How this site decides what a size is
The rules every page on this site is written and checked under.
Who writes and checks
Everything on this site is researched, written and maintained by one person: Ian Welkins, an independent web developer. There is no content team, no contributed articles, and no sponsored content. No brand pays for placement, inclusion or a favourable chart position — the site carries no affiliate arrangements that touch its numbers.
How chart values are chosen
Dress sizes have no enforcing authority, so this site builds its charts by consensus, in this order of trust:
1. Standards documents. ASTM D5585 (standard body measurements for the adult female misses figure) and the ISO 8559 series frame what the measurements mean and how they are taken.
2. Published retailer and specialist charts. Major retailers' published size charts, bridal houses' charts for the bridal table, and established children's retailers for the kids' table. Specialised ranges (plus, petite, juniors, bridal, kids) are always built from charts published for that range — never extrapolated from the misses chart.
3. Consensus rule. Where published charts disagree — and they disagree often, by up to two inches at the same label — the value printed is the one the weight of published charts supports, erring toward the larger (a garment that closes can be tailored; one that doesn't close cannot). Known spreads are disclosed on the page that uses the chart, not hidden.
Every calculator's output is tested against worked examples calculated by hand from the chart; those examples are published on the tool pages so readers can check the arithmetic themselves.
Estimates are labelled as estimates
Two tools on this site estimate rather than measure (the height-and-weight estimator and the weight-loss projection). Both state their model, their inputs and their expected error on the page itself, and both report ranges rather than false precision. No tool on this site presents an estimate as a measurement.
Corrections
Readers can report an error on any figure through the report-error page. Reports are read by the author personally, checked against the sources above, and — when the report is right — corrected in the underlying chart data, with every affected page's worked examples re-verified. Pages carry a "last verified" date, which moves when their data is re-checked, whether the trigger was a reader report or a scheduled review.
Use of AI
AI tools are used as drafting and coding assistance in building this site. No chart value, example or claim is published on an AI tool's say-so: each is checked against the sources named on its page before publication. Responsibility for everything published here rests with the author named on the about page.
Updates
Charts are re-checked when a source document changes, when a reader report exposes a discrepancy, and on a rolling review of the site's data. Size charts change slowly; when they change, this site follows the sources, not the other way round.