Ordering Custom Clothing Online? Here's How to Get Your Measurements Right

A garment made to your measurements is only as good as the numbers you send. Plenty of custom orders that arrive wrong weren't sewn badly; they were measured badly, usually at home with a borrowed tape and a friend reading the numbers out. If you're spending real money on a made-to-measure piece, a professional measurement appointment is the cheapest insurance you can buy.

The Real Problem With Measuring Yourself

Online tailors, overseas ateliers and commission artists all work the same way: they cut from the numbers on their chart, exactly as written. They can't see you. They don't know your shoulders slope, or that you stood a little straighter while someone measured your chest. A chart filled out at home looks precise, because every box has a number in it, but nothing on the chart tells the maker which of those numbers is an inch off. They find out when the fabric is already cut, and you find out when the parcel arrives.

Remakes are slow and rarely free. Overseas orders can take weeks each way, which matters when the outfit is for a wedding with a fixed date.

The Three Mistakes That Ruin a Measurement Chart

1. Measuring over bulky clothing

Jeans, a sweater or even a thick T-shirt can add an inch or more around the chest, waist and hips, and that inch goes straight into the garment. Measurements should be taken over close-fitting clothing (leggings and a fitted top are ideal) or over the undergarments you'll actually wear with the finished piece.

2. Pulling the tape too tight

The instinct is to pull the tape snug so the number feels accurate. A tape that digs in reads smaller than the body, and a garment cut to that number will pull across the chest or gape at the closures. The tape should lie flat against the body without compressing it.

3. Measuring at the wrong landmark

This is the most common mistake and the hardest to spot. "Waist" means different things on different charts. Your natural waist is the narrowest part of your torso, usually just above the navel. Your trouser waist is where your pants actually sit, often several inches lower and several inches larger. A suit chart and a lehenga chart can both say "waist" and mean two different places. The same goes for shoulder width (bone to bone, or seam to seam?) and inseam (to the floor, or to the ankle bone?). Read the maker's diagram, not just the label.

Why Professional Measurements Have No Added Ease

Ease is the extra room a garment needs so you can move, breathe and sit down. A tailored blazer needs a few inches through the chest; a fitted blouse much less; a stretch dance costume can even be cut smaller than the body. Every maker adds ease according to their own pattern and style.

That's why we measure the body exactly as it is, with no ease added. If we padded your chest measurement by two inches and your maker added their usual allowance on top, you'd get a garment two inches too big. Your maker applies their own ease. Our job is to give them the true number.

What a Professional Measurement Session Covers

Style Adix is a union costume house. We measure for film, television and stage, where a wrong number means a costume gets remade on deadline, and a professional body measurement appointment in Simi Valley uses the same process. There are two options:

• Full Measurement Card: $50, about 30 minutes. Every measurement on our card, 52 for men and 44 for women. You leave with a completed card you can send to any maker, for this order and the next one.
• Requested Measurements Only: $30. Bring the chart from the company making your outfit and we'll take exactly what it asks for, the way it asks for it.

Both are flat prices, not estimates. You can also download both measurement cards free and see exactly what gets measured before you book.

Different Garments Need Different Measurements

A custom suit chart asks about shoulder slope, back length and seat. A lehenga or sherwani chart may want blouse length, armhole depth and the drop from shoulder to waist. A wedding dress bought online usually needs only bust, waist, hips and hollow-to-hem, but those four numbers decide which size you order, so they have to be right. Cosplay, dance and skating costumes often need measurements most tailors never take, like the torso girth that runs from the shoulder, through the crotch and back up.

This is why the full card has as many measurements as it does. Most people come in for one garment and order another later. With the full card, the numbers for the next order are already done.

When It Isn't Worth Paying for Measurements

Not every order needs a professional appointment. If you're buying a stretchy or loose-fitting garment in standard S/M/L sizes, checking your chest, waist and hips against the size chart is usually enough. If the retailer offers free returns, ordering two sizes and sending one back can cost less than an appointment. And if you've already bought a ready-made suit that's close but not quite right, measurements won't help. What you need is alterations, and our guide to getting a suit bought online to actually fit covers that.

Professional measurements pay for themselves on anything cut to your numbers that can't be sent back: custom suits, bespoke shirts, ethnic wear made overseas, commissioned costumes, and wedding dresses ordered in a chosen size.

Book a measurement appointment, bring your maker's chart, wear something close-fitting, and leave with numbers you can send with confidence. Alterations prices are on our price menu.