True to size means a garment is cut to standard body measurements with no extra room added anywhere in the pattern, so your usual size fits the way the label implies. It is a statement about how the garment was drafted rather than a promise about your body, which is why the only reliable way to confirm it is the garment's measurements rather than the letter on the tag. A tee and a pair of joggers can both be true to size and still feel different on.
What true to size actually means
Every garment starts as a pattern, and a pattern takes a set of body measurements and decides how much room to add on top of them. That added room is called ease, and it is the single thing that separates one fit from another. True to size is the version with the least of it. The pattern follows standard measurements, adds only what the body needs in order to move, and stops there.
So true to size is not the same as tight. A true-to-size tee still has room through the chest. It has the room the pattern intended and no more. Relaxed and oversized cuts start from the same base measurements and then add ease in specific places, which COZY's fit types explained guide sets out fit by fit.
The practical consequence is short. In a true-to-size cut, your usual size is the right size. In anything else, your usual size is a starting point that the cut then modifies, and how much it modifies is the thing worth knowing before you order.
Why the letter on the tag is not a measurement
A Medium is not a standard. It is a label each brand assigns to whatever chest, waist and length measurements it decided a Medium should have. Two brands can both be honest, both cut true to size, both call the result a Medium, and still produce garments that differ by a couple of inches across the chest.
This is why the size chart matters more than the size. A size chart gives you the garment's actual measurements. The letter gives you the brand's opinion. When the two disagree, the chart is the one telling you something useful. It is also the quickest way to see how oversized and regular fit compare on a size chart, since the difference shows up as numbers rather than adjectives.
It explains the most common ordering mistake too, which is choosing a size from memory. The size you take in one brand carries almost no information about the size you take in another. It only feels like it does because the letters match.
How to check it against something you already own
The most reliable method needs a measuring tape and a garment you already like the fit of.
Lay that garment flat. Measure across the chest from one armpit seam to the other, then down the centre back from the base of the collar to the hem. Those two numbers describe a fit you have already decided works. Compare them against the size chart of the garment you are about to order and you are no longer guessing about your body. You are comparing two garments, which is a much easier comparison to get right.
If the two chest measurements are close, the new piece will wear much the same way. The further apart they are, the more you will notice it, whichever letter is on the label. This one habit removes most of the uncertainty in buying clothes online.
What COZY labels true to size, and what it does not
COZY states the fit on each product page rather than applying one rule across the range, because the patterns genuinely differ.
The COZY Joggers V1 are the clearest case. The page says they are cut for a relaxed, true-to-size fit, answers the question directly with a plain yes, and notes the female model is 5 foot 4 wearing Medium. Your usual size is the size.
The COZY Men's Polo is different. It is cut to a classic tailored fit, structured through the chest and shoulders, and the page tells you to size up if you fall between sizes. That is not the same instruction, and the difference is deliberate rather than an inconsistency. The same holds across the pants range, where classic, relaxed and tailored fits each behave differently at the waist.
The oversized tees sit at the far end. There the pattern has already added the room, so your usual size produces the fall the cut was designed for. Sizing up adds drape on top of a shape that was never meant to sit close. Reading the fit line on the page takes a few seconds and it is there for exactly this reason.
What washing does to a size you got right
A size is only correct for as long as the garment keeps its measurements. Cotton that shrinks turns a well-chosen Medium into something closer to a Small over a few washes, and no amount of careful ordering survives that.
COZY fabrics do not shrink. COZY Cotton is developed and knit in Karachi, inside the same operation that cuts and sews the garments, so how the fabric behaves is known before the pattern is finalised rather than discovered afterwards. The measurement on the size chart is the measurement you keep.
That matters more here than it might sound. Clothes in Karachi get washed often through the hot months, and a fabric that moves even slightly with each wash compounds across a season until the size you chose carefully is no longer the size you own.
Where to start
Read the fit line on the product page, then the size chart, then measure something you already own if you are still unsure. The Core Collection lists every everyday cut in one place, and every COZY piece ships with a free string bag.
