I bought a cheap suit with the intention of making it look good through tailoring, but I don’t know how to actually get that done. The local stores don’t have websites and haven’t picked up when I called, should I just walk in with the suit? Do I need an appointment? Also, how much should I expect to pay? (California)
I live a fair drive from the local alternation/tailor shops (rural life), so I figured I’d try to ask before making the drive out just to make a fool of myself.
As you’ve already been helped regarding it being a walk in friendly business, I should warn you that not every suit can be tailored like that. The cheaper suits skimp on material, So even the best tailor can have difficulty improving the fit, with that difficulty increasing if you have unusual measurements.
I’ve lost a lot of the muscle mass I used to have, but I still have an unusually thick neck , big shoulders and a big chest, which can make things difficult for a tailor if the suit isn’t pretty well made to begin with. So if you’ve got an unusual size issue, expect it to be a scant improvement.
My size issue is just being small, I’m 5’4" and 110 lbs. Even extra extra small suits don’t fit me off the rack, and kids suits honestly just don’t match my style preferences from what I’ve seen.
I only have a couple weeks until the wedding I’m attending so I’ll just have to see if this suit works. If not hopefully I’ll at least learn what to look for in the future…
Are you buying short sized jackets? And did you keep in mind vanity sizing means the chest size might not 100% match your measurement?
I did not know short sizes jackets were a thing! And I measured with measuring tape, I didn’t realize that the actual measurements could possibly be wrong … good to keep in mind
Vanity sizing is less common in suits, but chest size can be tricky. If you’re a 35 and the suit only comes in 34 and 36, for example. And yeah, suit jackets should have either S, R, or L for short, regular, and long sizes.
A good tailor can do amazing things, but there are limits.
When it comes to tailoring, putting aside the quality of the suit (fused/glued canvas or not, among other things), the key thing you want as close to right from the start is the shoulders. Sleeve and jacket lengths are simple, neck and chest less so, but if the shoulder width is all wrong it’s a major undertaking to alter if it can even be done.
Yeah, that’s in the difficult range from what I’ve been told. The good thing is that most suits in that size range should be alterable as long as it fits right through the shoulders and the arms are long enough. Even the cheap suits in that range tend to be fairly easy to work with as long as the person isn’t a lifter or very overweight, and that doesn’t seem to be an issue here.
At least that’s what my tailor said back when I had to wear a damn monkey suit for work sometimes. I’m a big guy, so I was curious about what he was doing, which led to a nice little mini ted talk about it. He did a lot of work for the really huge lifters, including the ones that were shorter than average. Managed to make folks look good even in meh to bad suits.