alterations

Brock July 4, 2012

Alterations 101: Men’s Suit Jackets and Blazers

What Parts of a Man’s Suit Jacket or Blazer Can Be Altered, and How Much Does It Cost?

Here on The Modest Man, we talk a lot about fit and how to dress for your body type (specifically, the shorter body type). Fit is important with all clothes, from jeans and tee shirts to shoes and accessories. It is especially important when it comes to formal wear, such as suits.

If you can afford bespoke suits, congratulations. You are part of an elite group of men who are exceedingly well dressed. A lot of guys, however, do not have enough cash to buy custom clothing. Especially young men who are in entry-level positions or even just entering the job market.

Luckily, off the rack suits can be altered for a better fit. At a minimum, every suit should be altered in three ways:

The waist should be suppressed
The pants should be hemmed
The sleeves should be shortened

These basic adjustments are easy and relatively cheap. Often times, however, you will need additional alterations. This graphic will give you an idea of which parts of a suit jacket or blazer can be changed and how much it will cost you (click for full-size):

When you’re buying a suit or any formal jacket, the most important thing you have pay attention to is how the shoulders fit. As the graphic states, shoulder alterations are tricky at best. They are often impossible and will only make your suit look worse.

Similarly, jacket length is not an easy adjustment, so make sure not to buy anything that is too far off. If you keep these points in mind when shopping for a new suit, you will do well. Just be picky and don’t settle for anything that doesn’t look and feel great.

I did similar posts about dress shirts and trousers. If you missed these, check them out here:

Alterations 101: Men’s Dress Pants, Trousers and Slacks

Alterations 101: Men’s Dress Shirts

Filed Under: Alterations Tagged With: alterations, blazers, jackets, suits 7 Comments

Brock June 30, 2012

Alterations 101: Men’s Dress Pants, Trousers and Slacks

How Can a Pair of Men’s Dress Pants Be Altered, and What Is It Going to Cost Me?

As with dress shirts, a man’s trousers should be altered to fit the individual as well as possible. It’s important to know how exactly your slacks can be tailored to fit your shape and size. Otherwise, you might discard a pair of pants that are too tight.

Or, for example, you might be too concerned with buying pants that are the right length when you should be paying attention to the seat and rise, as these are much harder to fix.

What Aspects of Dress Pants Can Be Changed?

The first post I ever wrote for this site - The #1 Most Important Fashion Tip for Short Men - you know how easy and cheap it is to get your pants hemmed. Most guys understand that their slacks can and should be adjusted to the proper length.

But do you know what else can be adjusted? This graphic explains what’s possible and how much you’ll have to spend:

With any alterations, the most important thing is your tailor. Be sure to find an experienced tailor who you can trust. If you are in need of the “basic” alterations – hemming pants for length or taking in the waist – your dry cleaner can probably help. If you need anything more advanced, definitely go to a real tailor.

I hope that you found this helpful. Feel free to share with your fellow man!

P.S. The pants in the above graphic are the Molino Gray Plaid Dress Pants by Indochino.

P.P.S. If you missed my graphic about dress shirt alterations, check it out right here.

Filed Under: Alterations Tagged With: alterations, pants, slacks, trousers 10 Comments

Brock June 24, 2012

Alterations 101: Men’s Dress Shirts

Want to Alter Your Dress Shirt for a Better Fit? You’ll Need to Know Your Options and What It Will Cost You.

As I’ve mentioned before, dress shirts are one of the most important parts of any man’s wardrobe. Especially crucial for those of us who work in a professional, white collar environment, the button down dress shirt is a classic staple that probably won’t ever go away.

For the shorter gent, it’s hard to find dress shirts that fit. If you can afford it, it’s worth getting your shirts custom made or at least ordering MTM shirts from one of the many online clothiers.

If you can’t afford bespoke clothing just yet, it’s okay. There are plenty of great stores that carry sizes and cuts that flatter the shorter body type. In fact, I keep a running list of the best stores for short men.

Of course, if you buy any clothes off the rack, including dress shirts, you will probably need to get them altered. You may even want to get some of your old clothes altered so you can actually wear them.

What Can Be Done?

I’ve found that a lot of guys don’t realize how much is possible in terms of alterations. They also don’t understand that it is a very affordable solution. Whether you need to slight adjustments made to a new shirt or want to overhaul that old, billowy button down sitting in the back of your closet, it’s important that you know which aspects of the shirt can be changed.

This graphic explains which parts of a dress shirt can be altered and how much it will cost you (click to enlarge):

There are some other, more advanced alterations that you can make, but I recommend sticking to the basics. you don’t want to spend more money on tailoring fees that you spent on the actual garment!

As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to share this graphic (Tweet it, Pin it, etc.).

P.S. The shirt in the graphic is from the latest Blank Label collection. It’s called the “James Forner”.

Filed Under: Alterations Tagged With: alterations, dress shirts, long sleeves, long-sleeved shirts Leave a Comment

Brock May 26, 2012

The #1 Most Important Fashion Tip for Short Men

What’s wrong with this suit?

There are a ton of little tricks, hacks and DIY solutions that you can use to make your clothes fit better, but BY FAR the most important one is this:

Get your pants hemmed.

It’s quick, easy and cheap, and there is no excuse not to do it. In fact, EVERY guy should be getting their pants hemmed. No matter how tall you are, it is rarely the case that clothes fit perfectly off the rack.

But we’re not talking about every guy…we’re talking about those of us on the shorter side. The problem we have is one of proportion. For example, say you are 5’6” and have a relatively athletic build. Not skinny, but definitely not fat. Not a bodybuilder, but fit. You might need a pair of pants with a 29” waist and a 28.5” inseam.

Good luck finding these at Banana Republic.

Instead, you will most likely have to settle on some 30×30 trousers, or maybe you will get lucky and snag a pair of 29×30.

Now, it’s not a big deal if the waist is an inch or so too big. Just wear a belt. But if the legs are too long, it will ruin your entire getup. When short men wear oversized clothes (like pants that are too long), it accentuates their shortness, which is obviously not what we want.

Just look at Jonah Hill’s red carpet photo above. He looks amazing in that black-on-black suit with a bow tie, but the pants are too long! I don’t know who overlooked this detail, but it ruins the whole outfit. It’s distracting and takes away from the overall look.

On the flip side, when your pants are hemmed to stop right past the top of your shoes, they actually compliment your figure and produce a heightening effect.

Adam keeps his pants and sleeves extra short to elongate his body. (Courtesy of The Style Blogger)

If you’re not yet convinced that you should have every pair of pants you own hemmed, pay attention next you go out in public. Look at random guys (try not to be creepy). Pay close attention to the length of their pants.

Are they bunched up around the shoe? Do they drag on the floor? Are there multiple breaks in the fabric running down the leg?

I guarantee you will notice how much better it looks to have that tailored, put together look that can only be accomplished with custom alteration.

Convinced? Good. Now let’s talk about how to get your pants hemmed.

You can go about this one of two ways.

Pay someone else to do it
Do it yourself

Most dry cleaners will do minor alterations (hemming pants is as basic as it gets) for a very reasonable fee. I wouldn’t pay more than $15-20 for this. If you have a really nice pair of dress pants, you can go to an actual tailor (found at any suit or tuxedo shop) and pay a little more to make sure the job is done right.

I recommend taking an old pair of jeans – like that pair you bought from American Eagle three years ago that never really fit right – and testing our your local dry cleaners alteration skills. Make sure they keep the original hem! This is important, so I’ll say it again:

When you get your pants altered, make sure they keep the original hem.

Otherwise, your pants will end abruptly, as if you folded them under to shorten them. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to pants with no hem (like many modern pairs of dress pants).

If you are crafty, want to learn a new skill or just like saving money, you can easily hem your pants at home. There are a ton of great “how-to” guides and videos out there that explain this process. Like this one:

*For all of you young gentlemen out there who are still growing, there is a way to alter pants that allows you to “let them out” later on. This means you can buy them long, have them shortened, then restore them to their original length when you get taller. If you are still growing, make sure to ask your tailor (or mom) to preserve your pants in this way.

For what’s it worth, I prefer to pay someone else to handle my alteration needs. I’m a “time is money” kind of guy, and I don’t own a sewing machine, so I’m always happy to pay my dry cleaner twenty bucks to take this task off my plate. It’s part of my routine now:

Whenever I buy a new pair of pants, I take them to the cleaners during my normal weekly dropoff, get measured (or, to save time, just bring a pair of similar pants that have already been shortened to an ideal length), and pick up my perfect-fitting pants a few days later.

Homework: Take one pair of pants to your local tailor or dry cleaner, get measured and have them shorten them to the appropriate length. Then, leave a comment below to share how much of a difference it made!

Filed Under: Fashion and Style Tagged With: alterations, hem, jeans, pants 2 Comments