Put This On

Clean, fluid lines all around, no pucker or pulling. An impeccable fit that you should keep in mind next time you buy a suit or sport coat.

voxsart:

99% Humidity August 1st.

Mystery Bespoke Tailor (MBT™) suit in J. & J. Minnis 8/9oz Fresco; Dege & Skinner (Robert Whittaker) bespoke shirt in Acorn Grassmere; Sam Hober (David Hober) bespoke grenadine tie; Tammis Keefe printed linen square c.1950s; Edward Green oxfords.

(via voxsart-deactivated20120827)

MistahWong gets it absolutely correct.

mostexerent:

Because I’m sick in bed with MAN FLU EPIC PROPORTIONS for the last 4 days..

* & these are just my opinion so take them how you would

What’s wrong with this from top to bottom:

• Shirt collar points are visible, better if they were touching or below the lapel roll
• The middle button should be positioned at his natural waist, it isn’t at the moment according to the visual imbalance from the pant rise, the spacing between the buttons are also out of proportion, & funnily the hip pockets seem well positioned
• Length of jacket is TOO short
• Length of sleeve is TOO long
• Rise of pants look too long or he is not wearing them properly i.e. he is wearing them as if they are jeans.
• Please finish the hems for the photo shoot, don’t just roll them up underneath.

What’s right with this from top to bottom:

• Shoulder width
• Chest room
• Lapel balance
• Rounded open quarters

Again promotion material like this as well as the badly stylised magazines is to blame, not the youth as they know no better.

cbenjamin:

Adrien Savauge really doesn’t get the shine he should…

thisisnotasuit:

A. SAUVAGE 2012 AUTUMN-WINTER LOOK 3

Fitting Larger Men

There’s been more than a little ink spilled by now on how men should dress for their specific body types. For example, I’ve read that larger men do better in two-button jackets with lower buttoning points, rather than a true three-button design. The idea is that a three-button gives you more visual heft and adds weight to your frame. Similarly, flapped pockets should supposedly be avoided because they draw attention to your waistline, and ventless jackets are said to be more slimming. 

Some of these things may or may not be true. Who knows, really. The black and white photos above are of men from the 1960s, and I think they look great for their time. Here we see flapped pockets, three-button jackets, and two-buttons cut like a three. The skimpy lapels might exaggerate their frame, but they still look pretty good overall. 

Whatever may be true, the one cardinal rule I think should always be observed is that heavier men should wear fuller fitting cuts. You can see how well this works above, though admittedly the color photographs show a man on the edges between a fuller cut and slim. 

If you’re a larger man, consider wearing easier fitting clothes. Tight fitting ones, particularly around the waistline, will only accentuate your size. There’s nothing like a stuffed sausage look up top coupled with overly slim trousers to make a man look heavier than he actually is. Worse still, if the trousers are heavily tapered, they can exaggerate your waistline. Better to wear something proportional to your frame. The jacket doesn’t have to baggy or sloppy, but the chest, stomach, and upper sleeves shouldn’t appear tight. Your trousers should also be full enough so that they look like they can support your torso, and not like stilts that may buckle at any time. In fuller fitting clothes, a larger man will look more comfortable and elegant than he would in slim ones, no matter what other details he’s supporting - two vs. three buttons, flapped vs. besom, ventless vs. vents. Above, you can see this is true from the 1960s till today. 

(Photos from Cutter and Tailor and The Sartorialist)

Our friend, Mistah Wong, demonstrates what clean fitting shirt should look like (as well as how to clean your teeth). Remember: too tight is often just as bad as too baggy. 

(source: Most Exerent)

Talking to The Armoury About Trousers

I recently talked to Mark Cho and Ethan Desu, two of the three men who run The Armoury, about one of my favorite men’s style topics: trousers. Both Mark and Ethan style and fit men of different builds for a living, so I thought it would be worthwhile to ask them what they think flatters men the most. We talked about three aspects: the height of the rise, style of the fronts, and fullness of the legs.

For the height of the rise, Mark has found that almost all men (with the exception of those who are lanky) look better in a high waist. By “high waist” he means something that either sits at, or just below, the belly button. “We deal with many Asian men who often have longer torsos and shorter legs,” Mark noted. “A high-waisted trouser does wonders for them. It is pretty rare that we recommend a low-waisted trouser, but often customers will prefer it for fashion reasons.”

As for the style of the fronts, a man can choose either flat fronts or pleats. Which is best depends on his overall size, total height, and proportions above and below the belt, as well as the thickness of his legs, shape of his stomach, and size of his posterior. Depending on these configurations, pleats can serve a number of purposes. They can break up an otherwise flat expanse of fabric at the front of the trouser, add comfort, and put a bit of fullness around and in front of the thighs. A corpulent man, for example, may need a fuller leg, and pleats would not only give him some room, but also visually break up the flat, empty cloth at the front of his body. 

In general, Mark recommends a flat front or single pleat for men with flat seats, and flat fronts, single pleats, or even double pleats for those with rounder ones. As the number of pleats increases, the fullness of the legs should also increase in order to maintain a balance.

At the same time, Ethan added, fit is everything. He’s a slightly bigger guy with big legs and a big seat, but a reasonably flat stomach. He wears everything from flat fronts to single- or double-forward pleats, as well as single- or double-reverse pleats. He finds that they all have their advantages. “If trousers are well fitted,” he said, “all styles can look good. Anything that doesn’t probably has more to do with the fit than style.” 

Finally, as to how full the trousers’ legs may be, the gentlemen at The Armoury are fairly open to any size, as long it makes sense. While they dislike tight trousers, they find that a nicely tapered leg with no break can work on the right frame, and a full leg can be good as well. It just has to make sense on the person. They personally prefer something with a bit of shape in the leg rather than something that is narrow and goes straight down. That means a small curvature in the taper, and a nice cinch to the waist above the buttocks.

These days, as I near my mid-30s, I like my trousers to have a high-waist, very slight taper, one break, and slim, but somewhat full legs. Luciano Barbera and Ethan Desu, pictured above, illustrate this style well. I find that anything narrower and lower-waisted exaggerates the size of my feet, length of my torso, and width of my hips. Of course, this is just what I’ve been finding works well for my build. In choosing something for yourself, I recommend you refer to the more generalized guidelines above and remember to pay attention to proportions, as well as what flatters. 

(Photos by The Sartorialist and Ethan Desu)

How a Suit Jacket or Sport Coat Should Fit

A couple of weeks ago, I said that there are different schools of thought on how a jacket should fit, but trousers should only fit one way. Upon reflection, I now realize that was a bit misleading. There’s a difference between style and fit. Generally speaking, style is about silhouette, whereas fit is about whether something sit on you correctly. Simon Crompton has a good article about this difference. 

There are different silhouettes for jackets, but the rules we have for how they should fit are similar to those we have for trousers. There shouldn’t be any pulls or puckers along the front or back, the sleeves should be free of any ripples when the arms are naturally hanging down, and the jacket should have clean lines all around. These principles should be true regardless of the jacket’s style (e.g. clean, draped, padded, natural, skinny, full). 

Unlike trousers, however, suit jackets and sport coats are much harder to fit well. Their construction is more complicated, so there are more things that can go wrong. Above is a set of photographs I’ve stolen from Macaroni Tomato and slightly modified. Each photo illustrates a common defect. Click on each of the photographs, and you’ll see that they’re lettered.

• Fig. A. Sleevehead and Collar: The most difficult areas to fit well are perhaps the shoulders and collar. A properly fitting jacket shouldn’t have any indentations in the sleeveheads and it should stay glued to your neck at all times. 
• Fig. B. Strained Buttoning Point: Here tightness at the buttoning point can result in a jacket pulling around the waist, effectively forming an “X.” To be sure, this is sometimes purposefully done in the name of fashion, but more often than not, it’s a sign that a jacket is too tight. (Note that the jacket pictured here doesn’t have problems in this area). 
• Fig C. Messy Back: Likewise, the back can have unsightly folds or pulling along the waist, around the shoulder blades, and underneath the collar. A well fitting jacket should have none of these issues, but rather fit cleanly.
• Fig. D. Sleeve Pitch: If the sleeve isn’t attached to the jacket at a degree that harmonizes with the wearer’s natural stance, you may see furrows along the sleeve. You can see an example of this here. 
• Fig. E. Flared Vents: A properly fitting jacket should always have closed vents, like the ones in this picture. Make sure yours don’t flare out or gape. 
• Fig. F. Balance: The term “balance” can refer to a few things on a jacket, but in this case, we’re talking about the relationship between the front and back of the jacket, as well as left and right sides. There are two schools of thought on how the front and back should balance. Most tailors believe that the front should be slightly longer than the back, but a few think they should evenly align. Here, the jacket’s front is even with the back. Another aspect of balance concerns the left and right sides. Here there is less controversy; these two parts should always be dead even with each other along the hem. If you wish to read more about this issue, check out this article by Michael Anton.

Like we saw for trousers, there can be a number of causes for these defects. Depending on the cause and how your jacket is constructed, an alterationist tailor may or may not be able to fix the problems for you (at least within a reasonable cost). The easiest to fix are Figures B and C. Indeed, those are rather common to clean up, so unless you see severe problems in those areas, you needn’t worry about them. The rest you should probably make sure fits right off the peg. 

To read more about fit, you can check out my posts on trousers and silhouettes, as well as Jesse’s posts on jackets, collar gaps, an unfortunate Pitti Uomo attendee, and Conan O’Brien. This simple guide by Esquire and Ethan Desu’s comments are also worth reviewing. 

How Pants Should Fit

It’s much easier to get trousers to fit well than jackets. There’s also less wiggle room for interpretation. While there are different schools of thought on how a jacket should fit, trousers should only fit one way. There shouldn’t be any puckering or pulling along the seat, waist, fronts, or back, and there shouldn’t be any ripples along the legs. Instead, there should be a completely uninterrupted line going from the top to the bottom, both along the front and back of the trousers. If there is a break, the maximum number is one, and if there are pleats, they should remain closed at all times. Regardless of their style (slim, tapered, straight legged, full, etc), these points should remain true for any classic pair of men’s trousers. 

Though it’s easier to find well fitting pants, that doesn’t mean it’s always accomplished. Most men’s trousers suffer from any number of problems. Above is a color photograph that shows how a pair of well fitting pants should look. Below that are a number of black and white diagrams posted by Tutee on StyleForum, each of which demonstrate some common defects. If you click on the diagrams, they’ll expand and you’ll see that they’re lettered.

• Fig A. Roping Along Seat Seam: Here there’s tightness in the seat seam, which is drawn tautly up the center. Vertical folds thus appear. 
• Fig B. Diagonal Creases from Fork to Side Seam: This is more often than not something you see on corpulent or semi-corpulent figures. The defect unfortunately emphasizes the contour of the wearer’s stomach, which is of course the last thing a stout gentleman would want.
• Fig C. Vertical Folds at the Fork: The fork is the area of your body that joins your legs to the trunk. Here, folds of excessive material are seen around the fork, and they run towards the inside of the leg. 
• Fig D. Excess Material in the Lap: This was made into a pretty funny scene on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Obviously, there will always be a certain amount of excess material in the lap when the wearer is seated. This is what allows your pants to fit well when you’re standing up. However, if there is too much material, it should be considered a defect (note: I’ve found zippered flys to be worse offenders than buttons in these cases). 
• Fig E. “Horseshoe” Folds: Perhaps the most common defect is when excessive material folds near the fork, around the seat of the pants. There may also be diagonal drags running down the inside of the leg. 
• Fig. F. Fullness Under the Seat: Similar to Figure E, there can also be excessive material under the ball of the seat. This material can sag away from the wearer.
• Fig. G. Drags from Fork to Knee: Here, when the wearer is seated, creases extend from the knees back towards the fork (again, where the leg joins the trunk of your body). There is also a slight pull from the knee bone to the back of the leg. 
• Fig H. Horizontal Creases at the Fork: This can occur either in the front or the back. Tutee notes that this is also common in old trousers, especially ones that haven’t been pressed or re-shaped occasionally. 

A number of things that can cause these defects. The seat angle might be too low or high; there could be insufficient or too much room in the trunk or fork; the leg seams can be too open or closed; or the legs can be placed incorrectly from the fork. 

There are remedies, but many of them involve details that are only of interest to tailors and those who commission bespoke clothing. For most people, whether some of these are fixable through an alterations tailor depends on what exactly is causing the problem. For example, if there is fullness in the seat, there could be just excess material. In this case, if it’s not too much material, a tailor can most likely take it in. If it’s a result of an incorrect seat-angle, however, this will be much more difficult. 

So what can you take away?

• Well first, you should use the color photograph above as a model for how trousers should fit. Perhaps you like them skinnier or fuller, or you like to wear belts instead of braces. Either way, you can see here what it means to have “clean lines.” 
• Second, keep the diagrams in mind so you know what to look for when trying on pants. As with almost all off-the-rack clothing, it’s nearly impossible to get something to fit 100% perfectly, so expect that there will be issues. You just want to minimize the defects. 
• Third, if a pair of trousers doesn’t fit, your best bet is to try on either the size above or below, and see if the problems aren’t remedied. Notice here that almost all the problems occur between the waist and the thigh. Buy pants that fit you best in these areas. Most of the time, you’ll be able to alter the waistband and calves. If the trousers still don’t fit after you change sizes, that specific cut simply doesn’t fit you, so move on. 

And that’s how pants should fit. 

* This post owes itself to Tutee, who has been a remarkable contributor on every major classic mens’ style community. 

Steven Hitchcock shows off one of his high armholes. Such armholes will allow you to lift up your arms without moving the rest of your coat. As Steven writes, “You will be in control of the coat not the other way around.”

Of course, there are other things that facilitate a comfort and movement, and it’s best not to get too fixated on armholes alone. However, whether you’re buying off-the-rack or getting something custom-made, it’s important to lift your arms a bit to see if you have a good fitting jacket. You don’t just stand in front of mirrors all day, after all, you move. 

For a very interesting read about Fred Astaire’s armholes, which are kind of legendary among bespoke enthusiasts, check out this interesting article by Kerry Goodrich. Sometimes photos like this are posted when the topic of movement comes up, but as Goodrich explains, there are important trade-offs.