How to measure your thigh for fitted trousers

Step by step

Wear close underwear or thin leggings, not jeans. A mirror helps you check the back of the tape.

• Slide the tape up the leg as high as it will comfortably go, then lower it slowly while watching the reading. The largest number is your thigh.
• Check the tape is horizontal from the front and the side; a tilted tape reads too large.
• Measure both legs. If they differ, send the larger figure and mention the difference.
• For a churidar or very slim cut, also measure mid-thigh, halfway between the crotch and the top of the knee.
• Write each figure with its label and whether it is in inches or centimetres.

Standing or seated

Take the thigh standing. When you sit, the thigh muscles spread and the figure grows, sometimes by an inch or more. You do not need to send that seated figure, because the tailor adds ease to the standing one so the trousers still let you sit, climb stairs and kneel. How much ease depends on the cut and the cloth: a woven cigarette pant needs a few centimetres, while fabric with some stretch can be cut closer.

If you often sit for long hours, or you have found fitted trousers tight across the thigh when seated, say so in your notes. That one sentence changes the ease more usefully than any extra number.

Which trousers need it

The thigh decides the fit of any trouser that follows the leg closely. It matters much less where the leg is cut full.

• Needed: cigarette pants, slim straight trousers, tailored co-ord trousers and jeans-style cuts.
• Needed, with mid-thigh too: churidar, which is cut close all the way down the leg.
• Useful: straight trousers in a non-stretch fabric, if your thighs are full compared with your hips.
• Rarely needed: shalwar, palazzo, sharara and gharara, which have plenty of room at the thigh by design.

From a pair you own, and on your order

To check against trousers that sit well, lay them flat and measure straight across one leg about 1 inch (2.5 cm) below the crotch seam, from fold to fold, then double it. That figure includes the ease, so label it as taken from a garment. Our trouser size guide and the article on measuring for each trouser style list the other figures to send with it, and the knee and calf guide covers the lower leg.

With custom stitching your measurements are confirmed in writing before cutting. Put the thigh in its own box on the quote form, and any notes alongside.