The Crucial Role of the Suit Fitting - A Dialogue in Front of the Mirror

When you slip into a bespoke suit tailored precisely for you, standing in front of the mirror isn't just a part of the fitting process—it's a pivotal moment that defines the essence of custom tailoring.

This experience goes beyond mere aesthetics, serving as a critical step in ensuring the suit not only looks impeccable but feels extraordinarily comfortable and is functionally sound for daily wear.

What Happens During This Process?

The fitting process for a bespoke suit is meticulous and thoughtful. It begins the moment the tailor's measurements turn into a suit that you can try on. Here’s what typically happens during a fitting session:

- Initial Assessment: As you first put on the suit, the tailor looks for obvious signs of misfit, such as wrinkles, pulls, or loose areas. This is your first glimpse of how the suit shapes up against your body’s contours.

- Detailed Review: You and your tailor will examine how the suit hangs on your shoulders, the drape of the fabric down your chest, and the closure at your midsection. Movements such as walking, sitting, and stretching are encouraged to see how the suit responds dynamically to your actions.

- Pinpoint Adjustments: The tailor will use pins and markers to suggest alterations. They may adjust the seam at the back for a tighter or more relaxed fit, shorten or lengthen sleeves, and ensure the trousers fall correctly over your shoes.

- Discussion and Feedback: This is a two-way conversation. As the tailor suggests changes, you provide feedback based on what you see in the mirror and how you feel in the suit. Do the trousers feel too tight? Does the jacket restrict your movement? This dialogue helps refine the fit to your exact preferences.

Why is This Step So Important?

The importance of this fitting step cannot be understated:

- Visual Perfection: In front of the mirror, you see firsthand how the suit complements your body. The tailor ensures that the lines are clean and the fit enhances your best features, achieving a look that off-the-rack suits rarely provide.

- Personal Comfort: Comfort is paramount in bespoke suiting. During the fitting, adjustments are made to avoid any discomfort, ensuring that each part of the suit feels as good as it looks. This is crucial because discomfort can distract and detract from your confidence and performance, whether in a boardroom or at a social event.

- Functional Tailoring: A suit needs to be as functional as it is stylish. This means ensuring easy access to pockets, comfortable placement of buttons, and overall ease of movement. The fitting process addresses these practical considerations, tailoring the suit not just to your body, but to your lifestyle and needs.

- Emotional Connection: Finally, standing in front of the mirror in a suit crafted just for you fosters a deep emotional connection to the garment. This suit is not just fabric and thread—it's a reflection of your personal style and aspirations, tailor-made to boost your confidence and presence.

In summary, the fitting process is where technical expertise meets personal style, ensuring that every bespoke suit is not only a piece of clothing but a personal armor tailored for elegance, comfort, and individual expression.

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Shoulders too big in your jacket: This is how the tailor ensures the perfect fit

The most important points in a well-fitting jacket

The basis of your jacket comes down to 4 points that are most important for a well-fitting jacket:

1. Whether the collar of the jacket fits properly on the neck or not.

2. That the shoulder of the jacket fits properly on your shoulder.

3. That the jacket follows the curve of the back well.

4. The sleeve length of the jacket falls at the right point, this is classically at the wrist bone for men.

In addition to these 4 points, how tight or roomy you want the jacket to be in the side seams or the sleeve width is a matter of taste.

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What is the correct sleeve length for a jacket?

In our tailor's blog post about oversized shoulders in your jacket, we talked about which points are important for a good fit in your jacket.

As discussed in the previous article, the width of side seams does not have much to do with whether a jacket appears too large, this is purely a matter of taste.

One of the things that makes a suit look too big is a sleeve length that is too long. You often encounter this as a tailor and in this blog we will go into more depth.

How do you recognize sleeves that are too long?

As tailors, we often see that the sleeve length falls on the hand and sometimes even extends over the hand with ready-made jackets.
This ensures that the hand on the eye disappears.
The fit of the rest of the jacket does not match the sleeve length and this automatically makes the suit appear too large.

If you look at the example below you will see that the hand disappears on the left sleeve (see red arrow), which has not yet been pinned off. This gives the impression that the jacket does not seem to fit the rest in terms of fit.

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