Author’s note: this is a ‘living post’, and will be updated as I’m able. If you have any photos of sizing charts found throughout Korea, please send them on at chrisinsouthkorea AT gmail DOT com!
Sizes in Korea tend to run a bit smaller than elsewhere in the world. It sucks, especially if you’re a taller / heavier / unusually shaped person trying to make some Korean clothes work. On the bright side, more than a few fashionable stores (e.g. Uniqlo, H&M) and the Korean department stores have been getting better about providing more options. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been out and about shopping, and have snapped a few photos of some Korean sizing charts. They’re translated below the picture (where necessary), and are fairly self-explanatory.
Seen in Uniqlo – men’s waist sizes basically get translated from inches to centimeters.
For men: 목둘레 (mok-dul-le) = neck measurement, while 소매길이 (so-mae-gil-ee) = sleeve length. Seen at Uniqlo, near the men’s dress shirts.
A little more detailed for men – taken at Uniqlo with the phone’s camera.
Seen at a clothing store in Itaewon. The 미국 (mi-guk) indicates the American size – an abstract number at best, but hopefully helpful.
Shoe sizes for women and men. From top to bottom: 한국 (han-guk, or Korean size), 미국 (mi-guk, or American size), 유럽 (yu-reop, or European size), and 영국 (yeong-guk, or English size).
For men (Daiz brand, found at Emart): the top half of the chart refers to shirts. 가슴둘레 (ga-seum-dul-le, or bust/chest measurement) and 신체치수 (body size, or height) The bottom half refers to pants / bottomwear. 허리둘레 (heo-ri-dul-le, or waist) and 엉덩이둘레 (eon-deong-ee-dul-le, or hip / butt measurement). Note that for some pants, the waist size is in centimeters, not ‘Medium’, ‘Large’, and so on.
For children: the left column (사이즈,) represents the size, while the right column (개월수) represents a child’s age, in months.
신발 사이즈 – shoe size. Women’s shoes on the left and men’s shoes on the right. European shoe sizes on the left, and the Korean measurements on the right.
Readers: send on your pictures and I’ll upload them here!
