Shopping - Size Conversions

When travelling to Florida, it is very unlikely that anyone will return home without having bought some items of clothing or shoes/trainers.

To help make the shopping experience even more pleasant, it is helpful to have a guide to clothes/shoe sizes especially if buying clothing to take home as gifts.Men’s clothing is far easier in this respect than women’s as many of the sizes are the equivalent in the U.K. e.g. suits, sweaters, overcoats, shirts and socks. It should be noted that although in the U.K. men’s and women’s shoe sizes are equivalent, this is not the case in the U.S. Continental sizes are, of course completely different.

Men’s clothing

Suits/Jackets/Sweaters/Overcoat

U.K/U.S	34	36	38	40	42	44	46
Europe	44	46	48	50	52	54	56

Shirts

U.K.	14	14½	15	15½	16	16½	17
Europe	36	37	38	39	41	42	43

Shoes

U.K.	8	8½	9	9½	10	10½
U.S.A	8½	9	9½	10	10½	11
Europe	42	43	44	45	46	47

Women’s clothing

Skirts, blouses, dresses, coats, trousers

U.K.	8	10	12	14	16	18	20
U.S.A.	6	8	10	12	14	16	18
Europe	38	40	42	44	46	48	50

Shoes

U.K.	4	4½	5	5½	6	6½	7
U.S.A.	5½	6	6½	7	7½	8	8½
Europe	35	36	38	39	40	41	42

To add to the problem, not all manufacturers use the same sizing code. Many simply use sizings of XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL.

The U.K. equivalents would be: XS = 6-8, X = 10, M = 12-14 etc.

Always be sure to try on garments before returning home. It’s a long way to go to return them!! But Oh! What a great excuse!!