Men's Shirt Size Guide: Chest and Length in CM, M to 2XL

Every piece runs M to 2XL, and every colour is stocked in all four sizes.

Measurements differ by colour. They are not a typo. Black runs 4cm shorter in the body than Cream and Heather Grey at every size, and Crimson sits between them. Check the table for the colour you are actually buying.

All measurements are the garment laid flat, in centimetres. Width is measured straight across the chest from one underarm seam to the other, so double it to compare against your own chest measurement. Length runs from the highest point of the shoulder straight down to the hem.

Black

Cream

Heather Grey

Crimson

Easiest way to get this right

Take a top you already own that fits the way you want. Lay it flat, smooth out the wrinkles, and measure underarm seam to underarm seam. Compare that number directly to the Width column above. It beats measuring yourself, because it accounts for how you like things to sit.

Between two sizes?

This is a regular fit with a little room through the body. Take the smaller size for a closer line under a jacket, the larger for a more relaxed shoulder.

Still unsure?

Message us on Instagram with your usual size in a brand you wear often and we will tell you which of ours matches it. We would rather spend two minutes on that than process a return.

Measuring a top you already own, step by step

This is the method that gets it right, and it takes about a minute.

1. Pick the right garment. Not your favourite top - the one whose fit you would copy. A knit rather than a stiff formal shirt, because a knit sits the way this piece will.
2. Lay it flat and face up on a table or a hard floor. Not on a bed. A soft surface lets the fabric spread and adds two or three centimetres you will never see again.
3. Smooth it out from the centre towards the seams, then let go. Do not stretch it. A knit will happily give you an extra 4cm under tension and then take it straight back.
4. Measure the width in a straight line from one underarm seam to the other, at the point where the sleeve joins the body. Keep the tape flat and square to the hem, not following the curve of the armhole.
5. Measure the length from the highest point of the shoulder, where the shoulder seam meets the collar, straight down to the bottom of the hem.
6. Compare directly to the columns above, for the colour you intend to buy.

If you have no tape measure, an A4 sheet works. The short side is 21cm and the long side is 29.7cm, everywhere in the world and on every sheet in the ream. Two short sides make 42cm, a long and a short make 50.7cm, and two long sides make 59.4cm. Lay it on the garment, mark the end with your thumbnail, slide and count.

What the width column is actually telling you

Width here is half the garment, because the garment is folded flat when it is measured. Your own chest measurement goes all the way around. So a 55cm width is roughly a 110cm garment circumference, and that circumference has to contain your chest plus however much room you want to move in.

This is exactly why measuring a top you own beats measuring yourself. The top already contains your preference. Your chest measurement does not, and turning one into the other means guessing at an ease allowance, which is the step where most people get it wrong by a whole size.

Why the length is different in every colour

It is the fact people query most, so here it is in one place. At every size, Black is 4cm shorter in the body than Cream and Heather Grey, and Crimson sits 2cm shorter than those two. Width moves as well: Black and Crimson are 1cm wider than Cream and Heather Grey at the same size.

Across the whole range that means the shortest garment we make is a Black M at 68cm, and the longest is a Cream or Heather Grey 2XL at 78cm. Ten centimetres is not a rounding error, and a letter on a label will not tell you where in that range you have landed. The tables above will. If you are buying two colours in the same size, expect them to sit differently, and choose deliberately rather than by habit.

A worked example

Say the top you measured comes out at 56cm across and 71cm long, and you want the same fit in Black. Black L is 57cm wide and 70cm long: 1cm more room, 1cm shorter. That is the match. Now say you want the same fit in Cream. Cream L is 56cm and 74cm - identical width, but 3cm longer than what you are used to. Cream M is 54cm and 72cm, which is closer on length and 2cm tighter across. Neither is wrong. The point is that you now know which trade you are making before the parcel arrives instead of after.

Why there is no collar size

Shirt sizing in numbers, 39, 41, 43 and so on, is a collar circumference, and it only works on a formal shirt where a button holds a fixed opening at a fixed point. This is a ribbed band collar on a knit. There is no button at the throat, no fixed circumference, and the rib stretches under load and returns. A collar number for it would be a number that measures nothing, so we do not publish one. Width and length are the two measurements that decide how this piece fits.

Mistakes that cost people a size

• Measuring on a bed. The single most common one. Soft surfaces add width.
• Pulling the tape tight. Knits stretch. Lay the tape on, do not tension it.
• Following the armhole curve instead of measuring straight across. It adds a centimetre or two.
• Measuring a stretched-out favourite. If the top has been worn and washed for two years, it is not the size it started at. Measure something closer to new, or accept that you are copying a fit that has already grown.
• Comparing to a different colour's table. Read the heading above the table.

Care, and what happens to the numbers

Wash cool and inside out, and dry flat rather than on a hanger. A wet knit is heavy, and a hanger concentrates that weight at two points on the shoulders, which is what pulls a body out of shape over a season. That is a handling instruction, not a warning about the cloth: the 5% Lycra is what brings the collar and cuffs back after each wear.

We do not publish a shrinkage figure, because we have not measured one we would stand behind. The numbers in the tables are the garments as they are made.

If you have measured and you are still between two, message us with the number and the colour. See contact, or read how clothes should fit for the longer version of everything on this page.

If you are buying for someone else

A gift is the hard case, because you cannot lay a garment out of somebody else's wardrobe. The nearest practical substitute is to ask for their usual size in a brand they actually wear, and then how they wear things: tucked or out, open or closed. How they wear it decides the length far more than their height or weight does.

If you cannot ask without spoiling the surprise, choose Cream or Heather Grey. They are the longest in the range, and a slightly long piece still reads correctly worn out, while a slightly short one announces itself the first time an arm goes up.

Should I just order my usual size?

Start there, then check it against the numbers rather than the other way round. Letters are not a shared standard between brands, and the gap between one brand's L and another's can be three centimetres across the chest. The minute it takes to lay a garment flat and measure it removes all of that ambiguity.