Most men know when a suit feels wrong and cannot say why. These are the things a tailor looks at, in the order he looks at them. You can check all eight in a mirror in about two minutes.
1. The shoulder
This is the one that matters most, because it is the one that cannot really be fixed afterwards. The jacket’s shoulder seam should end where your shoulder ends. If it hangs past, the sleeve head will dimple and collapse; if it stops short, you get a divot below the seam. Everything else on a jacket is adjustable. This, in practice, is not.
2. The collar
The jacket collar should sit flat against your shirt collar with no gap. A gap there — tailors call it collar gap — usually means the balance of the jacket is wrong for your posture, which is very common in ready-made clothing for anyone who stands slightly forward or slightly back of average.
3. The chest
Button the jacket. You should be able to slide a flat hand inside comfortably, and no more. If the lapels bow outward into an X-shaped pull at the button, it is too tight through the chest — a look no amount of letting out at the waist will cure.
4. Sleeve length
The jacket sleeve should end at your wrist bone, leaving somewhere between a quarter and half an inch of shirt cuff showing. This is one of the easiest adjustments to make and one of the most commonly left wrong.
5. Jacket length
Let your arms hang. Your knuckles should fall roughly at the hem. A jacket cut too short is the single most common fault in fashionable ready-made suiting, and it makes the legs look shorter, not longer.
6. The trouser waist
Trousers should stay up without a belt. If a belt is doing the work, the waist is too big, and the fabric will gather in folds under the buckle. Have the waist taken in — it is a small job.
7. The rise
The rise is the distance from the crotch to the waistband, and it is the fault nobody names. Too short and the seat bags and the trouser pulls when you sit. It is difficult to correct on a ready-made pair, which is one of the honest arguments for having trousers made.
8. The break
Where the trouser hem meets the shoe. A slight break — one small fold — is the safe choice for most men and most occasions. No break is a deliberate, modern look. A heavy stacked break is almost never intentional.
What to do about it
Faults 4, 6, 7 and 8 are routine alteration work and worth fixing on any jacket you like. Faults 1, 2 and 3 are why a suit cut to your own measurements ends up looking different from one bought and adjusted. If you are not sure which camp your jacket falls into, send a photograph on WhatsApp to +91 74397 82329 — we will tell you honestly whether it is worth the work.
