Key takeaways
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01
Get the shoulders right before anything else. They’re the one part a tailor can’t rescue.
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02
A gap behind the neck is the first thing people notice on a jacket that doesn’t fit.
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03
Too much cuff, or none at all, is a quick job for any tailor.
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04
Creases fanning out from the button mean the waist has been taken in too far.
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05
If it only looks good standing still, it doesn’t fit.
How should a suit fit? A suit fits when the shoulders end where yours do, the collar sits against your shirt, the chest lies flat, about a centimetre of cuff shows and the trousers fall cleanly to your shoes. It should also let you move without pulling anywhere.
Below, we go through suit jacket fit and trouser fit point by point, and say which problems a tailor can fix and which mean starting again with a custom suit. Our senior tailor, Richard Song, covers the five most common mistakes in the video below.
Jump to: The quick check · Shoulders · Collar · Chest · Waist · Sleeves · Jacket length · Trousers · Comfort
How to Tell If a Suit Fits
Stand in front of a full-length mirror in the shirt and shoes you'll wear with the suit. Do up the top button of the jacket, or the middle one on a three-button, and let your arms hang naturally. Then check from the side and the back as well as the front, because most fit problems show up behind you.
| Check | What right looks like | What wrong looks like | Can a tailor fix it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shoulders | Seam ends where your shoulder ends | Divots below the seam, or pulling across the back | Almost never |
| Collar | Jacket collar sits against the shirt collar | A gap at the back of the neck | Sometimes; depends on the cause |
| Chest | Lapels and chest lie flat | Lapels lift away, or the fronts overlap | Rarely, if the chest is the wrong size |
| Waist and button | A clean V; the button closes without strain | Boxy, or an X of creases at the button | Yes, within the seam allowance |
| Sleeves | About a centimetre of shirt cuff shows | No cuff showing, or several centimetres | Yes, in most cases |
| Jacket length | Covers the seat | Seat showing, or the jacket swamps you | Shortening a little only |
| Trouser seat | Smooth across the back | Horizontal pulls, or sagging | Usually, within limits |
| Trouser break | A slight fold at the shoe, or none | Fabric pooling at the ankle, or socks showing | Yes |
| Comfort | You can reach, sit and lift your arms | It pulls when you move | Depends on where it pulls |
The sections that follow explain each check, what causes it to go wrong, and what can be done about it.
How Should a Suit Jacket Fit?
Start with the shoulders, because they decide whether the rest of the jacket is worth altering. Then work down: collar, chest, waist, sleeves and length. If you're not sure what each part of a jacket is called, our guide to the parts of a suit names them.
Shoulders
The shoulder seam should end where your shoulder bone does, and the sleeve should hang straight down from it, with no ridge or dent where the two meet.
There are two ways it goes wrong. Too big, and the seam overhangs your shoulder, leaving a dip or divot in the sleeve just below it, or the cloth rumples on top of the shoulder because there's nothing underneath to fill it. Too small, and the seam sits inside your shoulder, so the cloth pulls across your upper back and cuts in at the top of the sleeve every time you move your arms.
A tailor can almost never fix it. The shoulder is built into the jacket's structure, with padding, canvas and the sleeve all set into it, and reworking it costs more than most off-the-rack suits are worth. If the shoulders don't fit, try a different size or a different cut, or have a made-to-measure suit cut to them. Everything else on the jacket can be adjusted around a good shoulder, but nothing can make up for a bad one.
Collar Gap
Richard starts with the collar:
“The collar of the suit should be kissing the collar of the shirt.”
When it doesn't, a gap opens between the jacket collar and the shirt collar at the back of the neck, and the jacket looks like it's falling away from you. The opposite fault is a collar that's too tight, where the jacket collar rides up over the shirt collar instead.
The usual causes are a collar cut too long for your neck, a jacket that's too big through the shoulders, or a posture the pattern didn't account for, such as a forward head or square shoulders.
Collar alterations are among the hardest jobs on a jacket. A tailor can sometimes reshape a collar that's slightly long. If the gap comes from the shoulders or your posture, though, it's a made-to-measure problem, solved by a pattern cut for you. One more thing to check: the shirt collar should show a little above the jacket collar at the back, so a shirt collar that sits too low throws the whole check off.
Chest and Lapels
Next is the chest. According to Richard:
“The chest canvas should be hugging the chest and not overlapping or popping.”
The chest canvas is the layer of horsehair or wool canvas inside the front of a jacket that shapes the chest. When the jacket fits, the chest and lapels lie flat against you.
It fails in two directions. Popping is when the lapels and chest lift away from your body, because the jacket is too tight across the chest. Overlapping is when the fronts cross over too far, because it's too big. To check, button the jacket and slide a flat hand or a loose fist between your chest and the jacket. It should go in without strain, and without leaving a gap you could fit a second hand into.
A fused jacket has no floating canvas, but the same rule applies: the chest should still lie flat.
A chest that's slightly loose can sometimes be taken in through the side seams. A chest that's too small can't be fixed, because there's rarely enough cloth in the seams to let out.
Waist Taper and the Button
For the waist, Richard says:
“The jacket should have a nice V-shaped taper around the midsection, but not pulling too much on the button.”
Taper is the jacket narrowing from the chest to the waist, which tailors call waist suppression. It goes wrong in two ways. With no taper, the jacket hangs straight like a box. With too much, the cloth pulls into an X of creases around the fastened button, which is the clearest sign the waist has been taken in further than your body allows.
Button stance matters here too. That's the height of the button that does up: the top button of a two-button jacket, or the middle one of a three. It should sit at or just above your natural waist. Too high, and the jacket looks short and tight; too low, and the fronts flare open below it.
The waist is one of the more straightforward fixes. A tailor can take it in or let it out at the side and back seams, within the cloth left in them. The button stance, though, can't be moved.
Suit Sleeve Length
On sleeve length, Richard says:
“A proper sleeve length should have just a centimetre of shirt showing.”
So how long should the sleeve of a suit be? Long enough to leave about a centimetre of shirt cuff showing with your arms relaxed, with the sleeve ending around the wrist bone. Too long, and it hides the cuff and creeps over your hand. Too short, and several centimetres of cuff show, which makes your arms look long.
The sleeve should also follow the arm without clinging, or bunching at the elbow. Spiral creases running down it when your arms hang mean the sleeve is set at the wrong angle, and that's an expensive fix.
If you're choosing between sleeves that are too long or too short, go too long, because shortening is simple. Lengthening depends on how much cloth is folded inside the sleeve. Length is one of the easiest alterations there is. The exception is working cuff buttonholes, which fix the length at the cuff, so the sleeve has to be shortened from the shoulder instead, a much bigger job.
The check only works if your shirt fits too. A made-to-measure shirt sleeve ends at the wrist bone, so the cuff sits where it should.
Jacket Length
How long should a suit jacket be? Long enough to cover the seat of your trousers. With your arms by your sides, the hem should fall around the middle of your hand, roughly level with your knuckles.
Too short, and the seat shows and your legs look disproportionately long. Too long, and the jacket swamps your frame and shortens your legs, which is what makes an ill-fitting suit look borrowed.
A jacket can be shortened by a small amount before the pockets end up too close to the hem and the proportions go. It can't be lengthened, so a jacket that's too short is the wrong jacket.
How Should Suit Trousers Fit?
Whether you call them suit pants or trousers, they matter as much as the jacket, and three checks cover them. A pair of tailored trousers gets all three right before you've thought about them.
Waist and Rise
The rise is the distance from the crotch seam to the waistband, and it decides where the trousers sit on your body. When the waist and rise are right, the trousers sit at your waist without a belt holding them up, and you can slide two fingers into the waistband.
When they're wrong, you'll find yourself hitching them up all day, or the waistband pinches every time you sit.
The waist can be taken in or let out a little. The rise can't be changed.
Seat and Thighs
The seat is the cloth across your backside. It should drape smoothly, and the legs should skim your thighs without clinging, then taper cleanly to the shoe.
Horizontal pull lines under the seat or across the thighs mean the trousers are too tight. Sagging folds below the seat mean they're too loose. Side pockets that flare open are another sign of tight hips.
A seat can be taken in more easily than it can be let out, so if you're choosing between two sizes, go slightly roomy here.
Length and Break
The break is the fold where the trouser hem meets the shoe. A slight break, where the hem rests on the shoe with one small fold, is the classic choice. No break gives a sharper, more modern line.
What's wrong is cloth pooling around the ankle, or trousers so short that your socks show when you stand.
Length is one of the simplest alterations, as long as there's enough cloth in the hem to let down.
A Suit That Looks Right but Doesn't Feel Right
The last point is the one a mirror can't show you. As Richard puts it:
“A suit should not only look good, but it should also feel good.”
Comfort is a fit point because a suit is worn moving. If it pulls when you reach, sit or lift your arms, it's too tight somewhere, even if it looks right standing still.
Is it better for a suit to be tight or loose? Neither. It should sit close to the body without pulling. Too tight shows strain lines and restricts how you move; too loose looks borrowed.
So try the movement test before you decide. Reach forward as if to shake hands, sit down, and cross your arms. The jacket should move with you rather than pulling across your back or shoulders, and the trousers shouldn't pull at the seat or thighs when you sit.
Getting a Suit That Fits With Lupo Bianco
Some fit problems alter out and some don't. Sleeves, hems and waists are quick work, but shoulders, button stance and a chest that's too small are built in, so the surest fix is a suit cut for you.
If you already own a suit and aren't sure about it, bring it in and we'll give you an honest opinion on what's worth altering. If you're starting fresh, a made suit goes through fittings before it's finished, so fit problems are caught on your body, not after you've taken it home. Book a fitting.
