The Right Fit

One of the biggest problems with online shopping is guessing which size you’ll need. Even if it’s a brand you’re relatively familiar with, the fit can fluctuate between different garments and styles. The hassle of returns and exchanges is hardly ever worth it, but it’s especially annoying when you need a new outfit in time for a big event, but can’t guarantee it will actually fit.

Luckily retailers are doing something about it, and using fashion technology to offer us all a better fit. It’s in their interests too, as more accurate fit information means fewer returns for them.

One start-up that sounds promising is Virtusize, which is already working with ASOS. The Stockholm-based set-up allows potential customers to compare the measurements of clothes that they already own with clothes that they’re interested in online. So you could, in theory, find a top that fits exactly the same as your favourite sweatshirt, or make sure that your new jeans are just like your old ones. And when it comes to footwear, upload a tracing of your foot to the German app MiFitto to find out which size you should be buying across a range of labels.

We’re also very excited about Mipso, a sizing solution which online retailers can integrate into their website. It takes your unique body shape and size, and, when you look at a particular item, it will helpfully point out which size will work best on you. It’s the closest thing we can imagine to an online fitting room, and they want to roll it out across mobile and in-store shopping experiences too.

It all sounds like a lot of work for the customer though, rather than the retailer, so we can’t help but wonder if they’ll truly take off. Surely the whole point of online shopping is that it’s easier and faster for the customer?

And if that all sounds a little too far into the future (unfortunately, we can’t think of any websites which have brought in an innovative size guide yet), we have found one tool that’s available right now. Farfetch have come up with a widget that can tell you what size you are across a range of brands and garments. And you don’t even need to measure yourself if you don’t have time; you can just input which size you are for one brand, and it will translate that across all the others.


Created by Farfetch

We decided to embed it on our blog (to do the same, click the </> symbol in the top right-hand corner, then copy and paste the code into a post), but anyone can use it as a reference point, just click through the options to discover your size across some of the biggest high-street and designer brands out there. Hopefully it will save you the disappointment of needing to exchange your next online haul!