Size guide examples: how the best stores handle fit

Twenty-two of the 100 stores in our Showcase carry a size guide that our editors logged as a pattern worth noting. Fifteen sit in fashion (clothing, shoes and one spectacle maker), four in jewellery and accessories, two in sport and outdoors and one in home, a maker of cushions. Several more stores handle fit well without a formal guide, and a handful of otherwise excellent stores leave it out altogether.

That split is useful. Every store in the Showcase was chosen for its design, and most have Awwwards recognition, so this is not a comparison between good stores and bad ones. It is a comparison between good stores that answered “will this fit me?” and good stores that did not.

We went back through every project page and our editors’ score notes. Here is what the strongest size guides have in common, organised by the decision a shopper is actually trying to make.

Measure the garment, not just the body

The most common size chart on the web is a body chart: chest, waist and hip ranges against S, M and L. It tells a shopper what size they are, not how this particular piece will sit on them. The better stores in the Showcase measure the garment itself.

• ARK/8, the London streetwear label behind gaming collaborations such as Elden Ring and Metal Gear Solid, gives garment measurements in centimetres or inches, switchable on the page.
• Dime, the Montreal skate label, puts a size and fit table on every product with chest width, body length and sleeve length.
• CDLP, the Swedish underwear and essentials brand, gives garment measurements alongside EU, UK and US conversions.
• Jean Shop sells a narrow range of selvage jeans in unisex sizes 26 to 40 with inseam variants, and our editors singled out its detailed flat-lay size chart. A flat-lay chart is the one a denim buyer can check against a pair they already own.

Body charts still have a place, especially for first-time customers. KHY opens a size guide drawer with body measurements and how-to-measure notes, so a shopper who has never bought from the label knows where to put the tape.

The difference is in what the chart lets someone compare. A body chart compares the shopper with a standard. A garment chart compares this piece with something already in their wardrobe, which is the comparison people trust.

What to look at: if your chart only lists body ranges, add the three or four garment measurements that change between styles (chest width, body length and sleeve for tops; waist, rise and inseam for trousers). Offer both centimetres and inches, as ARK/8 does.

Say who is wearing it

A size chart is abstract. A model’s height and size is not. It is the single most repeated fit detail across the fashion stores in the Showcase, and it costs almost nothing to add.

• Oflyn, a Paris streetwear label, puts a size guide link next to the heights and sizes of the models wearing each piece.
• Namesake, from Taipei, pairs a size chart in centimetres with the model’s height and size.
• Roberto Collina, the Italian knitwear label, lists yarn composition, model height and size worn on each product page.
• Bécane Paris turns each outfit on a 360° turntable on its look pages and gives the model’s height and size beneath it.

ARK/8 goes one step further and gives the height and size of both models on the page, which matters when a range is shot on more than one body. A shopper can pick the model nearer their own build and read across.

Roberto Collina adds something else worth copying. Alongside size, its product pages carry simple indicators for softness, warmth and weight. That is fit in the wider sense: how a knit will feel and hang, which a chart cannot tell you and which is exactly what people return knitwear over.

What to look at: state the model’s height and the size they wear on every product, for every model in the gallery. If the cut or fabric is unusual, add a plain line or indicator about how it wears, not just how it measures.

Put the guide where the decision happens

Where a size guide lives matters as much as what is in it. The strongest stores put it within reach of the size picker, so a shopper never has to leave the product to check.

• P448, the Italian sneaker brand, places its size guide link right beside the size picker, then lists estimated delivery dates and the return window under Add to Bag. Our editors scored its usability 9 out of 10, the highest of the 22 stores with a size guide.
• Jean Shop links its size guide from a tight product panel that also holds size and inseam, so all of the fit choices sit in one block.
• KHY opens its guide as a drawer, which keeps the product in view while the shopper reads.
• Magda Butrym, the Warsaw fashion house, puts a size selector and size guide on each product page, and also shows the available sizes under every item on collection pages.

That last point is worth dwelling on. Showing sizes before the product page saves a shopper from opening a dress only to find their size has gone. Andersen-Andersen, the Danish knitwear maker, puts size filters from XXXS to XXXL right at the front of its collections. Dime filters a shop of 230 products by size for tops, bottoms and hats. Somewhere Good and Kindred of Ireland both let shoppers add a size to the bag straight from the collection grid, and Oflyn does the same with quick-add size buttons on its product cards.

Out-of-stock sizes need the same care. Damso, the Belgian label, uses a size dropdown with a clear out-of-stock state for each size, so nobody picks a size only to be refused at the button.

What to look at: the size guide link belongs next to the size buttons, not in a footer or a tab at the bottom of the page. Show available sizes on collection pages, let shoppers filter by size, and make sold-out sizes obvious before they are clicked.

Let customers tell each other how it fits

A brand’s own chart can only say what a garment measures. Customers can say whether it runs small. P448 builds this into its reviews with a sizing scale that runs from runs small, through true to size, to runs large. For sneakers, where lasts vary from brand to brand, that scale often answers the question faster than any chart.

Reviews are one of the most common patterns in the Showcase, logged on 22 stores, but P448 is the clearest example of reviews being structured around fit rather than left as free text. The lesson is in the structure: a single fit question asked of every reviewer produces an answer a shopper can scan, where a hundred written reviews would need to be read.

What to look at: if your review app supports a fit or sizing question, switch it on and show the result near the size picker. One scale is more useful than a paragraph of “lovely quality, came up a bit big”.

Explain sizes that are not standard

Some brands cut sizes that do not match the usual run, and the best of them explain why rather than leaving shoppers to work it out.

Nivis Gear makes a small range of technical ski jackets in limited runs. Its store lists in-between sizes, such as ML on some jackets, and explains them alongside the size guide. Our editors noted its honest fit notes, and the product pages break each jacket down into construction, protection, mobility and storage, which is the context a skier needs to judge how a shell will sit over layers.

Unsanctioned Running, from Australia, pairs its size guides with tabs for materials, sustainability, care and shipping. Running kit is bought for movement, so fabric and fit are read together. Balmoral, a Canadian running label, earned a note from our editors for good composition specs and a size table, even though its filtering is minimal.

What to look at: if you cut extra sizes or an unusual block, name them and explain who they are for in the size guide itself. For performance kit, put fit beside the fabric and construction detail, because shoppers judge them together.

Rings and glasses: when the measurement is the product

Jewellery and eyewear have their own sizing systems, and the stores that handle them best treat the measurement as part of the product rather than a support page.

• INO, a New York fine jewellery brand, uses its own ring sizes and gives a ring size guide that converts them to US and Canadian and to UK and Australian sizes.
• Emily Nixon, who makes fine jewellery by hand in Penzance, Cornwall, carries a size guide and care information, and offers private viewings for pieces where a shopper would rather try in person.
• Àpini Studio, the Italian maker of pasta-shaped gold jewellery, has material and ring-size selectors on its product pages, but our editors noted that size guidance is handled by email. For a brand selling rings online, that is one extra step between a shopper and an order.

Eyewear is where the Showcase has some of its most careful product pages.

• Jacques Marie Mage, the Los Angeles eyewear brand, sets each frame’s measurements (total width, temple length, bridge and eye size) in large serif figures, as part of a long product page with an index for frame, details, packaging, care and craftsmanship. The numbers are designed, not hidden.
• Cubitts, the London spectacle maker, offers frames in S, M and L widths with measurements, filters by bridge fit, and has The Speculator, a virtual try-on that lets shoppers see frames on their own face. Our editors described it as making buying glasses online unusually easy.
• Gentle Monster, from South Korea, was noted for its detailed frame-fit measurements.

What to look at: if your category has its own sizing system, convert it to the systems your customers already know. Give eyewear measurements the same visual weight as the price. Where you can, add a way to compare against something the shopper owns: a ring they wear, a frame width they know, or their own face on camera.

Shoes, bags and the home: size beyond clothing

Size guides are not only for apparel. Some of the most useful sizing in the Showcase sits in categories where people do not expect it.

Shoes. Morobé, the Belgian shoe label, filters sandals, mules and boots by flat, mid or high heel in its shop menu. Heel height is a fit decision as much as a style one, and putting it in the menu means shoppers choose it first. P448 handles the length question with its review scale. Rollie, the Australian footwear brand, shows every style from the side and the front on product cards, so shapes are easy to compare, though our editors noted that fit advice is missing.

Bags. Lulu Guinness is honest about size down to noting when a clutch will not fit a phone. It is a small line of copy that answers the question most shoppers actually have about an evening bag, and it prevents a return.

Home. Floof, a California brand making designer throw pillows, filters by size in its menu and has what our editors called a furniture-based size guide: cushion sizes explained against the furniture they sit on, which is how people actually choose them. Pedestal, the Danish maker of TV stands, sells its Moon stand in three heights and gives screen-size advice for each, plus a product FAQ on screen sizes and VESA compatibility. By Crea filters chairs by seat height, and Olive, a Montpellier design studio, lists year, dimensions and seat height alongside the price on each piece.

What to look at: ask what the size question really is in your category. For heels it is height, for bags it is what fits inside, for cushions it is the sofa, for a TV stand it is the screen. Answer that question in the menu or the product copy, not only in a table.

Where award-winning stores leave shoppers guessing

Our editors score every store on design, usability, creativity and content, and the score notes are blunt when fit information is missing. Some of the most striking stores in the Showcase lose usability or content marks for exactly this.

• Berner Kühl, the Copenhagen outerwear and tailoring label, has a strong archival identity, but there was no size guide on the coat we tested.
• Odd Ritual, a South African golf clothing label with warm editorial photography, has a standard shop with no size guide.
• MOB LINKS, a French streetwear label with cartoon sticker-style product cut-outs, has product pages that lack size guides and fabric details.
• Martine Rose, the London designer menswear label, lets shoppers refine by size but has no size chart.

None of these stores is badly designed. Each was chosen for the Showcase on its art direction. But fit is where design meets returns, and a page that looks extraordinary and still cannot tell someone whether a coat will fit has left the most expensive question unanswered.

The contrast is with stores such as Cecilie Bahnsen, the Copenhagen couture label, which keeps image-led runway art direction and still provides what our editors called solid size charts. Strong design and complete fit information are not in tension.

What to look at: test your own store the way a first-time customer would. Pick a product, choose a size, and check whether you could answer “will this fit me?” without leaving the page. If the answer depends on emailing the brand or guessing, that is the gap to close first.

A checklist for size guides

What the strongest size guides in the Showcase get right:

1. Garment measurements, not only body ranges, in both centimetres and inches.
2. The height and size worn by every model on the product page.
3. The size guide link next to the size picker, opening in a drawer or overlay.
4. Available sizes shown on collection pages, with size filters.
5. Clear out-of-stock states for each size.
6. A structured fit question in reviews (runs small, true to size, runs large).
7. Non-standard sizes named and explained.
8. Category-specific sizing converted to familiar systems: ring sizes, frame widths, heel heights.
9. Size answered in plain copy where a table is not enough, such as what fits in a bag or which sofa a cushion suits.

You can browse every store mentioned here, and the rest, in the Showcase, filtered by industry, country and feature. If you run or built a store with a size guide that belongs on this list, you can submit it, and brands and agencies already featured can claim their pages through membership.