How to Measure for a Wedding Dress: Hollow to Floor, Hollow to Waist, and the Eight Others
Hollow to floor, hollow to waist and the eight other numbers a gown is cut from — what each one controls, how to take it without error, and why no chart can give you your hollow to floor from your height.
Every wedding dress sold to a bride who is not in the room is sold on about ten numbers. Get one of them wrong and the gown arrives beautiful and unwearable.
We are a bridal shop at 106-108 Đường 3 Tháng 2 in Ho Chi Minh City. A real share of our gowns leave the country in a box, to brides we have only met on a video call. So the measuring sheet is not paperwork to us. It is the whole order.
This is how to take those numbers yourself, what each one actually controls on the dress, and the three that get taken wrong most often. At the end there is a section on where our own size data is thin — we would rather you read it here than discover it later.
1. Hollow to floor is the number that decides the dress
If you have shopped for a gown online you have met this phrase and nobody has explained it. Hollow is the small dip at the base of your throat, between your collarbones. Hollow to floor, sometimes written hollow to hem, is the straight vertical distance from that dip down the front of your body to the floor.
It matters more than any other number because it sets the length of the gown, and the length of a wedding dress is the one thing that cannot be faked. A bust that is a centimetre out can be taken in. A hem that is four centimetres long will put you on your face on a staircase.
| Measured in the shoes you will wear | This is the whole point of the number. It is not a body measurement, it is a body-plus-shoe measurement. |
| Measured standing straight, heels together | Not leaning, not looking down at the tape. Looking down shortens you. |
| Taken down the front, not the side | The tape follows the body down the centre front, over the bust, and drops to the floor. |
Why there is no hollow to floor chart for your height
A lot of brides search for this: hollow to floor for 5'4", for 5'6", for 5'2". We understand why. There is no reliable answer, and the charts that give you one are guessing.
Hollow to floor is your height minus the distance from the top of your head to the dip in your throat. That top section is head and neck, and it is not a fixed fraction of a person. Two brides who are both 5'4" can differ by three or four centimetres here, because one carries her height in her legs and the other in her torso. We see it in the fitting room constantly.
Then add shoes, which can be anything from flat to eleven centimetres.
So the honest answer is: nobody can tell you your hollow to floor from your height. It takes two minutes to measure and the measurement is exact. Use the real one.
2. The ten numbers, and what each one controls
We ask for ten. Each one is attached to a specific decision a cutter has to make, which is why we ask for all of them rather than three.
| Bust | Where the gown holds you. Fullest part, tape level the whole way round, arms down. |
| Underbust | On a strapless or corset gown this is the number doing the work, not the bust. We have 102 strapless gowns, and this is the measurement that keeps every one of them up. |
| Waist | Where the seam sits and where the skirt starts. Narrowest part of the torso, usually just above the navel. |
| Hip | Fullest part of seat and hips, feet together. Decides whether a fitted skirt will move. |
| Hollow to floor | Length. In your shoes. See section 1. |
| Shoulder to bust point | Where the bust cups land. Wrong by two centimetres and the shaping sits above or below you. |
| Nape to waist | Back length. This decides where the zip or lacing ends and where the skirt breaks. |
| Arm length | Only matters on sleeves, but we have 21 long-sleeve gowns and it matters absolutely on those. |
| Bicep | The measurement brides skip and then cannot raise their arms at the altar. |
| Height | Barefoot, against a wall. We use it to sanity-check everything else. |
Our measuring guide has the same ten with the common mistake listed beside each one. Keep it open while you measure.
3. Hollow to waist — the number almost nobody explains
This is the second most searched version of the question and the one with the worst answers online, so here it is plainly.
Hollow to waist is the distance from the same dip in your throat down the front of your body to your natural waist. Not to where your jeans sit. To the narrowest part of your torso.
What it controls is where the waist seam of the gown falls on you. Get it right and the dress appears to give you a longer leg line. Get it wrong by three centimetres and the seam cuts you across the ribs or droops onto your hip, and no alteration fixes it afterwards without rebuilding the bodice.
It is the number that separates a gown that fits from a gown that flatters, and it is also the reason a basque waist, a dropped waist and an empire waist are three different gowns rather than three names for one.
4. Taking them without getting them wrong
You need a soft tailor's tape, one friend, and twenty minutes. Not a metal builder's tape, and not a piece of string you then hold against a ruler.
| Do not do it alone | Nape to waist is physically impossible to take on yourself, and the tape goes crooked across your own back on bust and hip without you being able to see it. A crooked tape always reads long. |
| Wear the underwear you will wear on the day | If you have the bra, wear the bra. Bust and underbust move by several centimetres between a sports bra and a strapless one. |
| Wear the shoes for hollow to floor | And if you have not bought them, measure barefoot and tell us the heel height you intend. Do not guess the combined number. |
| Breathe out normally, then read | Not held in. You cannot hold your stomach in for a six-hour reception. |
| Tape flat against the body, not pulled | Pulling the tape tight is lying to yourself in a way that arrives two months later as a dress you cannot do up. |
Then write them down with the date. Measure once when you start shopping, and again two to three weeks before the wedding for the final alteration. Bodies change during a wedding run-up, in both directions, and nobody should be embarrassed about that.
5. Inches or centimetres — say which
We work in centimetres. Most of the brides who write to us from the United States and Australia work in inches. This is a real source of error and it is easy to remove: label every number with its unit when you send it.
Two specific traps:
| Fractions of an inch disappear | 34 1/2 becomes 34 in an email and the half inch — over a centimetre — is gone. Write 34.5 in. |
| Converted numbers get rounded twice | If you convert your own numbers to centimetres and round, and we round again, the error compounds. Send us the original numbers in your own units and let us convert once. |
Either unit is fine. An unlabelled number is not.
6. What our rack actually fits — the unflattering part
Of 330 wedding dresses on this site, only 13 currently carry a suggested measurement range. We are still measuring the rest.
On the ones that do carry a range, the numbers stop here:
| Bust | 78–88 cm (30.7–34.6 in) |
| Waist | 58–72 cm (22.8–28.3 in) |
| Hip | 84–96 cm (33.1–37.8 in) |
Read that honestly. A bust of 34.6 inches is the top of our sample range. Samples here are cut for the Vietnamese market and they run small by American and Australian standards. If your numbers are above that range, the rack is not your answer.
What is your answer is a gown made to your measurements, which is the other half of what we do — and the reason this article exists at all. But those are two different sentences and they should not be blurred together. “We have 330 gowns” and “we have 330 gowns that will fit you off the rail today” are not the same claim.
We categorise 21 gowns as plus size, and on the measured ranges published so far that pricing tier still tops out at an 88 cm (34.6 in) bust. That is not plus size by any international definition and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
The longer version of this, including how a plus-size gown has to be cut rather than scaled up, is here.
7. Sending your numbers to any shop
Send this block. It saves three rounds of email, and a shop that cannot work from it is telling you something.
| Height | … (barefoot — state cm or in) |
| Bust | … |
| Underbust | … |
| Waist | … |
| Hip | … |
| Hollow to floor | … (in the shoes, heel height: …) |
| Hollow to waist | … |
| Nape to waist | … |
| Arm length and bicep | … (if the gown has sleeves) |
| Date measured | … |
| Wedding date | … |
Then ask the shop one question back: how many centimetres can this gown be let out, and how many taken in?
A laced corset back gives you real room in both directions. We have 12 corset gowns and they are the most forgiving things on the rail. A gown with a plain invisible zip gives you almost none. Any shop that answers this vaguely has told you more than its photographs have.
And ask whether a human checks the numbers before anything is cut. We compare your measurements against each other, because a waist that disagrees with your hip and your torso length is a signal that something was mis-measured. When that happens we ask for a re-measure on a video call. It costs twenty minutes and it saves the gown.
Frequently asked questions
What is hollow to floor on a wedding dress
The vertical distance from the dip at the base of your throat, straight down the front of your body, to the floor — measured while wearing the shoes you will wear on the day. It sets the length of the gown and the length of the train.
What is my hollow to floor if I am 5'4"
There is no fixed answer, and charts that give you one are estimating. Hollow to floor is your height minus your head and neck, and that section varies by three to four centimetres between two people of the same height. Add the heel you will wear and the spread gets wider. Measure it; it takes two minutes.
What is hollow to waist
The distance from the dip at the base of your throat down the front of your body to your natural waist — the narrowest part of your torso, not your jeans line. It decides where the waist seam of the gown sits on you.
Is hollow to hem the same as hollow to floor
Yes. The two terms are used interchangeably by bridal shops and manufacturers. Both mean throat dip to floor, in your shoes.
Can I measure myself for a wedding dress
Partly. Waist you can manage. Bust, hip and especially nape to waist you cannot, because the tape goes crooked behind you where you cannot see it, and a crooked tape always reads larger than the truth. Ask one friend.
Should I send measurements in inches or centimetres
Whichever you measured in — just label the unit on every number, and write half inches as 34.5 rather than 34 1/2. Converting and rounding your own numbers before sending them adds error we cannot see.
Which measurement matters most for a strapless dress
Underbust, not bust. It is the ribcage measurement directly beneath the bust that holds a strapless or corset gown up. Most gowns that slip during a reception slipped because this number was loose, not because the bust was wrong.
How far before the wedding should I measure
Once when you start looking, and again two to three weeks before the day for the final alteration. Measurements taken six months out are for choosing a gown, not for finishing one.
Do you have gowns for plus-size brides
Not reliably on the rail. 21 of our 330 gowns are priced as plus size, and the measured ranges we have published top out around a 88 cm (34.6 in) bust, which is not plus size internationally. We make to measure, and that is the honest route for larger sizes.
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