EN 13402

EN 13402 Size designation of clothes is a European standard for labelling clothes sizes. It is based on body dimensions, measured in centimetres. It replaces many older national dress-size systems in popular use before the year 2007. Acceptance of this form of standardisation varies from country to country. For example, the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs has commissioned a study to categorise female body types with a view to harmonising Spanish clothing sizes with EN-13402. Few other countries are known to have followed suit.

There are three approaches for size-labelling of clothes:

Traditionally, clothes have been labelled using many different ad hoc size systems. This approach has led to a number of problems:

Therefore, the European standards committee CEN/TC 248/WG 10 started in 1996 the process of designing a new modern system of labelling clothes sizes, resulting in the standard EN 13402 "Size designation of clothes".

It is based on:

The first part of the standard defines the list of body dimensions to be used for designating clothes sizes, together with an anatomical explanation and measurement guidelines. All body dimensions are measured, preferably without or as few as possible clothes, in centimetres, except for the body mass.

The standard also defines a pictogram that can be used in language-neutral labels to indicate one or several of the following body dimensions.

The second part of the standard defines for each type of garment one "primary dimension". This is the body measure according to which the product must be labelled. Where men’s garments use the chest girth, women’s clothes are designed for a certain bust girth.

For some types of garment, a single measure may not be sufficient to select the right product. In these cases, one or two "secondary dimensions" can be added to the label.

The following table shows the primary and secondary dimensions listed in the standard, leaving out the redundant words girth, length and size for better overview. Primary dimensions are shown in bold type.

The third part of the standard defines preferred numbers of primary and secondary body dimensions.

The product should not be labelled with the average body dimension for which the garment was designed (i.e., not "height: 176 cm."). Instead, the label should show the range of body dimensions from half the step size below to half the step size above the design size (e.g., "height: 172–180 cm.").

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