The problem
How to buy vintage when the size on the label means nothing
Ignore the label and buy on measurements. Every piece on juunam publishes its dimensions alongside the condition grade and materials, so you can compare against a garment you already own rather than trusting a letter. If it still does not fit, you have 14 days from confirmed delivery to send it back for any reason, with EU return postage covered.
Why this happens
Clothing sizes are not standardised and never have been, and they have drifted substantially by decade, by country and by house. A 1990s medium, a contemporary medium and an Italian 48 are three different garments. There is no conversion chart that fixes this, because the underlying measurements were never consistent in the first place — which is why measurements, not labels, are the only reliable thing to buy on.
What juunam does
- — Dimensions published per piece, alongside materials and condition
- — Sizes are recorded exactly as the piece states them, never normalised
- — 14 days from confirmed delivery if the fit is wrong, for any reason
- — EU return postage covered, so a wrong fit does not cost you
What to check, wherever you buy
Measure a garment you already love, flat, and write it down
Chest pit-to-pit, shoulder seam to shoulder seam, sleeve from shoulder seam, and length from the high point of the shoulder. Four numbers, taken once, and every future vintage purchase becomes a comparison instead of a gamble. This is the single highest-value twenty minutes available to anyone who buys second-hand clothing.
Ask for the measurement, not the size
A seller who can give you pit-to-pit in a minute has the garment in front of them. One who repeats the label has not measured it, and possibly has not handled it. The answer tells you about the fit and about the seller at the same time.
Remember that vintage was cut for a different body
Armholes sat higher, shoulders were narrower, trousers were cut for the natural waist. A garment can match your measurements and still feel wrong, which is not a fault in the listing. It is the main reason a returns window matters more on vintage than on new.
Where this stops
We publish the measurements we have. Where a piece states its size in more than one system — a shoe marked US 13 / UK 12.5 / EU 47.5 — we record all of them as stated rather than converting, because the conversions disagree with each other.