Quote Originally Posted by Nanook View Post
Jackets can be made larger and can be made smaller.
Most of the time I would agree with you, but it is limited by the amount of "excess" material. Less expensive garments in particular may not have the necessary material to make the adjustments you need. It is usually is only a good idea to buy a garment you need to make larger if you can try it on before you buy it and assess whether or not the adjustments can be done. I personally wouldn't buy something that needs to be shipped to me assuming that I can make it larger.



Quote Originally Posted by Nanook View Post
If you are a 42Reg then I'd order a 42Reg. English sizes and U.S. sizes are the same. Italian too.
Actually as some one who's wardrobe is bought half in the US and half in the UK I will respectfully disagree with you on this point. Vanity sizing is, I believe, much more prevalent in the US than it is elsewhere. True Italian sizes are metric so I can't compare them so I'll stick with the US and UK.

You are absolutely right about the waist sizes being larger on US jackets but that isn't the reason UK sizes don't fit the same on me (I always need to have the waist taken in on US jackets and usually on UK jackets). To fit across my chest and back I take a 42 - 44 in the US and a 44 - 46 in the UK. My actual measurement is about 44 1/2.

I think this is the vanity sizing that there has been many articles on over the last decade. As an example I'll bet that almost everyone on this forum (who still occasionally wears pants) buys pants that is sized at least 2" less than their actual waist size (assuming they have actually measured their waist lately).

As far as British or Italian makes being brought to the US and sold here I don't think they can be used for comparison since they are labeled for the US market.