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Yes, but not evenly, and not in the way a size chart suggests. Mainline Akris runs roughly a half size small, and the deficit sits almost entirely in the shoulder, armhole and upper sleeve rather than through the body. Akris Punto, the house's second line, is cut with more ease and lands close to true US sizing. The larger source of confusion is the label itself. Akris is a Swiss house, and its garments are sized on the German-Swiss numeric scale, where the US equivalent is the Swiss number minus 32. A Swiss 38 is a US 6, not a US 8. Sellers convert that number wrong more often than they get it right, which is where most secondhand Akris sizing mistakes begin.
Akris has been based in St. Gallen since 1922, and it sizes on the German-Swiss numeric scale used across German-speaking Europe. The conversion is arithmetic: subtract 32. Swiss 34 is a US 2, 36 is a US 4, 38 is a US 6, 40 is a US 8, 42 is a US 10, and 44 is a US 12.
Garments produced for the North American market are often labelled in US numerics instead, so two identically cut jackets can carry tags that appear thirty sizes apart. Establish which scale the tag is using before anything else. An even number between 34 and 44 is Swiss. A number between 0 and 16 is US. A listing that reads "Akris size 38" is describing a US 6; a listing that reads "Akris size 8" is describing a US 8. Those are two sizes apart, and both phrasings show up on the same resale platforms daily.
The phrase runs small is imprecise here. The body of a mainline Akris jacket is cut straight rather than suppressed at the waist, so bust and waist measurements usually land where the chart says they will. The shoulder is what decides the garment. Akris tailoring is built on a high, narrow armhole and a shoulder line engineered to break exactly at the joint, and the cloths that carry it — wool crepe, double-face wool, bonded techno-cotton — have no meaningful stretch to give.
The practical consequence is simple. If you sit between sizes, or if your shoulders are broader than your dress size implies, take the larger Swiss number. We judge fit at the shoulder seam and let the body follow, which is a sound rule across structured women's blazers generally and a stricter one here, because Akris armholes sit higher and narrower than most of the category.
Akris Punto is not a cheaper version of the same garment. It is a separate line with a different construction logic: jersey, cotton-stretch and techno-fabrics rather than double-face wool, conventional linings rather than no lining at all, and a shoulder cut with visible ease. Many Punto pieces carry elastane in the blend, which does the accommodating that mainline Akris will not.
The sizing effect is consistent enough to plan around. Someone who takes a Swiss 38 in mainline Akris will frequently take a 36 in Punto, and rarely needs to size up. If the tag reads Punto and your only reference point is the tailored line, order your usual number rather than the size up you would take on the mainline side.
The house signature is double-face cloth — two layers woven and joined so the fabric finishes cleanly on both sides, which allows a coat or jacket to be built with no lining at all. The seams are split, folded and closed by hand. It is why an Akris coat holds its line without heavy interfacing, and it is also why the usual secondhand strategy fails on this brand.
With a conventional lined jacket, buying one size up and having it taken in is the safe play. A double-face garment has almost no seam allowance to let out, and taking it in means reopening and rebuilding a hand-finished seam — work many alterations tailors decline outright. Buy Akris at the size that fits the shoulder and treat the rest of the cut as fixed. Punto, conventionally constructed and lined, is the line where alterations stay straightforward.