Style Notes

For awhile now, people asked which brands I felt were consistent in fit and quality, since I source secondhand and encourage others to purchase pre-owned goods. Years of thrifting left me with a self-proclaimed decent sense of sizing and wearability; thus my obsession with charts continues. This is highly subjective, but here are the brands I encounter most often or that my friends wear regularly, based on my own limited, unscientific judgments and their feedback. I purposely left out H&M, Zara, and Forever 21, because I hate them.

Brand Fit, Quality, and Value Guide

BRAND NAME	SIZING	QUALITY	NOTES
3.1 Phillip Lim	Large	Good	Better for tall girls
Acne	Varies	Good	The t-shirts get holes easily
Agnes B	TTS	Great	Longlasting- my husband has worn their sweaters daily for years. Focus on the made in France products.
Alaia	Runs small / cropped	Perfect	Forever pieces. I used to buy these at the stock shop or depot ventes in Paris and sell them in US for a huge profit. I had a good racket going for a few years
Alain Figaret	Custom, tailor-made	Great	Not much room for variety but perfect fit for a good price
Alexander McQueen	Large	Varies	Buy the wool, structured pieces secondhand- durable, beautiful, and wearable
Alexander Wang	Large	Varies	His silk and wool pieces are generally good. The cuts are kind of hard to wear
Alice & Olivia	True to size	Mall quality	Not worth the price
And Other Stories	Varies wildly	Horrible	You can punch giant holes in their merino wool sweaters with your little finger
APC	Size down	Varies	Quality doesn't match the price
Balenciaga	Highly variable	Varies	You pay for the name and promise of street style catnip
Balmain	Runs small / narrow	Varies	I don't think it's worth the astronomically high price tags, but some disagree
Banana Republic	Huge	Declining	Vintage BR is better quality
Bottega Veneta	TTS	Great	Looks best after a certain age
Brunello Cucinelli	TTS	Flawless	Better for tall or older women
Burberry	TTS	Generally quality	Needs to be styled expertly or it looks like a caricature
Carven	Runs small / short	Good	Good for quirky types and petites
Castaner	Very narrow	Good	Makes espadrilles for other designers
Céline	Large	Varies	For smaller busts
Chanel	Runs small	Generally quality	Predominantly well made clothes. The accessories lack quality, given the price
Chantelle	Size up	Great	Worth the price. Long-lasting and comfortable.
Chloe	Large	Varies	Best for tall women with small busts
Cos	Large	Same as H&M	People swear by their t-shirts
Current / Elliott	Large	Average	Jeans stretch out, shirts are flimsy
Dior	TTS	Excellent	Best for short waists
Dries Van Noten	Large	Varies	Pay for the label, not the quality
Equipment	Huge	Good	The silks are too high maintenance. Other materials last a long time. Nothing is cooler than the cut. I'm XS in Margaux and Brett, XXS in everything else. Sleeves require tailoring if arms shorter than 23" inches. Dresses hang weird. Buy secondhand.
Erdem	TTS	Good	Could get better materials for the price
Express	Varies	Garbage	Not worth it even at the thrift store
Ferragamo	TTS	Excellent	The perfect shoe
Gap	Large	Same as APC	Vanity sizing has gotten out of control
Geox	TTS	Great	Waterproof, warm, and walkable, but not ethical
Giambattista Valli	Large	Great	I like Giamba better though
Givenchy	Varies	Excellent	Probably the coolest of the French houses
Gucci	Varies	Varies	Making a comeback
Helmut Lang	Varies	Varies	The cowl necks are too deep. Pants range from a size larger (leather leggings) to hopelessly narrow / small
Hermes	Large	Excellent	For really tall women who A) play polo or B) are elderly
Hilditch and Key	Tailor made	Excellent	Fran Lebovitz's brand of choice
IRO	Petites may wish to size down	Good	Best for Gigi Hadid types
Isabel Marant	Varies, best for flat chests	Generally shoddy	The linen t-shirts are good. Remind me to tell you about the time my husband had dinner with her and Jerome Dreyfuss. Spoiler alert: They were the worst.
Issa	Runs small / short	Good	Buy secondhand
J Brand	TTS (even in Photo Ready / Maria )	Great	For me, these are consistently high quality, don't sag or fade, and fit well. The Maria and Photo Ready are short- 28 or 29 inch inseam- but the Love Story and Heartbreaker are super long.
J Crew	Large	Poor	Not worth the price. The old stuff, like linen t-shirts and ribbed tanks, are good
JW Anderson	Varies	Good	The shirts can be a little short
Lands End	Large	Good	Old Lands End stuff lasts forever. We had our LE backpacks for over two decades. My grandma likes this brand.
Limited	Large	Poor	Not worth even thrift store prices
Linda Farrow	For slimmer faces	Excellent	Seemingly impossible to break, highest quality materials
Line & Dot	Runs large and short	Good	Their pleather looks funny and is quite noisy
LL Bean	Large	Declining	The old stuff, especially sweaters and canvas, is excellent quality.
Louboutins	Narrow, especially espadrilles	Varies	My Decolletes were awesome but Simples have quality issues- good for wide feet, but comparable to Jessica Simpson in materials and construction
Louis Vuitton	TTS, if a little large	Good	The Canvas and some clothes can have quality issues but the wool garments and shoes are wonderfully constructed
Lover	Runs short	Great	Similar in quality to For Love and Lemons (which runs large)
Madewell	Big	Meh	The t-shirts are a little sheer and quickly develop holes
Marc Jacobs	Big	Varies	I don't like this brand much
Margiela	Can be narrow (pants) or huge	Varies	Buy secondhand
Marni	Varies	Not very nice	They look good on the hanger but are a pain to wear
Michael Kors	Runs small	Blah	Not worth the price
Nike	Accommodates wider feet	Good	Hate their ethics but like their Reuse a Shoe program
Opening Ceremony	Varies	Surprisingly good	Shocking quality. I feel like it would be overpriced garbage and it's generally all really nice
Paige	Short	Good	I generally have to wear capris to hit my ankle without tailoring; not with these
Paul and Joe	TTS	High	Quality brand, especially their cat print stuff :)
Pelechecoco	Generally small, but varies 1 to 2 cm from the size chart	Varies	Generally great, beautiful construction, but because they are recycled, the grain and quality of the leather may differ from piece to piece
Petit Bateau	Large	Good	Linen t-shirts stretch out (as knit linen t-shirts do) but bounce back into shape after washing
Prada	Varies	Varies	Most of their clothes are unlined and cut weird- buy secondhand
Preen	Runs small	Good	Extremely low necklines
Proenza Schouler	Huge	Meh	Many like their bags but I find the construction surprisingly poor. The bustiers reflect a poor understanding of female anatomy
Reformation	Obscenely short	Good	Shrinks easily. Needs more offerings for anyone larger than an A cup, who isn't Emily Ratajkowski
Roksanda Ilincic	Large and long	Excellent	Beautiful colors, fabric, and construction
Roland Mouret	Small and long	Good	Nice quality, but not $2000 for an unlined dress nice
Rosetta Getty	Large and long	Good	Excellent wool t-shirts
Rosie Assoulin	Large with long sleeves	Great	For tall women
Stella McCartney	Large	Great	Wonderful sweaters, silks, supportive lingerie (for up to an E cup, yay), and good blazers, especially for tall women with sloping shoulders
The Row	Runs long, which is weird because aren't the Olsens shorter than me?	Excellent	Perfect construction but so plain
Tod's	TTS	Excellent	My husband wears these daily for years at a time, and they still look new. The clothes are good too
Uniqlo	Large	Garbage	I keep buying Uniqlo at thrift stores and they are consistently awful. Will I ever learn? Poor ethics and quality
Valentino	Large	Varies	Quality can vary with older collections
Victoria Beckham	TTS	Excellent	Great attention to construction and detail
Zac Posen	Huge	Meh	Poor quality for the price

For reference, my measurements are 34-26-32, inseam 29, and my driver's license says 5'3, but I think I shrank. I wear 26 J Brand's, 36 French size, 6.5 / 37 shoe (C width Ferragamo), 0-2 in Isabel Marant, and XS in the US. I forgot to put these in the table, but Junya Watanabe Comme des Garçons, Le Mont St. Michel, Saint James, Réalisation, and Mrs. Pomeranz run true to size for me. Free People seems kind of big, and Urban Outfitters stuff tends to shrink.

These are broad, subjective generalizations intended to provide basic information while secondhand shopping. If I'm looking at something online, I try finding the exact garment in Net-a-Porter's caché and check the measurements against my own, read reviews, ask the seller for more dimensions or photos, etc. In terms of zero waste, The Real Real ships with paper tape and Vestiaire Collective sellers are usually open to shipping your items plastic-free. The nice thing is that in France, you can use old shoeboxes to send items in the mail. I try to limit online shopping because of the carbon footprint, but certain things (like an E cup bra, for instance) I just can't find in my size here. Please tell me your impressions of these or other brands and sizes!