Sizes Peppino Peppino: how to read the 0, 1, 2 scale
In the Peppino Peppino size guide there's a row that looks like a printing error. Size 0 and size 1 are linked to the same Italian size, 40-42, and the same European size, 34-36. The only difference between them is one number: the waist in denim — 25 on the first, 26 on the second.
It's not a typo, and it's the quickest way to understand how to buy this brand. The conversion to Italian size, which is the first thing people look for, here doesn't separate two close steps. If you use it alone you end up with two items and no criterion. The criterion exists, but it's further down the product page, in the tables the brand publishes for each item, and those tell a much more precise story than the label does.
Why two different sizes map to the same Italian size
The manufacturer's size guide lines up five steps and converts them into six systems. In the denim column the progression is one inch at a time: 24 on 00, 25 on 0, 26 on 1, 27 on 2. Then 3 alone covers 28 to 34.
The other columns don't keep that pace. They have to round on scales born for other garments, and in the rounding 0 and 1 end up in the same box. The practical consequence is clear: if you start from your Italian size, the chart gives you two possibilities and stops there. If you start from the waist in inches, it gives you a single answer.
There's a second point in that column worth noting. Size 3 covers six inches of waist, while each of the steps below covers one. Someone who falls in the upper part of the range is buying a step six times wider than the others, and on that garment the label stops being informative: only the model's table matters.
Two published tables, and they don't say the same thing
Anyone looking for confirmation will stumble on this, so it's worth writing down. The manufacturer assigns size 0 a 25-inch waist, size 1 a 26-inch waist, size 2 a 27-inch waist. DeeCee style, a Swiss retailer, on a women's five-pocket selvedge instead publishes 26-27 inches for 0, 27-28 for 1, 29-31 for 2.
Between the two readings there's a discrepancy of one to four inches, on a scale where one inch is a whole step. That means a size learned from one source doesn't transfer to the other: the same person, following one or the other, orders two different items. DeeCee's measurements refer to that five-pocket and that cut, not to the entire collection.
A useful rule emerges: the individual garment's table always beats the general conversion. It's the only number built on that model.
What the numbers on model sheets measure
On the general guide the brand asks for four body measurements: waist, hips, inseam and front rise. These four govern a pair of pants, and it's worth having them at hand before opening any product page.
The individual model tables are another thing: they're the garment measurements, stated in centimetres, with the producer's warning that they may vary slightly due to manufacturing tolerances. Comparing them to measurements taken on the body leads you astray, because between the body and the garment there's the space the model has decided to leave, and that ease changes from one Type to another.
The useful move takes two minutes. Take a garment you already own and like the fit of, lay it flat on a table without stretching it, measure seam to seam and compare that number with the table. You're comparing a garment to a garment, which is the only comparison that holds.
On pants, going up a size widens but does not lengthen
The table for Pants 180 is the most instructive of the collection, because it shows that the steps don't all grow together.
Products mentioned in this article
The inseam measures 71.5 centimetres on size 0 and 71.5 on size 1. Identical. Then it rises to 74.5 on size 2 and to 77.5 on size 3. The waist, on the same run, goes from 40 to 42.5 to 45 to 47.5.
Two clean decisions come from this. If the problem is the waist and the length is fine, going from 0 to 1 does exactly what you need and doesn't touch the hem. If the problem is the length, that step gives you nothing: to gain three centimetres you must jump to 2, and someone starting from 0 also gets five centimetres of waist they didn't ask for.
There's a third number worth reading. The front rise grows one and a half centimetres across all four sizes, while the waist grows seven and a half. Going up a size widens the trousers, it doesn't raise them. If the waistline sits lower than you wanted, one size up leaves it where it is.
The 180 is 12.5 oz Candiani selvedge denim, full Italian cotton, mid-rise and straight leg, with a front pleat, five pockets and buttons for braces on the waistband.
Why the same size 1 on two shirts isn't the same size 1
Here the short scale shows its awkward side. The Shirt 179 in size 1 declares an 80 centimetre chest and 57 back length. The Shirt 185, same size 1, declares a 65.5 chest and 63 length. Fourteen and a half centimetres difference in chest, six in length, under the same number.
Products mentioned in this article
The brand describes both as slightly cropped, and on paper that's true for both. On the body they are two pieces that don't resemble each other: the 179 is cut trapeze-like and opens toward the bottom, the 185 is square and falls straight.
The other two measurements must also be read knowing what they measure. On the 179 the shoulder is listed as 37.5 with a sleeve of 62, on the 185 the shoulder is 58 with a sleeve of 49. A shoulder twenty centimetres wider paired with a sleeve thirteen centimetres shorter reads one way only: on the 185 the seam sits lower on the arm, and the sleeve is measured from there. The two numbers aren't compared to each other, they're each compared to a garment of the same kind you already own.
The step between sizes is the same on both shirts: two and a half centimetres of chest, one and a half of length. That means going up a size never recovers the fourteen and a half that separate them. First you choose the garment, then the size, not the other way around.
The two shirts are also made of different materials. The 179 is Japanese brushed cotton flannel, with a Peter Pan collar, fabric button loops, soft pleats front and back and the brand's embroidery on the hem, made in Italy. The 185 is Italian cotton, with a band collar and half placket, to pull on over the head like a work pullover.
Which garment forgives a wrong step, and which doesn't
They're not all the same when faced with a mistake, and that changes where it's worth entering the label.
The Trousers 169 have an elasticated waist with drawcord on a carpenter-derived cut. The cord absorbs: one size step up or down there is handled by pulling. For those who buy without trying, it's the least risky entry point—not because it's the best garment but because it's the one where getting the size wrong costs least.
Products mentioned in this article
At the opposite extreme is the selvedge culotte Type 96, in 12.5 oz Candiani denim with removable rope belt. A cotton of that weight, without elastane, initially stands up: if the waist is wide it stays wide until the fabric gives, and giving requires weeks of real wear. Then there's the length, which on the spec is already cropped. On a short hem height matters more than elsewhere: the same size falls mid-calf on one person and above the ankle on another, and every turn-up you add to show the selvedge shortens it further. On this piece height matters as much as waist measurement.
In the middle there are the Pants 48, which in the collection are an exception even in how they are labeled: they carry the waist in inches instead of 0, 1, 2. They are 330-gram Italian broken twill, smooth at the front, with two curved pockets, one back pocket and a utility pocket on the leg, and the brand declares them unisex. Anyone who knows their denim size for that model doesn’t need to convert. The other cuts, including the Pants 18, should be looked at from the brand page.
The limit, said before buying
The brand writes on its page that it doesn’t make skinny or tight pieces, and that it works on shape rather than fit, playing with volume, structure and proportion. It’s an honest statement and it’s best taken literally: anyone looking for a trouser that follows the leg in this collection won't find it, and no size will correct that, because the size shifts the waist and not the silhouette.
There are two other limits that come from the short sizing scale. There are no half sizes, so anyone exactly on the border between two steps has to choose which side to be on. And the length comes with the size, without a second scale for the inseam, so on these volumes the hem is decided afterwards, with a cuff or by the tailor. On a wide leg that’s not a detail: the fabric the leg doesn’t contain ends up resting on the shoe.
If you’re between two steps and don’t feel like deciding by reading a chart, the short route stays the same as always. We’re in Biella, via Lamarmora 27: try two nearby sizes of the same model one after the other, and the difference is visible in thirty seconds.
Ski Sises on Google
Choose Ski Sises as a preferred source: you'll see our guides and news more often in Top stories on Google.
