Korean Clothing Size Chart: What 44, 55, 66 and 95, 100 Mean

Korean clothing labels carry two unrelated numbering systems, and knowing which one you are looking at determines whether the number can be converted precisely or only guessed at.

Women’s items use 44, 55, 66, 77, 88. Men’s items use 85, 90, 95, 100, 105. They look like the same kind of code. They are not. One is the residue of a standard that was withdrawn a quarter-century ago; the other is a direct body measurement. If you want the numbers without the background, the Korean size converter covers both plus shoes.

Where 55 comes from

In 1979 the Korean Bureau of Standards measured roughly 1,700 people nationwide. In 1981 that survey became a national clothing size standard, and the standard did something unusual: it packed two measurements into a single label.

Korean women in their twenties averaged 155 cm in height and 85 cm in bust. Take the leading digit of each — 5 and 5 — and you get 55. That was the base size.

Every other size was derived by stepping away from it. One step up added 5 cm of height and 3 cm of bust. One step down subtracted the same.

The doubled digits are not decorative. 66 is 160 cm and 88 cm; 77 is 165 cm and 91 cm. The pattern only holds because the two measurement series happened to line up at the base, and it stops being readable as soon as you move far from the middle of the range.

The standard was withdrawn in 1999

Korean body measurements moved. By the late 1990s the 1979 survey no longer described the population it was supposed to describe, and in 1999 the standards agency dropped the system.

What replaced it is more sensible and much less memorable: the current KS clothing standard labels garments with the actual body measurements they are cut for — bust, hip, height — rather than a code. A label reading 85-160 tells you 85 cm bust and 160 cm height directly.

Shops ignored this. The 44/55/66 numbers had been in circulation for eighteen years, customers understood them, and they stayed on labels and in product listings. They are still there now, more than twenty-five years after the standard that defined them ceased to exist.

This is the part that matters when you shop. There is currently no official definition of a Korean size 66. Every brand decides for itself what its 66 measures. A conversion chart telling you that 66 equals a US 6 is reporting a convention, not a rule, and two Korean brands can both be correct while cutting their 66 two centimetres apart.

Men’s sizes are not a code

Men’s numbering works completely differently, and it is the easier of the two.

The number is the chest measurement in centimetres. A men’s 100 is cut for a 100 cm chest. That is the whole system.

Because it is a measurement rather than a convention, it converts exactly. Measure your chest, convert to centimetres, and you have your Korean size — no chart required.

One overlap causes confusion. Women’s clothing under the current standard also uses chest-based numbers, typically in the 85 to 95 range. A women’s 95 and a men’s 95 both refer to a 95 cm chest but are cut for different bodies and are not interchangeable. The number alone does not tell you which system a label is using; the department or product category does.

Free size

A large share of Korean online fashion, particularly smaller brands and market-sourced sellers, lists items as 프리 사이즈 — free size. This is not a size at all. It means the item is made in one cut with no size options.

Where free size appears, the listing almost always includes 실측 사이즈, meaning measured dimensions: the garment’s actual chest width, total length, shoulder width and sleeve length in centimetres, taken flat. These numbers are the reliable ones. Comparing them against a garment you already own works regardless of what system the label uses, and it is the most dependable method for buying Korean clothing remotely.

Shoes work on a different logic entirely

Korean footwear is not part of either clothing system. Shoes are sized by foot length in millimetres under the Mondopoint system (ISO 9407), which Korea adopted as its base system. A 260 is built for a 260 mm foot.

This makes shoes the one Korean size that is a genuine measurement. Sizes step in 5 mm increments, so there are no half sizes — 265 is the half step between 260 and 270. Korean retailers and brand guides generally advise leaving 5 to 10 mm of room over bare foot length.

The millimetre figure describes length only. Width is a separate specification that most listings omit, and it is the usual reason a correctly sized shoe still feels wrong. Sizing up to solve a width problem produces a shoe that is too long and still narrow.

What to do when buying

Three practical rules follow from the above.

For women’s clothing, treat 44/55/66 as a rough bracket and go to the listed measurements. Since no standard defines these numbers, the brand’s own size chart or the 실측 figures are the only authoritative source on that specific item.

For men’s clothing, measure your chest in centimetres and use that number directly. The system is doing exactly what it appears to be doing.

For shoes, measure your foot: stand on paper, mark the heel and longest toe, measure between the marks, and use the longer foot. That measurement plus fitting allowance is your Korean size, and the converter will translate it into US, UK and EU numbers.

FAQ

Is Korean size 55 the same as a US small?

By convention, roughly. There is no standard establishing it. The 1981 standard that gave 55 a definition was withdrawn in 1999, so any equivalence to a US small is a market habit that varies by brand.

Why do Korean sizes only go 44, 55, 66, 77, 88?

Each label encoded a height and a bust measurement from the 1981 standard, stepping 5 cm in height and 3 cm in bust between sizes. The doubled digits are the leading digits of those two measurements at each step.

Do Korean clothes run smaller than US sizes?

Fit varies by brand, and no current standard governs the women’s numbers, so there is no systematic answer. The reliable approach is to compare the listed 실측 measurements against a garment you own rather than converting size labels.

What does 프리 사이즈 mean?

Free size — the item is made in a single cut with no size options. Listings that use it normally publish measured dimensions in centimetres, which are what to check.

More on shopping and daily life in Korea in the Korea guides.

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