My wife and I just went to see “On Your Feet”, a jukebox musical based on the music of Gloria Estefan.
At the merch stall, Mrs Snowman fell in love with a particular Miami Sound Machine t-shirt, but after much soul searching decided that she couldn’t justify the expense. I took note of the item and discovered that you can buy it online, and since she has a birthday coming up, it seems like a nice surprise would be in order.
The t-shirt is sold as unisex, and unlike most women’s tops has size options of S, M, L etc. Mrs Snowman is at the small end of size 14 (she’d be a 12 in baggier items) but I’m not sure how to translate that into “medium” or “large”. I found a couple of online generic sizing charts, but they all made the point that YMMV. The online store seems to have a rather woolly returns policy, so I’d rather get it right if I can.
I’m leaning towards getting a large, but thought I’d throw the question open to group. Note that I think a UK size 12 is different to a US size 12.
TL;DR version - how do I convert a UK size 12 or 14 to S/M/L sizing?
UK 12 or 14 would be a medium. My wife uses this table as a rough guide, but any woman will tell you that the size on the label is only ever an approximate and varies between manufacturers.
A quick scan reveals that women’s sizes in America are mostly one-up from anywhere else; ie, ‘s’ in the UK is ‘xs’ in the USA. I wonder why that is?
Actually, a 14 drifts into ‘large’ in the UK, but not for the US, I’d say.
OP, UK dress sizes are two size up from US - so a US12 would be a UK16 - definitely a large.US sizes also seem to be more generous than UK, ie a US12 would actually be a bit bigger than a UK16. It’s just marketing, to make people feel better about themselves. Hence the reason a UK Small is marked as an Extra Small in the US.
If I ever buy US clothes, I often drop down a size - I take a UK12, but fit between US6-8, rather than a straight 8. Of course it all depends on the manufacturer.
Unisex t-shirts are an additional quandry - they tend to be tight and baggy in all the wrong places. If your wife is a UK size 12, I’d opt for medium - US large would likely be way too big.
I think you’ll have to look at measurements - typically a US size 8-10 is a woman’s medium size , and if I’m reading the charts correctly a UK 12-14 is a US 8-10. But that’s for a woman’s medium. A unisex T shirt might use men’s sizing which is usually about one off- a men’s small is a women’s medium.
