Measurement guide

A soft tailoring tape marked in centimetres, a mirror, a notebook, and someone to help with the back measurements if you can. Wear a fitted shirt or vest, not a jumper, and the undergarments you would wear with the finished cloth. Stand on a hard floor.

Write every number in centimetres, to the nearest half centimetre. Do not convert from inches in your head. If your tape only shows inches, convert once on paper (inches × 2.54) and send centimetres only.

Stand as you stand in a room, not as you stand in a photograph. Do not hold your breath or square your shoulders more than usual. Keep the tape level and snug, not tight: you should be able to slide two fingers under it. If a number feels uncertain, take it twice and send both.

Tap a point on the silhouette, or the list beside it, to read how we take that number. These are the house points for shirts, tops, and most daywear. Waist, hip, and garment-specific lengths sit below.

• Waist

  Your natural waist, usually the narrowest point of the torso, a little above the navel. Not the belt line. A belt number cuts an agbada or dress wrong across the middle.

• Hip

  Around the fullest point of the hips and seat, roughly twenty centimetres below the waist, tape kept level. Essential for dresses, slit skirts, and tailored trousers.

• Bicep

  Around the fullest part of the upper arm, relaxed. Send this for agbada and wide-sleeve kaftan so the sleeve can pass without pulling.

• Trouser or slit length

  Trouser: from the natural waist to the hem you want, noting the shoe. Slit (kaba): from the waistline of the skirt straight down to the finished hem, separate from the kaba blouse length.

You do not send every number every time. Match the garment. If unsure, send the full set.

• Batik shirt or blazer

  Neck, shoulder, chest, sleeve, length.

• Kaftan or jalabia

  Shoulder, chest, waist, sleeve, length. Add trouser length if the set includes trousers.

• Agbada

  Shoulder, chest, waist, hip, sleeve, bicep, agbada length, trouser length.

• Day or occasion dress

  Bust, waist, hip, shoulder, sleeve, garment length.

• Traditional wedding kaba and slit

  Bust, waist, hip, shoulder, sleeve, kaba length, slit length.

• White wedding gown

  The dress list, plus a note on bust support and any headpiece that changes the neckline.

• Ahenema

  Foot length and foot width, or a UK size. US men's is one size above UK. US women's is two sizes above UK. The foot chart is on each ahenema page.

Shoulder. Almost everyone measures to the edge of an existing sleeve seam. Find the bone with your fingers first.

Waist. A belt measurement is not a waist. Your natural waist is higher. An agbada or fitted dress cut to a belt number will not sit.

Two smaller errors: measuring over a thick jumper adds centimetres the tailor cannot see; pulling the tape until it hurts subtracts centimetres the cloth will not forgive.

Numbers describe size. They do not describe posture. A straight-on photograph and a side photograph, against a plain wall in a fitted shirt or vest, tell a tailor more about how you carry your shoulders than any tape can. Every bespoke commission includes a consultation where we ask for both views before cutting.

If you would rather not measure yourself, send a garment that already fits well. We can measure that instead and return it with your order.

1. Centimetres, not inches.
2. Fitted layer, natural stance, tape level and snug.
3. Shoulder taken on bone, not on a shirt seam.
4. Waist taken at the natural waist, not the belt.
5. Length taken from the high shoulder to the hem you actually want.
6. Two photographs, front and side.
7. A note on the occasion, and any length you already know you like.

Then start a custom brief , or add custom measurements on the product. For the long form with photographs from the atelier, read how to measure yourself for a bespoke cloth in the journal.