Womens tops, with Danish sizing decoded

The Danish sizing trap

This one is genuinely useful and almost nobody sets it out.

Baum und Pferdgarten publishes two separate size systems side by side. One is labelled Europe, jersey and knit, and runs XXS to XL. The other is labelled Europe, woven, and runs 32 to 44. Same brand, same season, two different rulers depending on how the garment is made.

So a jersey top from them is a letter, and a woven blouse is a number, and there is no way to tell from the size label alone which system you are looking at.

Munthe publishes only the numeric system, and states clearly that its figures are body measurements rather than garment measurements.

Skall Studio publishes a letter-to-number converter with no body measurements at all.

The result is that on this one page you can be looking at a Munthe 38, a Skall Studio M and a Stine Goya S, and the three brands are using three different disclosure standards. Converting between them from the labels is not possible. Converting from your own bust measurement in centimetres is.

Where the charts disagree

At EU 32, Munthe gives a 60cm waist and Baum und Pferdgarten gives 62cm. At EU 44, Munthe gives 111cm hips and Baum und Pferdgarten 112cm.

Those are small numbers but they land on real decisions. Someone with a 61cm waist is a Munthe 34 and a Baum und Pferdgarten 32.

On the Italian side, Skall Studio puts Italian 40 at a UK 8 and Baum und Pferdgarten puts Italian 42 at a UK 8, so the two disagree by a full size. Ottod'Ame publishes no chart we could retrieve and its stockists are inconsistent, so treat Italian conversions as approximate and go by centimetres.

Silk, and how to wash it

There is no authority for silk equivalent to Woolmark. Everything published is a silk retailer's own blog, so we are not going to cite a shrinkage figure or a temperature as though it were settled.

What we can say: some of the silk here carries dry-clean-only labels, and where it does, that is the instruction. Where a piece is hand-washable the label will say so.

If you hand wash silk, cool water and a detergent made for silk or wool, no wringing, and dry flat away from direct heat and sunlight. Silk loses strength when wet, which is the opposite of linen, so handle it less rather than more.

Linen, and the crease question

Linen is stronger than cotton, dries faster and resists sunlight better. It absorbs and releases moisture quickly, which is why it feels cool.

It also has low elasticity, and that is the direct cause of creasing. It is a property of the fibre. The Irish Linen Guild, which is about as close to a local authority as exists, makes a point worth repeating: when linen is laundered and worn over time it softens, and the characteristic creasing becomes less evident. So a linen top improves with wearing rather than deteriorating.

Note that the Irish Linen Guild says linen can be washed at high temperatures and that 60 degrees is usually effective, while garment-focused guidance says 30 degrees or below to minimise shrinkage. The reconciliation is finished household linen versus unwashed garment linen, and nobody has published that properly. Follow the garment label.

Viscose

Viscose has the lowest elastic recovery of any fibre and its appearance retention is low, especially when wet. Regular viscose is recommended for dry cleaning. We have not published a shrinkage figure because no credible source gives one.

Boxy fits

Several of these brands cut boxy: wider through the body, shorter in the length, often with a dropped shoulder. Sizing up in a boxy top gets you width rather than length, which is usually not what people want. If you need more length, a different style is the answer rather than a bigger size.