Oversized is a cut, not a size: how to buy an Arssm tee that hangs right

Most returns of an oversized tee happen for one reason: the buyer ordered a size down to get a normal fit and got a tee that is both short and wide. Oversized is a cut. The room is in the pattern, and the letter on the label is still the letter.

This page is the long version of that sentence. Which size to buy for which look, how fit differs department by department in the Arssm range, what the fibre and care labels are required to tell you, and where the close-cut pieces live for anyone who does not want the baggy one.

A standard tee pattern puts the shoulder seam on the shoulder bone and lets the body follow the chest with a few inches of ease. An oversized tee moves the shoulder seam down the arm, widens the body by a full size or more, and usually lengthens the sleeve so it reaches the elbow. The neck stays the same, which is the reason an oversized tee still looks like a tee and not like a smock.

That pattern repeats for every letter. A Small oversized tee has the same extra ease as an X-Large one. So the letter you buy should be the letter you normally wear, and the cut does the rest.

Where the maker states the fit in the product text, the page carries it as a fact, in the maker's own words. The counts below are from the pieces we list today.

Read the words literally. Oversized and baggy are the wide cuts. Loose fit is a step closer. Slim fit and relaxed fit are the pieces that follow the body, and they are the ones to size normally without thinking about it.

There are two honest answers, and they depend on what you want the tee to do.

For a 3-pack the arithmetic is the same, with one warning. The three tees in a pack are one size. If you are between sizes and buying a pack, size for the look you will wear most, because you will wear all three the same way.

The Arssm range does not run oversized all the way through, and a buyer who wants the baggy tee and a fitted top from the same site should know which department is which.

Tees, tanks for men, sweaters and sets are the wide cuts. Sleepwear runs true to size, because a pyjama with extra ease tangles. The blouses, ribbed crops and women's tanks with a built-in bra are the close-cut pieces, and they want your usual size with no adjustment.

The table counts the styles we list by size and by who they are cut for. The middle letters carry the catalogue. The ends carry less, and if you sit at either end, filter by size before you fall for a colour.

Kids' sizes run in years and in toddler T sizes, as the maker states them. The men's tees go up to 5X-Large in the big-and-tall line, and 19 kids' styles run from 3T to 16 years.

Cotton is the reason an oversized tee hangs rather than clings, and 19 styles here are stated as 100% cotton. Cotton has no stretch of its own, so the fit you see on the page is the fit you get. It does not pull in over a chest the way a jersey with spandex does.

The rule behind the fibre line is specific about how it has to be written, without shortcuts:

That is the reason a label says cotton in full rather than a code, and it is what lets you tell a heavyweight cotton tee from a polyester blend that will cling. The blends we can confirm today are counted below.

Many pages carry no fabric line, because the maker does not state one in the text we have. Those pages stay silent rather than guess.

The most reliable size chart is a tee in your wardrobe that hangs the way you want. Lay it flat, measure across the chest one inch below the armpit, and measure from the top of the shoulder seam to the hem. Those two numbers, chest width and body length, describe an oversized tee better than any letter.

Compare them with the maker's chart on the pack's page where one exists. If the chest width you want lands between two letters, take the larger one for an oversized tee and the smaller one for a ribbed top. If the length lands between two, take the longer one: an oversized tee that is too short reads as a crop, and a crop is a different garment.

Do this once, write the two numbers down, and the letter question answers itself for every pack in the range.

The kids' range runs in years and toddler T sizes, and the number describes an average child of that age rather than your child. 19 kids' styles run from 3T to 16 years, and the tee packs among them carry the same oversized cut as the adult ones, scaled down.

Measure a tee the child already wears the same way, chest and length, and buy the year band whose chart matches. A tall eight-year-old wears a 9-10, and a small ten-year-old wears it too. The oversized cut gives a season of growing room either way, which is the practical reason parents buy the packs.

An acid-washed tee has already been through a hot, aggressive wash at the mill, and whatever shrinkage the cotton had in it came out there. The tee you receive stays the size it arrived, provided you follow the label, and the label is a legal document:

In practice that is a cold or warm machine wash and a line or a low dryer. A hot dryer on a heavyweight cotton tee takes back the room the pattern gave you, and it takes it from the length first. The wash guide on this site goes through acid wash, fleece and elastic in detail.

If the choice is still between two sizes, buy the larger one. An oversized tee that is slightly too big is the look. An oversized tee that is slightly too small is a tee.