vintage jacket sizing >:- (

[OC Richard]

I like to pick up vintage tweed jackets on Ebay, both kilt jackets and ordinary jackets.

I've noticed that the size labels (when present) have little correlation with the actual jacket sizes. Yes I know about the differences between EU, UK, and US sizes, but even three American-made jackets bearing the same size label might be three different sizes.

Experienced Ebay sellers, knowing this, measure the jackets and include these measurements in their listings.

But I've found that even these measurements don't give much of a clue how the jackets will fit.

After being pretty sure of my own body measurements, and picking up a couple jackets, and finding them not fitting, I decided this morning to get to the bottom of the issue and try on and measure all the vintage jackets I had to hand.

I did the Ebay-standard armpit-to-armpit measurement of five vintage tweed jackets, and then tried them all on. What I found surprised me.

Here they are in order from smallest to largest (in fit).

How the jacket fit: armpit-to-armpit measurement

Jacket 1, a tad tight in the shoulders: 26

Jacket 2, perfect fit: 28

Jacket 3, perfect fit: 25.5

Jacket 4, a tad big: 29

Jacket 5, way too big: 28

Now what size am I too look for in the future?