There are many possible variations in the choice of the style, the garments and the details of a suit. Of course, during your appointment at De Oost we will make sure you make the right decisions. This will result in an exactly right fitting suit, that has all the details you have asked for. To give you an impression of all the possible options, we will share some of our knowledge in this blog.

The Cut

The silhouette of a suit is its outline. Tailored balance created from a canvas fitting allows a balanced silhouette, so a jacket does not need to be buttoned and a garment is not too tight or too loose. A proper garment is shaped from the neck to the chest and shoulders to drape without wrinkles from tension. Shape is the essential part of tailoring that often takes hand work from the start. The two main cuts are:

• Double-breasted suits, a conservative design with two vertical rows of buttons, spanned by a large overlap of the left and right sides.

• Single-breasted suits, in which the sides just meet at the front down a single row of buttons.

Double-Breasted

The term double-breasted refers to a coat or jacket with wide, overlapping front flaps and two parallel columns of buttons or snaps. In modern double-breasted coats, one column of buttons is decorative, while the other functional. The other buttons, placed on the outside edge of the coat breast, are either decorative (non-functional) or functional, allowing the overlap to fasten reversibly, right lapel over left lapel.

To strengthen the fastening, a functional inner button, called the jigger, is usually added to parallel fasten the over-lapped layers together from the inside. The original double-breasted jacket has six buttons, with three to close. This originated from the naval reefer jacket. The four-button double-breasted jacket that buttons at the lower button is often called the “Kent”, after the man who made it popular—the Duke of Kent.

Single-Breasted

The term single-breasted refers to a coat, jacket or similar garment having one column of buttons a narrow overlap of fabric. In contrast, a double-breasted coat has a wider overlap and two parallel rows of buttons. Single-breasted suit jackets and blazers typically have two or three buttons (jackets with one or four buttons exist, but are not common), and a notch lapel.

However, from the 1930’s onwards, peaked lapels, often on a single button jacket, have been variably in fashion, and this is now a classic. The width of the lapels is one of the most changeable aspects of this jacket, and narrow peak lapels on single-breasted jackets became popular during the 2000’s. Good tailoring anywhere in the world is characterised by strongly tapered sides and minimal shoulder, whereas often rack suits are padded to reduce labour. More casual suits are characterized by less construction and tailoring, much like the sack suit is a loose American style.