US Standard Clothing Sizes

A Statistical Standard From the 1940s and 1950s

US standard clothing sizes were an attempt to turn body measurement into a shared sizing language. Developed from statistical data in the 1940s-1950s, the standards set out, for each numbered size, the body dimensions it was intended to fit, using measurements such as bust, waist and hip, together with back-waist length, and chest, neckband, sleeve length and height where those apply. Similar in principle to the EN 13402 European clothing size standard, the system assumed a size label could mean the same measurements whoever made the garment.

The women's tables show the logic most clearly, because they are divided into various types depending on overall height and the relative heights of the bust and waistlines. Misses sizes served the average figure, Miss Petite the shorter figure, Junior sizes a higher-bust, shorter-back figure, and Junior Petite, Young Junior, Women's and Half Sizes each described a further combination of height, bust position and back length. One number alone cannot describe fit: two wearers with the same bust measurement can need different sizes if their proportions differ.

Why the Standard Is Now a Reference Only

These sizes are no longer used by US clothing companies. Catalogs have departed from the US standard sizes since approximately the 1980s, and companies now may provide the measurements for their sizes, which may vary even among different styles of the same type of garment. Catalog tables illustrate the departure, giving catalog sizes alongside their closest standard size. The standard tables are now a reference for how sizing was once organised, and for pattern work based on those proportions, rather than a guarantee of how a current garment with the same number will fit. Garments should be checked against the measurements supplied for that garment.