What is the origin of European suit sizing?

[diophan]

So I know to convert from US to European suit sizing you add 10, but what is the reasoning for this? The size of an American suit (roughly) corresponds to the chest size. It seems strange that European sizing is "add 10 to the number of inches in the chest". Does anyone have an historical or in any way enlightening explanation for the numbering of European suit sizes?

 

[Nicola]



So I know to convert from US to European suit sizing you add 10, but what is the reasoning for this? The size of an American suit (roughly) corresponds to the chest size. It seems strange that European sizing is "add 10 to the number of inches in the chest". Does anyone have an historical or in any way enlightening explanation for the numbering of European suit sizes?

Wrong. +10 is just a rule of thumb. My guess since most samples are 40" which is basically 50 EU the rule of thumb became common.

Italian ( I think French and German) is half your chest size in cm. So a 50 is 100 cm chest.

Instead of adding 10 to your inch size multiple by 1.27. The further you are from 40" the less accurate the +10 rule is.

 

[diophan]

Well that makes sense. I don't understand why everywhere I looked gives references like wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothing_sizes#Men

Applying this to a 54 suit is off by over 4.5cm. All these charts are really inaccurate by almost 2 inches on the upper extreme and it's not that European sizing has started to defer relative to US convention (or vice versa)?

 

[Nicola]

Well that's Wiki for you

 

[diophan]

Fair enough. Thanks!

 

[dsmolken]



Italian ( I think French and German) is half your chest size in cm. So a 50 is 100 cm chest.

Also, sometimes long is equal to the chest measurement and short is equal to a quarter of the chest measurement. So 27 is a bigger size than 100, but shorter. Fun, huh?

 

[clapeyron]

This might be helpful,

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konfektionsgröße#Herren

if you need help with the translation ask away.

 

[thinman]

Take a look at this post for the easiest way to get an accurate conversion:

http://www.styleforum.net/t/15298/whats-a-39r-to-do-plus-who-makes-this-polo-suit#post_190416

The correct conversion results from the fact that the Euro measurement is the distance across the front of the jacket, lying flat, in centimeters. Double the Euro size to get the jacket circumference in cm, then divide by 2.54 to convert cm to inches. For example, a Euro 50 would be 2 x 50 = 100 cm in circumference or 100/2.54 = 39.4 inches, i.e. a US size 39.4. Thus a Euro size 58 would be 2 x 58 = 116 cm in circumference and a US size 116/2.54 = 45.7. You can easily see that subtracting 10 from the Euro size to get the US size is an approximation that works increasingly poorly as the Euro size increases and is more that 2 sizes off for a Euro 56.

Edit: So the US sizes equivalent to common Euro sizes are :

Euro 48 = US 37.8
Euro 50 = US 39.7
Euro 52 = US 40.9
Euro 54 = US 42.5
Euro 56 = US 44.1
Euro 58 = US 45.7
Euro 60 = US 47.2

Since I fit best in something between a 39L and 40L, I look for Euro 50L, which is almost spot on for me. Also realize that the exact sizing depends on the manufacturer and even the model, so any Hickey-Freeman 40L, for example, looks much different on me than say, an Oxxford Crest in 40L.