Every September, a parent stands in the middle of our shop with a child in a snowsuit and says the same thing: I can't tell if this fits.
Fair enough. They look like a marshmallow either way. So here are the two checks we do on the shop floor, and they take about ten seconds each.
1. The sleeve
Have them hold their arms straight out in front. Pull the cuff all the way down. It should cover the back of the hand.
If it doesn't quite reach, you will be drying wet wrists all winter, because the gap between the mitten and the cuff is where the snow goes in. This is the check most people already know to do, and it's the easier of the two.
2. The seam across the seat
This is the one nobody mentions.
Sit them down on the floor in the suit. Watch the seam that runs across the bum. If it pulls tight when they sit, the suit is too small — and that seam is what fails first. Not the zip. Not the knees. A child in a snowsuit spends the entire winter sitting down in snow, and that seam takes all of it.
A size chart will never tell you this, because it's about how your particular kid sits.
How much to size up
One size. Not two.
Two feels like good value in September, and it means a winter of snow coming in at the neck and a child who can't actually run in it. One size gives you the room without the problem.
The thing that buys you an extra winter
Before you buy anything, turn the cuff inside out and have a look.
Some suits have snaps hidden inside the sleeve and the leg. As your child grows, you unsnap them and the sleeve drops an inch or so. Different brands call it different things — a grow system, a graduate system, let-out snaps — and some use a marked thread you unpick instead.
It is almost never on the front of the tag, and it is the single biggest difference between a suit that lasts one winter and one that lasts three. On a $300–600 suit, that is the whole argument.
And on timing
Buying in late September feels early. It isn't.
Winter outerwear arrives in one shipment a season, which means right now is when the full size run is still on the rack. By the time it's properly cold, the middle sizes are gone — not because anyone is being clever about it, but because that is simply how a small shop gets stock.
We have snowsuits from $290 to $695 on the floor at the moment, in sizes from 18 months up to 14-16Y. Come and try one on. Let them walk around the shop in it and sit down on the floor in it. You will learn more in four minutes than any size chart can tell you.
Princess & the Pea is at 5112 Mullen Road in Edmonton. Mon–Fri 10–6, Sat–Sun 10–4:30, and online any time.