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Three Sizes You Might Wear, and We Just Ask Which Your closet already knows the truth: the size on the tag changes depending on who made the shirt. A me...
Your closet already knows the truth: the size on the tag changes depending on who made the shirt. A medium in one brand fits like a small in another. A pair of jeans runs snug at the waist but roomy through the hip.
So when you shop online, "what size am I?" isn't a lazy question. It's the smartest one you can ask.
That's exactly why, when you send us a custom pick request, we don't just ask for a single number and call it done. We ask which of the sizes you actually wear feels most like you right now.
Sizing isn't standardized across the fashion industry, and it never has been. Every brand cuts a little differently, drafts to a different fit model, and makes its own call on how much ease to build in. That's not a flaw you're failing to account for.
It's just how clothing works.
So most women don't have one size. They have a range, usually two or three, depending on the piece and the fabric. You might be a small in a relaxed knit and a medium in a woven button-up because the woven has no give.
When we know your range instead of one guess, we can pick the number that matches how a specific piece is actually cut.
When we ask which size you'd reach for, we're asking a few things at once, and it helps if you tell us all of them.
We want to know the size you buy most often, the size you buy when you want a little more room, and how you like things to sit on you. Some women love a fitted top and a roomier bottom. Others want everything with a little breathing room.
Neither is right or wrong, it's just yours to tell us.
That last part matters more than the number. A medium worn loose and a medium worn fitted are two different requests, even though the tag says the same thing.
Here's where the range gets useful. Say you tell us you usually wear a medium but you like your sweaters oversized and cozy. For a slim-cut knit, we might steer you toward the size up so it drapes the way you actually want.
Or the reverse. You wear a large in most tops but this particular blouse runs generous, so the medium is going to give you the clean fit you're picturing.
We can only make those calls because we know the garment and you told us your range. Guessing from one number would put us in the dark.
A stretchy ribbed knit forgives a lot. A structured woven forgives nothing. That difference alone can move you a full size on the same body.
This is why we ask about your range before we finalize anything. When a piece has real stretch, we'll often stay true to your everyday size. When it's stiffer or cut close, we lean into the roomier end of what you told us.
Fabric is half the fit conversation, and it's the half the size tag completely ignores.
The whole point of asking upfront is that fewer things come back. When we match the piece to the right end of your range, the odds go way up that what lands on your doorstep fits the first time.
That means less repackaging, fewer trips to send something back, and more mornings where you just get dressed. For a busy week, that's the part that actually matters.
And when something still isn't right, we'd rather hear it. Telling us "the medium was a touch tight across the shoulders" teaches us your fit for next time, so the second round is sharper than the first.
You don't need measurements down to the quarter inch, though we're happy to work with them if you have them. What helps most is plain, honest detail about how you like to wear things.
A few things that make our job easier:
That last one is gold. When you tell us a shirt you live in, we can reverse-engineer what "fits right" means to you specifically.
Plenty of online shopping treats a size like a fixed fact about you, one box to check and move on. We think that's backwards. Your size shifts with the cut, the fabric, the day, and the way you want to feel in it.
Asking which size you'd reach for is how we honor all of that instead of flattening it into one guess. It's a small question that does a lot of quiet lifting toward getting you something you'll actually keep and reach for.
At RubyClaire Boutique, that conversation is baked into how we work, because getting dressed should feel good, not like a gamble. So when we ask which of your sizes you're feeling, know that we're not being fussy. We're setting you up to open the box and just... wear it.