Finding Gaijin-sized Clothing

From ChibaWiki

Finding clothes that fit in Japan can be pretty disheartening. You'll have almost no trouble if you're under 5'4"(women) or 5'8"(men) and of slim to medium build.

But there is hope if you're willing to do the legwork. You may have to travel a bit to find it and pay a bit more, you may be successful. If you're considered big/tall back home, I recommend bringing plenty of clothes with you or having people send it from home.

Women

As clothes in Japan tend to run on the slim and short side, clothes shopping can be a real downer on a gaijin girl's self-esteem. Don't get discouraged.
Average Japanese girls are smaller and less curvy than westerners, and the clothing makers cater to the limited size range of the majority. There are lots of Japanese girls that don't fall into this range and have a lot of trouble finding stuff that fits, too.

Try not to let it get to you, and just keep trying stuff on at different places until you find something that fits. When you do, the happy feeling you get will make it all worth it, and your find will become your new favorite piece of clothing.

Also, you get to do mad crazy shopping sprees whenever you're back home. :)

Check out the section on men's clothes below. Some of that info applies to women, too.

Clothes

Clothes are sized down, so if you wear an M size back home, you'll wear an L (or sometimes LL) size in Japan.

Japanese clothes tend to be cut less generously in the bust, butt, hips, and thighs.

Altering your personal style to include more skirts and stretchy knits opens up more chances for more clothes that will fit.

Don't be afraid to check out the men's and plus size sections. Even Japanese plus sizes are smaller than back home.

Most boutique stores are one-size only. If you don't see it out on the rack, they probably don't have more sizes in the back, sorry. But many designer shops post the bust/waist/hip measurements of their clothes on their websites.

Uniqlo carries a larger size range than other stores, and pant legs there are long.

Pants: Most of the time, pants are marked by waist size in centimeters. Many larger outlets, including Uniqlo, offer free or cheap pant leg hemming to your custom length.

Underwear: Many bras here have crazy padding and ruffles and nonsense. Cup sizes are one (or more) size below their western equivalents(C=>B; B=>A; etc.). A western C-cup is considered large. Look for places that offer "Queen" sizes for anything above that. (ed. note: Queen sizes generally aren't well-designed for good support.)

Work clothes

2 things to remember when selecting clothes for work: (1)Japan is way conservative about showing skin. (2)You'll (most likely) be working with teenage boys. Female ALTs have been sent home to change clothes that were perfectly acceptable to wear to work back home.

Work wear no-nos:

• no bare shoulders or sleeveless shirts
• no showing bra strap
• no cleavage or even low-cut tops (rule of thumb is nothing cut below the breastbone)
• no short skirts or shorts (capris/long shorts are OK)
• no jeans

Shoes

Average women's shoe size in Japan is about US 6. Anything smaller is super-easy to get, but anything a couple sizes larger is tough. Women's shoes come in centimeter measurements, but more often than not, they'll be in the non-specific SS, S, M, L, LL size-system. Not a big range. M = about a women's US6; L = US7; LL = US8

The basement of one of the OIOI department stores in Shinjuku has a LL+ ladies' shoe store. Exit C-12 from JR Shinjuku Station, or thereabouts. You can see it from the underground station walkway. There's also one in the Shinjuku ALTA deparment store.

Men

Japanese men are...slim. They're not necessarily that short, but they are slim. If you are slim as well, Japan will be a shopping paradise. But bigger guys may have problems buying clothing.

Try places like Uniqlo at first to see if you fit into the Japanese size range. If you don't, larger solutions include:

• There is a shop called Sakazen that is kind of like a Japanese Big and Tall, of which there are a few outlets in Tokyo and one each in Chiba City (above Yodobashi) and Makuhari.
• Reportedly, Aoyama, a common, Marshall's-like clothing chain found all over Japan, also carries some larger clothing (can anyone confirm?).
• Workman is also good for durable, larger, if-not-necessarily-fancy clothing.

Clothes

Shirts: Expect a few size downs - I wear a borderline M/L in the US but an LL in Japan. But shops like Uniqlo frequently stock up to 3L, so if you need tshirts or sweaters, most guys won't have problems. Beware of skinny sleeves, though.

Pants/slacks: I personally find pants/slacks to be a much more difficult problem. Japanese pants tend to the slim side of things. (To give an example, whereas in the US jeans tend to start at straight cut and go outward through "relaxed", "loose", "wide", etc., in Japan they start at "straight" and go on in the opposite direction to "slim" and then "skinny".) Furthermore, when Japanese men get fat, it appears that they tend for some odd reason to just bulge out around the middle and keep the skinny stick legs, so there are pants for fat oyaji with large waistlines, but the legs widths catch up more slowly. In any case, if you are thick of leg, but not also proportionally large of height or belly, you might find yourself unable to find pants here.

Suits: Go get one custom-made in Thailand or China. Alright, failing that, there are more suit shops than you can shake a stick at, and they seem to be able to tailor to all sorts of body types.

Shoes

There is a cut-off after which finding shoes in Japan is going to become a major headache. Anyone under size 28cm (US size 10-ish) will be totally fine, and probably anyone under a 30cm (US size 12-ish) is still okay, especially if you go hunting at outlet of brand stores (e.g. in Harajuku). After that things might get a bit fuzzy.

Reportedly there is a shop in Shinjuku called Kutsu-no-Hikari that specializes in shoes in the 28-35cm range. Website: http://www.kutsunohikari.co.jp/ (Japanese)

(Shoe size conversion chart: http://www.i18nguy.com/l10n/shoes.html#adult )

Places to try

• Uniqlo
• Used clothing stores/recycle shops
• Shimamura (kind of like Ross or Marshalls back home)
• Plus size and big and tall shops (even if you wouldn't normally shop there at home). They also carry larger shoes.
• US military base commissaries (make friends with someone in the service)
• For sneaks: brand-name shoe stores in Tokyo and the Makuhari Outlet Mall