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Or bust, or hips come to that. Hello girls, look I tried measuring what I thought was my waist and it came out as 39 inches. But I wear 36 inch (mens) jeans, and they're pretty loose. What am I doing wrong? You'll understand this is at the forefront of my mind as my rare 10 days en femme approaches. My eternal search for two cute dresses is continually hampered by the frustration that what I thought was my size suddenly becomes unavailable. I'm currently looking at two dresses which are available in size 16 but not 18. My understanding is that 18 is 36 waist and 16 is 34. Just wondering if I can squeeze into the size 16s.
Hugs, Chrissie xx.
I think men's clothing manufacturers have learned a trick from women's clothing. I had pants where the "waist size" on the pants was lower than the actual measurement. For me it's even worse, because my hips are about the same size as my waist. I can pull on or off a pair of men's pants fully closed (and I'm not talking about sweat pants) without having to open them. I usually need a belt to pull it in tighter on the waist to keep it up. Even after losing a significant amount of weight due to illness, I my waist and hip sizes are about the same.
As to whether the size 16 dress will fit, it depends on a couple of things. How stretchy is the material? Is it a pull-on dress or does it have a zipper? (Non-stretch material with a zipper may mean the zipper won't close or will break if forced.) Is it figure hugging (fit-and-flare) or somewhat loose (worn with a belt)?
I use a tape measure around my "female waist" (at or just above the belly button) or around my chest with forms in (one arm down, the other arm down to the elbow and holding the tape measure in place) to measure myself. I put my thumb on the end just past the circle and then read that measurement. Don't make it too tight, you want to be able to breathe without ripping your clothes.
I don't usually bother with the hips, my hips are likely smaller than the measurements in the chart, and the skirt or skirt part of the dress will hang loose around my hips. But if I want to measure the hips, I use the tape measure there as well.
Hi Chrissie. I manage to find my waist by leaning my torso to the right. The exact plane where it bends, about an inch or two below my belly button, is my waist. I measure it there. My waist measure is 44 inches but my men's jeans size is 42. The dress I buy in person at Harrisburg was XL (equivqlent to 22) and that's mostly what I buy online. I measure my bust over my nipples (and my breast forms nipples as another measure), underbust under my breasts and the hips at their widest part.
The problem is that some sizes run large and others run small. For this reason, I try to verify the sizes carefully and if the information is not clear, I prefer not to buy, because shipping from Panama to return and exchange is complicated.
By analogy, your size should be 20. An 18 can also fit you in many cases. I would recommend that you don't try to squeeze yourself into a 16 unless you can try it on before you buy it. It may be incomfortable.
These days something happened to me with a light blue dress I bought at Janet's Closet, which is beautiful. It fits me perfectly, but the skirt that was supposed to reach halfway to the knee, barely reaches the beginning of the thigh and when I tried it on, I was afraid to bend over. If I changed it for an XXL it would look too big on the top, so I think I'll wear it with leggings. Because it's a pretty dress. So you're never sure until you try the clothes on.
Gisela
From my experience, somehow women's clothes are measured differently from men's. For men's, I could go for 1 size smaller and somehow it still fits. Meanwhile, for women's, there are lots of things to consider. For example, I have a dress that matches my 3 sizes, but there is a measurement that prevents me from putting it on comfortably: shoulder width. As it has long sleeves, non-stretching fabric, it took me a long hard time to zip myself up and my fingers were hurt for a few days because of it too. Another dress: it has high-cut waist, and my height is above average's height of women in my place, so it's natural that my back is longer than women's. The dress looks weird on me, because the waistline of the dress is located near... my chest. My makeshift fix is wearing a waist corset outside of the dress. The purpose is to hide the waistline and it worked pretty well (I think). So, it would be best if you can try it personally, but if you can't, I think you should try some clothes that have stretch-able fabric first.
The key measurement for me is shoulders. As I have pretty broad shoulders, I have to use them as a starting point as to what will fit dress-wise.
Hi Chrissie
I had never measured myself before till a few weeks ago. Because I had never purchased anything before for Olivia online and had always tried it on or got to look at the garment to judge it's size. Having said that I have dresses and tops that are size 10 at the smallest and size 16 at the largest that all fit me so different clothes manufacturers have their own idea on sizes. I have a few brands I look for that I know I'm a 12 or 14 in anything they make.
So I decide to buy a corset to see if it would make my waist thinner for one particular dress I have. They were so expensive in shops I decided to order one on ebay from China for like $15 and take the punt. So to take my waist measurement I just measured where my ribs stop. Great tip on measure where you bend to the side as in my case just checking it now is where my ribs stop. I'm going to use that next time to make sure I have the right spot. So the verdict on the corset. It makes the dress look amazing. If I thought a bra hugged me a corset is next level bear hug.