Size comparison · UK womenswear

A UK 16 is not one size — how it differs across UK shops

The label says 16. But the measurements behind it are not the same from shop to shop. We read four UK retailers' own published size charts and lined them up. At UK 16, the waist differs by 10 cm between the narrowest and widest — that is roughly two dress sizes.

UK 16 across four shops — the real numbers

Every figure below is read directly from each retailer's published size guide, in centimetres.

Sources: yoursclothing.co.uk, roman.co.uk, dorothyperkins.com, wallis.co.uk, read 2026-10-09.

What a 10 cm difference actually means

Ten centimetres on the waist is not a small variation — it is roughly the difference between two dress sizes. It means:

• If your waist is 88 cm, you are a comfortable UK 16 at Yours, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis — but at Roman that same waist sits nearer a UK 14.
• If your waist is 96 cm, Roman's UK 16 fits you well — but at the others you would be looking at a UK 18.
• The label alone tells you almost nothing. The numbers tell you everything.

A note on Dorothy Perkins and Wallis

Dorothy Perkins and Wallis publish an identical chart in the range we read — the same measurements at every size. This is not a mistake on our part; both brands now sit within the same group and share a size guide. We show them separately because they are separate shops, but the numbers are twins.

Range limits worth knowing

Practical point: if you are at the top of the curve range, Yours covers the most sizes (to UK 32). Dorothy Perkins and Wallis stop at UK 24 — their data simply ends there, so we show what they publish.

Where this data comes from

Every figure is read directly from each retailer's own published size guide, in centimetres. Only retailers whose charts we could read appear here. Where a shop blocks access, we do not guess. This page was last checked on 9 October 2026.