How to Take and Store Client Measurements

What measurements should you take for a full set?

A couture or bespoke garment is built from a map of the body, not a single dress size. A complete set covers three zones: the torso (girths and balance), the lower body and overall length, and the arm. Take all of them every time, even for a simple piece, because the figures you skip today are the ones you will need for the next commission.

Work in a fixed order so nothing is forgotten and the client is not turned around repeatedly. Move top to bottom, front to back, then the arm last. A consistent sequence is what makes a set repeatable between two tailors and across seasons.

• Torso girths: bust, waist, hips, thorax (upper chest), neck.
• Torso balance and apex: bust drop, underbust drop, apex distance, front body, back body, shoulders, back width.
• Lower body and length: hip drop, waist to floor, total height, plus heel height worn at the fitting.
• Arm: sleeve length, shoulder to elbow, arm circumference, bicep, elbow circumference, wrist.

How do you take each measurement accurately?

Accuracy comes from three habits: consistent tape tension, correct landmarks, and a client who is standing naturally. Use a fresh, non-stretched fabric or fibreglass tape. Hold it snug against the body so it does not sag, but never pull it tight enough to compress flesh — the tape should sit the way a finished garment will, not the way a tourniquet would. The same hand pressure on every measurement is what keeps a set internally consistent.

Landmarks matter as much as tension. Girths are taken at the fullest or narrowest point as named: the bust at the fullest point across the apex, the waist at the natural crease (have the client bend sideways to find it), the hips at the widest point of the seat. Vertical measurements run from a fixed bony reference — shoulder seam point, nape, or natural waist — straight down, with the tape following the body rather than floating away from it.

Have the client stand relaxed, feet together, arms down, looking ahead, in close-fitting underwear or a thin slip and the shoes they intend to wear. Do not let them hold their breath or pull in their stomach. Measure twice when a figure looks off, and read the tape at eye level to avoid parallax. Lengths such as waist to floor and total height should always be taken with the chosen heel height on, since that single choice shifts every hem.

Should you record measurements in centimetres or inches?

Pick one unit and never mix. Centimetres are the standard for atelier work because they give finer resolution without fractions — a half centimetre is easier to read and record than a sixteenth of an inch, and pattern drafting tools are graduated in metric. Record every value in centimetres, to the nearest half or whole, and note the heel height the lengths were taken with.

Write the number next to the named field, not a loose figure on a corner of paper. A measurement without a label is useless to the next person who opens the file, and the cutter is rarely the same person who held the tape.

Why does digital storage beat a paper notebook?

A notebook works until the day it does not. Pages get coffee-stained, left at home, or filled with last season’s figures that no longer apply. Worse, the numbers live in one place and one set of hands — when the cutter needs the bust and the fitter has the book, the work stops.

Digital records solve the three failures of paper: loss, illegibility, and inaccessibility. A measurement saved to a client record is searchable, readable by everyone who needs it, and available on any device in the workshop or the fitting room. It can be updated in seconds when the body changes, and the history is not lost the way a crossed-out notebook line is. For an atelier running several commissions at once, that retrievability is the difference between a smooth cut and a delayed garment.

• No lost or damaged pages — the record is one source of truth.
• Legible to every team member, not just the person who wrote it.
• Searchable and retrievable from the workshop, the fitting room, or on the move.
• Easy to update as the body changes, without losing the prior context.

How do you keep measurements current over time?

Bodies change — weight, pregnancy, training, age — and a measurement is only true on the day it was taken. Treat the stored set as a living record. Re-measure at the start of any new commission for a returning client, and any time the client mentions a change in their body or you can see the previous garment fitting differently.

Sometimes a single garment needs a deliberate deviation from the client’s standing figures: more ease for a coat, a corseted reduction at the waist for a gown, a longer hem for a specific heel. Handle this with a per-order override rather than rewriting the client’s true measurements, so the base record stays honest and only that one garment carries the adjustment.