Size Guide
Every shirt here is one of one, pulled from a different decade and a different closet. There are no size tags we'd trust, so we measure each one by hand and give you an approximate size alongside the real numbers.
How we measure
All measurements are taken flat, in inches.
- Shoulder to shoulder — across the back, seam to seam.
- Underarm to underarm — straight across the chest, just below the sleeves. Double it for the full chest.
- Center back to hem — from the middle of the neckline straight down.
Approximate sizes
Unisex, on a contemporary scale. Chest leads, because on a t-shirt the chest is what decides whether it fits.
| Size | Underarm to underarm | Full chest |
|---|---|---|
| XS | up to 17" | up to 34" |
| S | 17"–18.5" | 34"–37" |
| M | 18.5"–20" | 37"–40" |
| L | 20"–21.5" | 40"–43" |
| XL | 21.5"–23" | 43"–46" |
| XXL | 23" and up | 46" and up |
When the shoulders disagree
Old cuts don't always agree with themselves. A narrow shoulder on a wide body reads boxy; the reverse reads like it was made for a bigger frame. When the shoulder and the chest point to different sizes, we take the smaller of the two, and if they're miles apart we split the difference. We would rather a shirt arrive roomier than you expected than tighter.
The honest part
The size is an approximation. The measurements are the truth. Forty years of washing does unpredictable things to a t-shirt, and old cuts don't map neatly onto modern ones — some of these run boxy, some run long, a few run both.
If you have a shirt you already love, measure it flat and compare. That will tell you more than any letter we could print.
Only twenty of each design exist, and each one is the only one of itself. When it's gone, it's gone.