Clothing Size Conversion Charts: EU, UK, US & Italy
Size labels do not travel well. A jacket tagged 50 in Milan becomes a 40 in London, a medium in New York and something in between everywhere else — and a wholesale order specced in the wrong system ships a size run your customers cannot wear. The charts below line up the four labelling conventions you will meet most often when buying from Turkish factories, anchored to the body measurement in centimetres, which is the only column that never lies.
Use them in one direction: decide the chest, waist or bust range you need first, then read off the label each market expects. When you brief a factory, quote the centimetre measurements alongside the size names — it removes every ambiguity from the tech pack and lets the pattern room confirm fit before a single panel is cut.
Men's tops — shirts, knitwear, jackets
Chest measured flat under the arms, in cm.
| EU | UK / US | Italy | Chest (cm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | XS (34) | 44 | 86–89 |
| 46 | S (36) | 46 | 90–93 |
| 48 | M (38) | 48 | 94–97 |
| 50 | L (40) | 50 | 98–101 |
| 52 | XL (42) | 52 | 102–105 |
| 54 | XXL (44) | 54 | 106–109 |
| 56 | 3XL (46) | 56 | 110–113 |
Men's trousers — waist sizing
Natural waist circumference, in cm.
| EU | US / UK (inches) | Waist (cm) |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | 28 | 71–74 |
| 46 | 30 | 76–79 |
| 48 | 32 | 81–84 |
| 50 | 34 | 86–89 |
| 52 | 36 | 91–94 |
| 54 | 38 | 96–99 |
| 56 | 40 | 101–104 |
Women's tops — blouses, dresses, outerwear
Bust measured at the fullest point, in cm.
| EU | UK | US | Italy | Bust (cm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34 | 6 | 2 | 38 | 80–83 |
| 36 | 8 | 4 | 40 | 84–87 |
| 38 | 10 | 6 | 42 | 88–91 |
| 40 | 12 | 8 | 44 | 92–95 |
| 42 | 14 | 10 | 46 | 96–99 |
| 44 | 16 | 12 | 48 | 100–103 |
| 46 | 18 | 14 | 50 | 104–107 |
How Turkish factories handle sizing
Turkish plants cut to the EU convention by default, and most export-oriented factories keep house blocks graded to German or broader continental measurements because that is where the bulk of their volume ships. That means a UK or US buyer should never just say 'medium': send a measurement chart, name the base size the sample should be sewn in, and state which national convention the care labels must carry. Factories will regrade to your chart without fuss — the step to watch is grading, where the approved base pattern is scaled across the run, since an increment that works for EU proportions can drift at the extremes of a US range.
New to the terminology? Grading is explained in our sourcing glossary.
Sizing questions buyers ask
- Are these charts exact for every brand?
- No — they are the standard conversions, and individual brands deliberately deviate from them. Vanity sizing, sportswear cut for athletic builds and premium labels running slim can each shift a label by half a size or more. For production purposes this does not matter: your tech pack should specify garment measurements in centimetres, and the label is then whatever your market expects to read.
- Which size system should I use in my tech pack?
- Pick one system for the size names and pair every size with its measurement chart in centimetres. Turkish factories work comfortably in EU sizing, so EU labels plus cm measurements is the lowest-friction combination; if your market needs UK or US labels, keep those on the artwork and let the cm chart govern the actual pattern. Conflicts between a size name and a measurement are always resolved in favour of the centimetres.