Numbers Lie. Measurements Don't.

I get a version of the same question often enough that I should probably just pin it to the top of the shop: "What size is this, really?" And I get why people ask. A tag is supposed to answer that for you, and half the time it doesn't.

Chico's is the one that breaks people's brains the fastest. Their sizing runs on its own private number line, nothing to do with the S/M/L the rest of the world uses. A "Size 2" at Chico's is roughly a Large, sometimes closer to a 14. I have a Chico's floral print top in the shop right now tagged Size 2, and if I listed it that way and nothing else, I'd be setting someone up to open a package and feel like the item lied to them. It didn't. The tag just isn't speaking a language most people were taught to read.

So I don't really sell off the tag. I sell off the tape measure. Every piece gets laid flat and measured, pit to pit, shoulder to hem, waist to waist, before it ever gets photographed. Those numbers go in the listing whether the tag size is confusing or crystal clear, because a measurement doesn't care what decade a brand's sizing chart was written in, or whether "Large" meant something different in 1998 than it does now.

I think about this more with secondhand than I would with anything off a store rack, because these pieces come from a dozen different brands and eras and none of them agreed on anything. A men's XL from one label fits like a different company's Medium. A woman's 10 from twenty years ago is nowhere near a 10 today. If I only ever told you what the tag says, I'd be asking you to trust a number that was never built to be trusted in the first place.

It's a small thing, measuring everything by hand instead of leaning on a tag. It takes longer. Some days it's the part of the process I'd love to skip. But skipping it means someone three states away is making a $18 decision based on a guess, and that's not a position I want to put anyone in. A person ordering from a photo deserves the same honesty they'd get holding the thing in their hands.

That's really the whole philosophy behind this shop in miniature. Nobody here is a number on a tag, and no piece of clothing should be sold like it's one either. Everyone gets treated like their actual self, measurements and all, not whatever a label decided to call them.

So if you're staring at a listing wondering whether the size will actually work, skip the tag and read the measurements instead. That's what they're there for. And if you're still unsure, message me. I'd rather answer ten questions than have one person disappointed by a box.

Choose to be kind. Choose to be grateful. Choose to be happy.

— Nina of GiaNina Collective