# Help with women's clothes sizing (UK) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 27, 2019, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-womens-clothes-sizing-uk/836143 "2019-06-27T06:35:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-womens-clothes-sizing-uk/836143/1 "2019-06-27T06:35:33Z")
Hi everyone. 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? Thanks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-womens-clothes-sizing-uk/836143/2 "2019-06-27T07:33:35Z")
UK 12 or 14 would be a medium. My wife uses [this table](https://www.asos.com/infopages/SizeGuide/pgesizechart.aspx?r=2) 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? ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-womens-clothes-sizing-uk/836143/3 "2019-06-27T08:08:10Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > UK 12 or 14 would be a medium. My wife uses [this table](https://www.asos.com/infopages/SizeGuide/pgesizechart.aspx?r=2) 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](http://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. ---
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-womens-clothes-sizing-uk/836143/4 "2019-06-27T11:27:50Z")
Thanks both. That’s an interesting point - [the online store](https://www.theatre-shop.com/onyourfeet/product/miami-sound-machine-t-shirt/) has pricing in UK pounds, but there’s no guarantee that the sizing is to the UK standard. I think I’ll go for medium and hope for the best. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-womens-clothes-sizing-uk/836143/5 "2019-06-27T11:35:46Z")
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.