Taking and Demystifying Measurements, and How to Find Your Perfect Fit

Let’s chat measurements!

Once upon a time, let’s call it pre-90’s most (if not all) women knew their measurements. With the rise of fast fashion and big box retailers carrying cheaper (yay!) clothing items, knowing your measurements became less relevant. This coincided with the increase in vanity sizing and honestly, no wonder women have no clue what size to pick!

No worries, I got you boo!! At Good Morrow Co we’re obsessed with helping every woman find their perfect size. We measure each and every item and assign corresponding retail sizing to help you narrow down which size will be right for you! (Reminder: Its not about the size, it’s about the fit!! More on that later)

So, before we can guide you to purchasing the correct size, you need your measurements!!

 Supplies

Here’s what we’ll need:

1. Soft measuring tape (Can be super basic like this one!)
2. A buddy to measure your shoulders, but you can get by without one and still get your main measurements!

The large majority of GMco items require 3 measurements: Chest, Waist, and Hips. There are a few more measurements like Length, High Hip, Inseam, Shoulders and Sleeve Length that are super valuable, but aren’t generally an issue unless you are concerned about length (looking at my tall and short gals), have broad shoulders or long arms.

 Taking Measurements

Let’s dive in!!

The first measurement you will need us the chest or bust. Take your measuring tape and wrap it around the fullest part of your bust (ideally in just your bra!), keeping it level to the floor and find the measurement where the tape meets.

The second is the waist measurement. Take at the natural waist which is the narrowest part of your torso. If you’re having a hard time finding the narrowest part, take a piece of elastic string, tie it around your waist, and then wiggle about until it settles in your narrowest part. Yes you will look as ridiculous as that sounds, but any elastic waist skirt will naturally want to settle at your waist in the same way! Wrap the tape around your waist, making sure to keep it level to the floor, and take the measurement where the tape end meets.

The last main measurement is the hips!! This measurement needs to be taken at the widest part of your hip and butt area, not where your hip bones are (that would your high hip for our reference). Keeping the measuring tape level, wrap it around your hips and take the measurement where the end of the tape meets.

For jackets and coats, the shoulder measurement becomes important! Grab a buddy and have them measure across your shoulders from the point where your arm meets your shoulder (generally the boniest part!), across your shoulder blades to the other point of your shoulder.

When discussing length, it could be referencing several measurements. For this exercise, we're getting our measurement from the shoulder to the knee (roughly) although you could apply the same measuring technique to the waist, the butt, or the ankle. Really we just want to see how long the garment will be on us! For that, we're going to take the measuring tape and place it in on the top of our shoulder, right where your bra straps would lay, and let the measuring tape fall straight to the ground. I like knowing the length of the middle of my thigh and to my knees, because the middle of my thigh is about as short as I want dresses to fall on me!

Other measurements not pictured:

High hip is the measurement right at the top of your hip bones, level to the floor, often where your underwear would sit.

Inseam is a measurement for pants and shorts that measures from the top of the crotch to the bottom of the pant leg. When taking an inseam measurement, place the end of the measuring tape right where your crotch meets your leg, and measure the length to your ankle. (This is a good measurement if you fall outside of the average height range!)

Sleeve length is taken by measuring from the top of the shoulder, down your arm to the wrist. If you have really long arms, this is a great measurement for you to have!

So you have a list of measurements; so now what?

Reading Sizing Charts

 Every Good Morrow Co style has an individual size chart and reference for the measurements. 

These measurements are taken while the garment is laid flat, without stretch taken into consideration. Fabrication, stretch and composition all effect fit, but those details will be listed under materials.

When reading a size chart, as a general rule of thumb, take the flat measurement and multiply it by 2. That will give you the circumference for measurements like the chest, waist and hips. Length, shoulders, sleeve length, inseam etc are straight measurements and do not need to be multiplied. 

So, if my bust measurement is 38", I need a garment with at least a 19" chest measurement without stretch (19x2=38). So in the chart above, the S/M garment has a chest measurement of 23", so a 46" circumference, PLENTY of room for my 38" bust!

As a rule, you would size to your largest measurement on the size chart and go with that size. For dresses and skirts, I generally have to size to my hip measurement even though the waist measurement may have plenty of room. 

If you EVER have questions about sizing or fit, or need a recommendation on sizing, please don't hesitate to ask! Shoot us at DM on Instagram or send an e-mail to hello@goodmorrowco.com! Or better yet, hop on our weekly Try On video Live in our Facebook group every Tuesday!