Made-to-Measure Suits

The fitting process for a custom-made suit will obviously differ from buying off the rack. The first stage will consist of being measured which does not involve any due diligence on your part (assuming you are not ordering from an online tailor). However, the checklist here can still be utilized for the second stage when you try on the completed suit. If any of the fit criteria are not met then you should insist the suit be corrected accordingly.

A Lamentable Legacy

Actor Harry Hamlin in classic '80s baggy suit.

In the 1980s designer Georgio Armani popularized the "power suit" with exaggerated shoulders, low waist line and swaths of excess fabric. Although this style is long gone many American men continue to believe that suits should fit like oversized pyjamas.

Dressing the Wrist

ATailoredSuit.com

Another unfortunate by-product of the '80s power suit is the tendency to treat jacket sleeves as palm warmers. Consequently, few other tailoring details separate the boys from men more than properly exposed shirt cuffs.

Well Suited

You may want to sew shut your tuxedo's besomed hip pockets since suit pockets tend to sag over time and formal versions do not have a flap to hide the resulting gap at the opening.

Arm Length

Most men have one arm that hangs slightly lower (or “longer”) than the other so competent tailors will always measure both arms for sleeve length.

No-one is Exempt

2009 Academy Awards

Normally impeccable when it comes to formal wear, Brad Pitt looks more like a prom date than an Oscar nominee in this picture thanks to overly long trouser legs (and jacket sleeves.)

Poor trouser suspension will also cause bunching at the foot. If your trousers are cut to be worn at the waist make sure they stay there.

Suspended Trousers

If trousers are to be worn with suspenders make sure to wear suspenders during the fitting since they can affect the fit of the waist, back rise and inseam.

Made-to-Measure Shirts

The tailoring world's best kept secret is the ridiculously low price of custom-made shirts. For as little as $45 (at online retailers) you can get not only the perfect fit but also choose exactly the type of fabric, collar, cuff, pocket and placket that you desire.

Proper Fit

Fit is the single most important consideration for any garment. Clothing that does not fit, no matter how beautiful its color and pattern, how expensive its cloth, or how expertly made it may be, is useless.

Nicholas Antongiavanni

Fit Basics

Fit is especially important with tailored clothing, which is designed to artfully conceal your defects and shortcomings and emphasize your assets. Moreover, unlike knitted garments like a sweater or a polo shirt, tailored garments don’t stretch. They either lay correctly on the body or they don’t. This page will explain how to determine what constitutes a correct fit.

A Proper Fitting Session

There are two stages to getting fitted for a ready-to-wear suit. The initial phase involves trying on suits that look good on the rack (or on the Web page) to see if there is anything that would disqualify them from looking good on the buyer. Unless a suit detail is marked as being alterable in the guidelines below then it must fit correctly right from the start.

After a preferred suit has been selected based on the fixed criteria, the next phase is to have the remaining details altered as necessary. These alterable features are marked in italics below for easy identification.

When shopping in person, a sales person will assist with the first fitting stage and a store tailor will usually manage the second. Unfortunately these employees often have ulterior motives (making a sale, minimizing alterations) that conflict with their responsibility to provide the customer with the best fit possible. Therefore the onus is on the buyer. If a man thinks something doesn’t look right then he should be sure to ask about it because many easily-made corrections become difficult or impossible after the first round of alterations.

If shopping online both fitting stages will need to be combined during a visit to an independent tailor. This can actually be beneficial as such a tailor has no incentive to convince the buyer to purchase a badly fitting suit or to minimize necessary alterations.

During both stages of fitting it is crucial to recreate the real-world conditions in which the suit will actually be worn:

assume a normal stance when trying on the clothes; the mirror is often a shocking reminder of how poor one's posture is is but resist the urge to stand at attention unless planning to wear suit solely for marching purposes
move around with the clothes on - if a suit truly fits then it will stay in place when the wearer is active, not just when he is standing in front of a store mirror
every decent men’s store should have a 3-way mirror to allow the buyer to see how the back of the suit fits; bring a reliable friend for the stores that don't
fasten the top shirt button so that the shirt collar sits against the back of the neck; this is necessary to ensure that the jacket collar fits properly
wear a French cuff shirt if such a shirt will ever be worn with the suit – this will ensure the jacket sleeves are wide enough to accommodate the extra bulk
wear suspenders when trying on trousers that require them (the store should be able to provide a pair for fitting purposes)
wear dress shoes for the fitting because the trouser leg will fit differently with them than it will with other types of shoes
transfer wallets, keys, cell phones, etc. to the jacket and trouser pockets to see how they affect fit; in some case the garments can be altered to hide the bulges caused by these personal effects

Overall Size

Thanks to the Armani power suit of the 1980s (see sidebar) and a general ignorance of tailored clothing, many American men today buy suits that are too large. In general, most well-fitting suits lie cleanly and smoothly on the body. With the exception of the jacket’s fullness over the shoulder blades, there should be very little rippling anywhere in the suit. Conversely, puckering and pulling are signs that a suit is too small.

Never choose a jacket size or trouser size based solely on ones that you already own. Each manufacturer measures differently and one designer's 40 long may easily be another's 42 regular.

Jacket

Torso

the jacket's shoulder line (from the collar to the top of the sleeve) should be a smooth line, not bumpy
if the wearer's shoulders arch forward or back then the jacket will need to account for that so that they are not seen to be pushing against the front or back of the jacket
there should be enough material over the shoulder blades for a slight fold of fabric to extend up from below the armholes; this is necessary to provide freedom of movement for the arms
the lapels should lie flat on the chest and not gape open
the back should conform with the profile of the wearer’s back by curving gently into the lower back
if there are horizontal creases pulling across the back then it is too tight and the jacket should be let out
diagonal creases stretching out from the (fastened) waist button are another sign that the jacket is too tight, as is a fully exposed bottom button (it should be half covered by the front of the jacket)
conversely, vertical creases in the middle of the back or under the arms indicates that the jacket needs to be taken in

Collar

the jacket collar must lie flat against the shirt collar (which in turns sits against the back of the neck); if it stands away or if there are horizontal creases just below it then the collar needs to be lowered
the jacket collar should show about half an inch of shirt collar; if it shows much more or much less it should be adjusted

Length

The most common rule of thumb (quite literally)is that the bottom of the jacket should be parallel with the bottom of the thumb when the arm is hanging at the side. However, classic couturier and author Alan Flusser points out that this method is flawed because different men have different arm lengths (relative to their torso) and that a skilled tailor will take other factors into account. Generally, if the jacket is longer than the half-way point between the bottom of the collar and the floor then it is too long. And if it does not cover the wearer’s seat then it is too short.

Sleeves

sleeves should hang straight with no horizontal wrinkles appearing on the upper arm; if they show creases then they are not aligned with the wearer’s hanging arm and the sleevehead needs to be rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise accordingly
jacket sleeve length begins with shirt sleeve length: shirt sleeves should end at the wearer's wrist (i.e. bottom of the palm) and jacket sleeves should be hemmed short enough to reveal about half an inch of the shirt cuff; Alan Flusser recommends showing three quarters of an inch of formal shirt cuffs

Vents

whether center or side, vents should hang in a straight line perpendicular to the floor. If they splay open the jacket is too tight and needs to be let out

Pockets

Pockets should lie flat and smooth against the body of the jacket.

Trousers

Waist

Another casualty of casual Mondays to Fridays is that young men don’t know how to properly wear dress trousers. Dress trousers are constructed to sit at the waist which can range anywhere from the natural waist to just below the navel. If they are slung down around the hips like casual pants (such as jeans or khakis) they will look like a mess as explained in the trouser style description.

Make sure that the trousers have ample room at the hip and thigh. by trying them on in standing, sitting and legs-crossed positions. If there are horizontal creases around the fly or the pockets or pleats splay out when standing then the seat needs to be let out.

Length

Like the penchant for excessively long jacket sleeves, American men’s desire for voluminous swaths of fabric bunched up at the bottom of the trouser leg has its roots in the exaggerated power suits of the 1980s. It also taps into their subconscious terror of revealing even the slightest glimpse of white sports socks when wearing casual pants. However, excessive break (the folding of the trouser leg fabric above the top of the shoe) should be avoided because it distorts the otherwise clean lines of the suit’s silhouette.

Many store tailors will simply determine leg length relative to the shoe’s heel but this fixed rule does not take into account variable factors that are unique to each man. At their longest, trouser legs should fall just low enough to conceal the sock when walking. Uncuffed trousers should be hemmed on a slant to that they are lower at the back than at the front. This will provide added weight to the trouser leg so that it does not flap about at the heel when the wearer is walking. It will also minimize the amount of break by keeping the front of the leg as short as possible..

More daring dressers, such as the Italians, often prefer to have the bottom of the leg just “kiss” the top of the shoe in order to reduce the break or eliminate it altogether. They recognize that proper dress socks are supposed to match the accompanying trouser and so there is nothing to be feared by exposing them slightly when in stride.

Shorter men and heavier men will both benefit from trousers cut on the shorter end of the spectrum because the unbroken trouser line will help emphasize verticality. In the case of the shorter man, the lack of excess fabric will also prevent the impression that he is borrowing his father’s suit.

The protocols regarding cuffs is not included here as this feature is inappropriate on formal trousers.

Shirt

Collar

In order to fit comfortably, a shirt’s collar size should be determined by fit and not by measurement. Shirt makers are supposed to allow for about a half inch of shrinkage but some manufacturers provide much less which means that a perfectly fitting new shirt will end up choking the wearer after several washes. To confirm that there is room for shrinkage in a new shirt, try it on and make sure you can easily slip two fingers between your neck and the collar. Another method is to lay out the shirt and measure the distance from the center of the button to the outer edge of the button hole to make sure it is half an inch more than your actual neck size.

If wearing a turndown collar that is semi-spread or spread style, the points of the collar should end beneath the jacket. The collar should also remain flat against the body no matter how much the head is turned.

Body

The majority of ready-to-wear shirts are made for obese men. As a result, everyone else has to put up with a sea of excess fabric or pay a tailor to alter the shirt. The most basic alteration involves taking in the shirt along the side seams of the body and the arms. For a truly form fitting garment, two darts will have to be added in the back. While the feminine aesthetics of darted shirts are a matter of debate, this is a moot point with formal wear because it is not good form to remove one’s jacket at a black-tie event. What’s important is that the less excess fabric there is, the smoother the shirt will lie against the body and the neater the overall outfit will appear.

The shoulder seam should sit on top of curve of the natural shoulder, not down the side of the upper arm.

Sleeves

The sleeves should be just long enough that they don’t pull back from the wrist when the wearer extends his arms fully when wearing a jacket. Because shirt makers save money by offering shirts only in odd numbered sleeve lengths half of all men will likely end up with a sleeve that is too long and subsequently too blousy. (A so-called “34/35” sleeve is really a 35 – it can’t be both.) This excess fabric can bunch up within a narrow jacket sleeve causing it to pull back the shirt sleeve when the arm is extended. Fortunately, a good tailor will be able to shorten a shirt’s sleeves if needed.

Cuffs

In order to stay put at the wrist, sleeve cuffs – both French and single – should button snugly. If the hand can slide through a fastened cuff then it is too loose and the buttons or link holes need to be adjusted. The bulk of a French cuff should also be able to fit easily inside the jacket sleeve to allow the latter to move independently of the shirt sleeve for reasons explained above. If it doesn’t then find another shirt.

Buying a suit takes money, investing in a suit takes time.

A typical example of a young man wearing a suit that is at least one size too large.

A well-fitting suit will contour to the body's natural shape and should not pull or sag anywhere.

The Black Tie Guide

If a jacket pulls at the waist button then it needs to be let out.

The Black Tie Guide

The collar should not sit too high on the neck nor should it stand away from it.

The same jacket sleeve before (left) and after (right) it was rotated to conform with the wearer's natural arm position.

Dress trousers worn too low can give the impression a man is wearing diapers.

Trousers hemmed with virtually no break.

The more noticeable the break, the more interference with the vertical line of the trousers (and the suit).

Even after natural shrinking, the shirt collar should not feel tight.

Regular shirts will billow out at the waist and sides. Fitted shirts (like this one) not only look neater but they stay tucked in better.

If a cuff is loose enough for a hand to slide through then it's too big.

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