Getting the sleeve length right

This is a deal breaker. It won’t matter how much money you spend on your suit, how perfectly combined it is with all of your accessories, however great the rest of it fits or how good you think you look in it. If your suit sleeves are eating away at your hands, people will think that it’s your fathers.

Now here’s some great piece of advice: first, take care of the sleeve length right away, preferably whilst buying it. Secondly, do not, not, listen to shopkeepers. These weasels will tell you anything to make you walk out of their store with a suit, but without a ‘hassle’.

You’ve got to know for yourself, because nobody’ll tell you. Here’s what you need to know:

Have you seen the fourth image above? The beautiful one, that I stole and edited myself? Take a look, and now look at your own hand. Notice the wrinkle between your thumb and index finger when you place them close together? From where that wrinkle ends, it should be about 4 cm to where the sleeve of the suit jacket starts. Give or take 1 cm, depending on wether you like to show less or more of your shirt cuffs. It’s common to have the sleeve length a bit shorter than average if you’ll be wearing double shirt cuffs, leaving these and the cuff-links more visible.

A few more things. As I wrote in a previous post:

“Do not have the space between where the sleeve ends and the buttons start shortened (or lengthened) without moving the buttons and all the details up (or down) the sleeve accordingly. It’s easily done, but find a tailor that has the right equipment to remake the buttonhole stitches.”

And one last thing: if you’re buying a suit with one or more buttonholes open, which is more common on more expensive suits, you won’t be adjusting the sleeve length at all. Since that’ll leave a hole in the fabric.

Now, off to the tailor!

When’s the right time to use a tailor and not? Here’s a few tips:

• Rather find the right model from the start. Should you fall in love with a suit that just doesn’t fit, it probably wasn’t meant to be.
• Don’t change too many things, and don’t change too much. It’ll show, and it won’t look good.
• Details made in a coarse thread might leave marks on fine fabric.
• Rather take in than let out. Letting out means that the stitches from the seam might leave marks on the fabric that’ll show.
• There’s no adjusting the sleeve width on suits. It just won’t work.
• Shortening the sleeves? Do not have the space between where the sleeve ends and the buttons start shortened without moving the buttons and all the details up the sleeve accordingly. It’s easily done, but find a tailor that has the right equipment to remake the buttonhole stitches.
• If you’ve got a two slit jacket taken in too much, the bottom rear ‘tail’ might start pointing out towards the sides.
• You can’t make new slits, if you’re not happy with the setup as it is.

That’s all for now!