How do European riding sizes convert to US sizes?

The safest habit is to treat any conversion you see as a starting point and finish with the size chart for the exact style you're buying.

Our Fair Play page is a good example. Fair Play sizes in European numbers, and each style carries its own Fair Play size chart, in centimeters. Its charts list centimeters, and the sizes on our Fair Play listings carry both numbers, EU and US, so you can see the pairing before you open the chart. A note on a style also tells you when its chart belongs to another sleeve length, as with some Cathrine shirts.

Below is what Fair Play's charts do list, how to use it and where it stops being reliable.

The numbers are in the table below, from the chart on our Fair Play page.

Its jacket charts use the same EU numbers for different body points. On the Loriana show jacket chart, EU 34 to 46 list a chest of 88 to 112 cm and a waist of 70 to 94 cm, with a 61 cm sleeve. EU 38 is a 96 cm chest and 78 cm waist in that jacket, and a 74 cm waist in the Marley breeches.

Charts also differ from style to style inside Fair Play. EU 38 is 90 cm hips on its Johanna breeches chart, 92 on Marley 2.0 and 93 on Inesa, with inseams of 70, 70 and 71 cm. That is why we don't turn one chart into a rule for others.

Those are the size labels on the products themselves, the same numbers you pick from when you order, and the table below lines them up.

Use the pair to find the right button, then use the centimeter chart to decide whether it will fit. The US number on a breech is a label, not a tape reading: EU 38/US 26 on our listings is a 74 cm waist, about 29 inches, on the Marley 2.0 chart. That is why the next step is always your tape and the style's own chart.

In the Fair Play charts, jackets list chest, waist, hips, sleeve length and back length, while breeches list waist, hips and inseam. EU 42 is a 104 cm chest in the Loriana jacket and an 82 cm waist in the Marley breeches.

That's also where mix-ups happen. One buyer who ordered breeches sized in European numbers wrote that it was confusing and that she had to return a pair in a size 24 after ordering a size 46. Reading a European number as if it were a US number is an easy mistake to make, and a good reason to look at the chart before checking out.

The conversion table tells you which number to start with. It doesn't tell you how a particular cut will fit.

Our Fair Play page shows how riders report fit differently on different styles. One calls a shirt very slim fitting. Another says that although the fabric can sit with some excess, the neck fits as the size chart says, so she didn't size up. Fair Play's page also says fit comments vary by style, so use the chart for your style and, if the page points to a size note, read it.

A good starting point is your measurements, then the chart for that style. Then measure again to confirm.

Our women's breeches page says some brands label in US waist sizes and some in EU sizes. Its Find Your Fit filter goes straight to waist, letter sizes and long and tall. Fair Play's winter tights charts show it too: EU 34/XS to 46/XXXL, where most of its breeches charts stop at EU 44.

Our Horze page adds a practical note: many Horze breeches list European sizing, so the number on the label will not match the US size you usually order. It says to measure your waist and inseam and then match them to the chart on the style page. We don't print numbers for Horze here, so open the size chart on the style's product page.

So an EU number is one of several labels you'll meet. Your waist, your hips, your inseam and the style's own chart are what hold it all together.

That is how Fair Play's charts frame it. One of them, the Vita winter breeches chart, describes waist as the narrowest point just above the navel, hips as the widest part about halfway down the buttocks, and inseam along the inside-thigh seam from the crotch down. It works for any maker that publishes measurements.

European charts are often in centimeters. One inch is 2.54 centimeters, so multiply your inch reading by 2.54. The table below converts some common readings, rounded to one decimal, as a tape-reading aid. It is not a size chart.

What to measure depends on the garment. For shirts, our women's competition shirts page says to size by chest and shoulders first, then check sleeve length at the wrist, and notes that brands cut differently, so the chart on each product page is the one to use. For breeches, the measurement that matters most is the waist, with inseam for length, as our women's breeches page and Horze page both describe.

Read each chart's note about what it lists. Fair Play's Vita winter breeches chart says its numbers are the garment's actual measurements, measured flat, with a tolerance of plus or minus 2 cm and no allowance for stretch, while Kerrits' charts say theirs are body measurements. Measure in the clothes you'll wear them over, or the closest thing, and measure twice. Then match each measurement to the chart rather than relying on the label number alone.

Say your waist measures 29 inches. Multiply by 2.54 and you get 73.7 cm. In Fair Play's Marley 2.0 breeches chart, the 74 cm waist is EU 38/M, so EU 38 is your starting row for that style.

Now the second step. Look at the hips and inseam on the same chart: EU 38 lists 92 cm hips and a 70 cm inseam. If a style note says its chart belongs to another sleeve length, as some Cathrine shirts do, use the chart it points to. If your measurements land between two rows, go back to the style's chart and notes rather than the label number.

Nothing here is a promise about how a given cut will fit. It is the order of operations our sources point to: tape, centimeters, style chart, then the label.

A European clothing number tells you nothing about a hat size.

Helmets: brands size in centimeters, hat sizes or small to large. We don't print helmet numbers here, because they aren't in the charts we hold; match your measurement to the brand's chart on the product page. Our Helmet Center and our Barn Talk on measuring your head for a riding helmet have the method.

Gloves: Roeckl sizes 6 to 11 by hand circumference in centimeters; size 7 is 18.9 cm around the knuckles. See our Barn Talk on sizing riding gloves.

Boots and half chaps: follow each maker's chart, and see our Barn Talk on measuring for half chaps. We didn't find a single trustworthy EU to US boot conversion across makers, so we haven't printed one.

• Which garment is it? Tops and breeches charts list different measurements for the same EU size.
• Measure bust, waist and hips, in centimeters if the chart is.
• Open the chart for that style, not just the brand.
• Read the style's note: some charts belong to a different sleeve length.
• Check the sizes offered: Fair Play's jacket charts run EU 34 to 46 and its winter tights to 46/XXXL, while most of its breeches charts stop at 44.
• If you are between sizes, go back to your measurements.