Men's shirts are always sold according to collar size in Britain. In the case of casual tops and T shirts, they might be S, M, L - small, medium and large - with 'extra small' XS and 'extra large' XL - or even XXL - as additional sizes at either end of the scale.
Size + a number is a woman's dress size. A (largish) woman would say 'I'm a size 16', but a man wouldn't say this. He might say 'I take a sixteen inch (collar)'.
Sixteen inches is 41 cm, which is an average/medium size.