sandmountain
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2022
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A 10 cm difference from your waist may be a bit too loose, depending on your build. If you're the same measurement from your actual waist to your hips, then I'd say it's definitely too loose. Otherwise, if you have hips that are wider than your waist, like me, then as you say some allowance is needed, although depending on how wide your hips are 10 cm may still be a bit much.
The primary factor for me is where the pants are going to rest, which is based upon my weird body, the rise and how much the garment stretches out. If they're high enough rise to stay more or less around my waist, I get them in one size, if they're lower rise, and will start at my hips but fall down from there, I allow them to be looser by an inch or two. In either case, the material generally stretches by some degree and so with cotton trousers, at least, I also account for this by hedging toward the smaller of two sizes.
The unmentioned detail is the waist-to-hip ratio. If the trousers accommodate your hips (and seat all around), then a waist size closer to your own may be warranted. Otherwise you have to play with the two measurements to make it work. As many stores don't provide the hip measurement, this is often guesswork, which you must deduce from the cut of the pant.
Thanks for your detailed reply, that’s really helpful! Yes, I think I prefer to wear trousers lower than my waist and my hips are larger. So I think these should work although you never know until you’ve tried something on and I guess that’s the risk with proxying something that you can’t return! I’ll give it some more consideration