningless.
      - spicybright 5y ago
        What really pisses me off too is the size drifts to make you think you're going down pant sizes. So every so years you need to try clothes on again to get your new number. Pair that with covid not letting you try things on and it just plain sucks. Sometimes I have to try shotgunning it so I'm not making 3 trips to the store just to try a new number.
- fortran77 5y ago
  A Levi's "36" today is probably more like 39 inches. In fact, most companies have been "vanity sizing" to make people feel better. The worst offender is "Old Navy" where a 36" is actually a whopping 41 inches. It seems like men won't buy pants that are labeled over 39 inches, so as sizes go up from 30 inches, the "vanity" excess goes up exponentially. See: https://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a8386/pants-size-chart-090710/ https://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a8386/pants-size-...
  - dataflow 5y ago
    How is vanity sizing not false advertising?!
    - notatoad 5y ago
      because they don't make any claim that a size 38 is 38 inches. they used to be, but these days a "size 38" designation doesn't carry any more actual meaning than women's clothing sizes like "size 0"
    - maerF0x0 5y ago
      No one is getting mad or feeling bad about fitting a smaller size than they've earned. It takes a complaint for it to be an issue.
- jasonladuke0311 5y ago
  Levi's is one of the worst offenders. There is such a massive sizing variance that I stopped buying them years ago unless I found them in a store.
  - dataflow 5y ago
    Yeah, I've had Levi's in front of me where nominally "smaller" sizes of the exact same jeans were visibly bigger. For the life of me I don't understand why measuring jeans to better than an inch is so hard in the 21st century. How is there no incentive for them to fix this? Do they profit from giving people the wrong size?
    - jiveturkey 5y ago
      i think i figured it out. they measure cut sew dye wash. the size changes during the wash, variably depending on the dye and randomness. it would be cost prohibitive to control for this so instead you get size variability which is fine because most people buy in store.
      - dataflow 5y ago
        I'm not sure what wash you're referring to, but I'm talking about brand new jeans. Can't they measure whatever they want at the end of manufacture instead of the beginning? It's not like the consumer wears anything but the end product. The error bars are ridiculous.
        jiveturkey 5y ago
        brand new jeans are washed before you get them. it gives them the texture. i noticed that a certain jean i buy fit consistently only within a given dye and wash. darker pair or different wash fit differently.
        dataflow 5y ago
        Yeah I get that they're washed, but I don't care if they're washed... can't they just measure something after the wash? Is what I'm asking. I'm talking about the exact same dye btw. Like the same color, number, everything. Only difference is sizes. I've gotten smaller sizes an inch larger than the "larger" sizes for the exact same jeans. It's ridiculous.
adrianmonk 5y ago
There's a company called True Fit (https://www.truefit.com/ https://www.truefit.com/) which attempts to solve this. True Fit partners with several stores. You go on a store's web site (for example, macys.com), and you tell True Fit about some clothing you already have that fits well (brand, size, style). Based on that, it refers to its database to recommend the best size of the product you're considering now, and it tells you whether it thinks it will be "snug", "true to you", or "loose". Basically it just formalizes the kind of knowledge that shoppers use about how brand A tends to run small, brand B runs large, brand C is aimed at young people so its shirts are more tailored, brand D is aimed at older people and their shirts are more "generous" in the waist, etc. Their web site calls it the "Fashion Genome™", which is a "comprehensive, normalized fashion graph".
- bobthepanda 5y ago
  How do I actually use this? I have to intentionally seek out brands and stores they've already partnered with? There's not a directory or anything it seems like.
  - judge2020 5y ago
    Looks like this is actually a B2B service that would sell it to existing retailers and/or tailers, not necessarily as something you yourself would sign up for.
  - adrianmonk 5y ago
    Yeah, it doesn't seem set up to help you discover retailers where you can actually use it. Their site does have a list of retail client partners (https://www.truefit.com/Partners/Retail-Clients https://www.truefit.com/Partners/Retail-Clients) which gives a starting point. I tried visiting several sites and got these results: Works for me: Macy's, J.Crew, JCPenney Doesn't work: Kohl's, Dockers, Lands' End, Ralph Lauren In all cases, I picked a random (except for avoiding store brands) men's casual shirt and looked on the details page near where you select a size.
- wtvanhest 5y ago
  True fit is more of a conversion boosting tool rather than a tool to help the consumer. I worked at Levi’s Corp for 3 years and was surprised to learn that clothes have large tolerances in sizes to keep costs down. True fit says you should select a size based on the size you wear in another brand. That won’t work because no brands have consistent sizing. Even if a brand used extremely tight size tolerances, brands actively size up and down their clothes based on the whims of merchants. The solution is to just buy 3 sizes of each item you want and select the best fit and return the rest.
agogdog 5y ago
Amazon has been trying out a fitting service for custom t-shirts ("Made for you") that tailors clothing based on photos of yourself... not sure I'd want to upload photos of myself in my underwear to Amazon, but it's a cool concept
kingTug 5y ago
I have the same dimensions / issues finding jeans. Quality control on Levi's isn't fantastic and I'm always frustrated with how wide the leg openings are. Difficult to find any pants that fit well, really. Someone recommended I just buy jeans that roughly fit, and take them to a tailor. Such a game changer! For $12 I can basically get any pair of pairs to fit perfectly.

notatoad 5y ago

yeah, this is a problem i've solved by learning what brands are internally consistent with their sizing. i know my size in Levi's, and as long as they don't suddenly start making 36/32 jeans fit differently than they used to, i'll keep ordering from them without having to worry about fit.

spicybright 5y ago
Guy jeans are real easy because those numbers are actual measurements. Woman's jeans just change that to a single number that changes through the years. Uhg, so annoying.
- wyre 5y ago
  The inseam is but the waist usually isn’t. It’s just standardized between brands much more than women’s jeans.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago
  No they aren't. I got two pairs of jeans from the same (house) brand in the same store at the same time. I tried on one of them in the store, and naively assumed the other would fit too. There was a 5 cm (2 inch) difference.
  - robbrown451 5y ago
    I don't think she was implying that the sizes are always correct. But they are actual dimensions, i.e. inches. As opposed to "size 8", which is relatively meaningless.
    - spicybright 5y ago
      What really pisses me off too is the size drifts to make you think you're going down pant sizes. So every so years you need to try clothes on again to get your new number. Pair that with covid not letting you try things on and it just plain sucks. Sometimes I have to try shotgunning it so I'm not making 3 trips to the store just to try a new number.
fortran77 5y ago
A Levi's "36" today is probably more like 39 inches. In fact, most companies have been "vanity sizing" to make people feel better. The worst offender is "Old Navy" where a 36" is actually a whopping 41 inches. It seems like men won't buy pants that are labeled over 39 inches, so as sizes go up from 30 inches, the "vanity" excess goes up exponentially. See: https://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a8386/pants-size-chart-090710/ https://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a8386/pants-size-...
- dataflow 5y ago
  How is vanity sizing not false advertising?!
  - notatoad 5y ago
    because they don't make any claim that a size 38 is 38 inches. they used to be, but these days a "size 38" designation doesn't carry any more actual meaning than women's clothing sizes like "size 0"
  - maerF0x0 5y ago
    No one is getting mad or feeling bad about fitting a smaller size than they've earned. It takes a complaint for it to be an issue.
jasonladuke0311 5y ago
Levi's is one of the worst offenders. There is such a massive sizing variance that I stopped buying them years ago unless I found them in a store.
- dataflow 5y ago
  Yeah, I've had Levi's in front of me where nominally "smaller" sizes of the exact same jeans were visibly bigger. For the life of me I don't understand why measuring jeans to better than an inch is so hard in the 21st century. How is there no incentive for them to fix this? Do they profit from giving people the wrong size?
  - jiveturkey 5y ago
    i think i figured it out. they measure cut sew dye wash. the size changes during the wash, variably depending on the dye and randomness. it would be cost prohibitive to control for this so instead you get size variability which is fine because most people buy in store.
    - dataflow 5y ago
      I'm not sure what wash you're referring to, but I'm talking about brand new jeans. Can't they measure whatever they want at the end of manufacture instead of the beginning? It's not like the consumer wears anything but the end product. The error bars are ridiculous.
      - jiveturkey 5y ago
        brand new jeans are washed before you get them. it gives them the texture. i noticed that a certain jean i buy fit consistently only within a given dye and wash. darker pair or different wash fit differently.
        dataflow 5y ago
        Yeah I get that they're washed, but I don't care if they're washed... can't they just measure something after the wash? Is what I'm asking. I'm talking about the exact same dye btw. Like the same color, number, everything. Only difference is sizes. I've gotten smaller sizes an inch larger than the "larger" sizes for the exact same jeans. It's ridiculous.

adrianmonk 5y ago

There's a company called True Fit (https://www.truefit.com/ https://www.truefit.com/) which attempts to solve this. True Fit partners with several stores. You go on a store's web site (for example, macys.com), and you tell True Fit about some clothing you already have that fits well (brand, size, style). Based on that, it refers to its database to recommend the best size of the product you're considering now, and it tells you whether it thinks it will be "snug", "true to you", or "loose". Basically it just formalizes the kind of knowledge that shoppers use about how brand A tends to run small, brand B runs large, brand C is aimed at young people so its shirts are more tailored, brand D is aimed at older people and their shirts are more "generous" in the waist, etc. Their web site calls it the "Fashion Genome™", which is a "comprehensive, normalized fashion graph".

bobthepanda 5y ago
How do I actually use this? I have to intentionally seek out brands and stores they've already partnered with? There's not a directory or anything it seems like.
- judge2020 5y ago
  Looks like this is actually a B2B service that would sell it to existing retailers and/or tailers, not necessarily as something you yourself would sign up for.
- adrianmonk 5y ago
  Yeah, it doesn't seem set up to help you discover retailers where you can actually use it. Their site does have a list of retail client partners (https://www.truefit.com/Partners/Retail-Clients https://www.truefit.com/Partners/Retail-Clients) which gives a starting point. I tried visiting several sites and got these results: Works for me: Macy's, J.Crew, JCPenney Doesn't work: Kohl's, Dockers, Lands' End, Ralph Lauren In all cases, I picked a random (except for avoiding store brands) men's casual shirt and looked on the details page near where you select a size.
wtvanhest 5y ago
True fit is more of a conversion boosting tool rather than a tool to help the consumer. I worked at Levi’s Corp for 3 years and was surprised to learn that clothes have large tolerances in sizes to keep costs down. True fit says you should select a size based on the size you wear in another brand. That won’t work because no brands have consistent sizing. Even if a brand used extremely tight size tolerances, brands actively size up and down their clothes based on the whims of merchants. The solution is to just buy 3 sizes of each item you want and select the best fit and return the rest.

agogdog 5y ago

Amazon has been trying out a fitting service for custom t-shirts ("Made for you") that tailors clothing based on photos of yourself... not sure I'd want to upload photos of myself in my underwear to Amazon, but it's a cool concept

kingTug 5y ago

I have the same dimensions / issues finding jeans. Quality control on Levi's isn't fantastic and I'm always frustrated with how wide the leg openings are. Difficult to find any pants that fit well, really. Someone recommended I just buy jeans that roughly fit, and take them to a tailor. Such a game changer! For $12 I can basically get any pair of pairs to fit perfectly.