Ever tried on an XL T-shirt in Zara so tight it came up like a crop top? Or attempted to pull on a pair of Topman jeans you couldn’t get past your calves?

If the answer is ‘yes’, you’re probably not alone. And it’s probably not because you’re “fat” either. You could be six foot tall, weigh 209 pounds and have a healthy BMI of just under 20 per cent and still find an XL shirt strains like a sports bra.

Still, according to society, if you can’t squeeze into certain brands’ size ranges, then “fat” is exactly what you are. Which doesn’t seem fair, particularly if most of your weekday evenings are spent squatting in a gym, not scoffing burgers.

According to a recent YouGov survey, 34 per cent of men in the UK struggle to find clothes to suit their body shape, whether because they’re too big, small, round, narrow, whatever. Which isn’t hugely surprising when you think about the fact that, owing to biological diversity, we really do come in all shapes and sizes – something most clothing manufacturers who produce on a huge scale simply don’t take into account. Or perhaps more accurately, can’t afford to if they want to make a profit.

The average menswear brand takes a rudimentary approach to size diversity. They start out by designing a garment, let’s say a Medium (typically a 38-40-inch chest), based on the measurements of their fit model – the real-life mannequin whose dimensions are as close to what the brand believes its customers are in real life. Then, in order to design bigger and smaller sizes to complete a size range, most manufacturers will simply add or subtract inches while maintaining the ratio, failing to consider the fact that that’s not really how bodies work.

“Most brands design off of a block, and scale measurements up to make larger sizes,” says Ed Watson, creative director at N Brown, the parent company of menswear retailer Jacamo, which stocks sizes Small to 5XL.