Does Sizing Up Make a Shirt Longer? No — Here’s What Does

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Almost every tall man has done this. A shirt is too short, so next time you buy the size up. It is the most intuitive fix available, it is the wrong one, and it quietly costs you every garment you own.

What a size actually adds

Clothing sizes are not scaled versions of each other. When a pattern maker grades a shirt from a large to an extra large, they are describing a wider man, not a taller one. Standard grading looks roughly like this:

• Chest: about 2 inches added per size
• Body length: about half an inch added per size
• Sleeve: about half an inch added per size

So a jump from large to extra large buys you two inches of width and half an inch of length. If your problem was length, you have fixed roughly a fifth of it and created a new problem worth twice as much.

What a tall size adds instead

A tall size is a different pattern, not a bigger one. It holds the chest constant and extends the vertical measurements:

• Chest: unchanged from the regular size in the same letter
• Body length: about 2 inches added
• Sleeve: about 1 to 1.5 inches added

That is the whole idea. Same width, more length. A large tall fits your chest exactly like a large, and covers your torso like something made for it.

Big and tall is not the same thing

This trips up a lot of people, because the categories get shelved together. Big addresses girth. Tall addresses length. They are separate problems sold as separate specifications, even when the department name runs them together.

If you are six foot four and lean, a big and tall garment sized for girth will drown you exactly the way an extra large does. What you want is the tall specification in your true size. Read the chart, not the department.

The test

Take any shirt you own that has never felt right and check three points:

1. Hem. It should sit at or just below your hip bone, and it should not lift out of your waistband when you raise your arms.
2. Sleeve. It should end at your wrist bone with your arm relaxed, so a watch sits just clear of the cuff.
3. Shoulder seam. It should sit on the outside edge of your shoulder. If it has slid down your upper arm, you have sized up.

If the hem and sleeve are short but the shoulder seam has dropped, you have the diagnosis exactly. You bought width trying to buy length.

Why this matters more than what you spend

Tall sizing is generally offered at the same price as regular sizing. This is not an upgrade you pay for. It is a specification you either ask for or do not, and the men who ask for it look better in cheaper clothes than the men who do not look in expensive ones.

For a worked example of this on one of the season’s most common pieces, see why flannel overshirts look too short on tall men.

Where to buy

The Tall Take earns a small commission on purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.

Read next: why flannel overshirts look too short and the long coat trend and how to buy the length.

What to actually buy

If you want the tall-versus-big distinction in practice rather than theory, these are the pieces where I measured it.

• FLX Luxury Soft Tee review
• The Perfect Jean review

Everything I currently think is worth buying, plus what I bought and sent back, is on Tall Deals.