How a Suit Should Fit, and How to Buy a Designer Suit Secondhand

A suit fits when the shoulder seam ends where your shoulder ends, the collar sits flat against your shirt collar, the jacket buttons without pulling into an X, and about half an inch of shirt cuff shows past the sleeve. Get the shoulders right and a good tailor can handle almost everything else.

That last part is the key to buying a designer suit for less. Here is the full checklist, from the top down.

Start with the shoulders

The shoulders are the foundation of the jacket, and they are the one thing a tailor cannot meaningfully change. Rebuilding a shoulder means taking the jacket apart, and on most jackets it is not worth attempting at any price.

What you are looking for:

• The shoulder seam ends right at the edge of your shoulder bone
• No divot or dent in the sleeve just below the shoulder, which means the shoulders are too wide
• No pulling or tight ridge across the top of the arm, which means they are too narrow
• The jacket lies smooth across your upper back when your arms hang naturally

If the shoulders are wrong, put the jacket back. It does not matter how good the label is or how good the price is.

The collar should hug, not gap

Look at the back of your neck in a mirror, or ask someone to. The jacket collar should rest against your shirt collar with no gap between them. A collar that stands away from your neck is a hard fix and usually a sign the jacket is cut for a different posture or build.

Button it and check the chest

Fasten the top button on a two-button jacket, or the middle button on a three-button. Then look at the front.

• Too tight: the fabric pulls into an X shape around the button
• Too loose: you can fit a fist easily between the jacket and your chest, and the front hangs like a box
• Right: the front lies flat, and you can slide a flat hand in comfortably

A slightly loose waist is easy for a tailor to take in. A chest that pulls tight usually is not, because there is rarely enough extra fabric in the seams to let it out.

Sleeve length

With your arms at your sides, the jacket sleeve should end about at the wrist bone, showing roughly a quarter to half an inch of shirt cuff. Shortening sleeves is one of the most common alterations, and lengthening is possible when there is extra fabric folded inside.

One catch: sleeves with working buttonholes at the cuff are harder to shorten, because the holes are already cut. On those jackets, the sleeve length needs to be close to right off the rack.

Jacket length

A traditional rule is that the jacket should cover your seat. A more practical check is to stand with your arms relaxed: the hem should land somewhere around the middle of your hand. Current styles run a little shorter than a decade ago, but a jacket that barely reaches your belt looks too small no matter what the trend is.

Jacket length is very hard to change well. Treat it like the shoulders.

The trousers

Trousers are the most forgiving part of a suit.

• Waist: should sit comfortably without a belt doing the work. Taking in or letting out a waist is a routine alteration, within the limits of the seam allowance.
• Seat: smooth, without pulling across the back or sagging fabric
• Break: how much the hem rests on your shoe. No break is clean and modern, a slight break is the safe middle, a full break is more traditional. Hemming is the easiest alteration there is.

What a tailor can fix, and what they cannot

This is the part that saves you money. Before you buy, sort every fit issue into one of two columns.

Usually fixable: sleeve length, trouser hem, trouser waist within a couple of inches, jacket waist suppression, minor adjustments to the seat.

Usually not worth fixing: shoulder width, a gapping collar, a chest that is too tight, jacket length, sleeve length on working buttonholes.

If every issue you see is in the first column, you are looking at a good buy. If even one is in the second column, keep looking.

Fit for bigger and broader builds

If you are broad through the chest or shoulders, or simply wear a 46 and up, the same rules apply, but finding the right starting point is harder. Many designer lines stop at a 44 or a 46 in stores, and a jacket that is a size too small in the chest will never fit, no matter how much a tailor lets out.

Two things help. First, look for jackets with a "drop" that suits you. The drop is the difference between the jacket chest size and the trouser waist, and a standard suit usually assumes a 6-inch drop. An athletic build may need more, a larger build less. When the drop is wrong, buying the jacket and trousers as separates often solves it. Second, shop somewhere that actually stocks bigger sizes. Our racks run Small through XXXL as a matter of course.

Buying a designer suit secondhand

Most men pay full retail for a suit because they assume the alternative is a rack of tired, shiny jackets from the nineties. It is not.

A well made suit from a serious maker is built to last. Wool from a good mill, a canvassed or half-canvassed chest, careful stitching. A suit like that worn a handful of times has decades of life left in it. When you buy it secondhand, you are paying for the garment, not the markdown curve.

What to check on a pre-owned suit, beyond fit:

• Shine on the seat, elbows and lapels, which comes from wear and pressing
• The lining at the armpits and the inside of the sleeves
• Moth damage, which shows up as small holes, often on the back or under the collar
• The fabric content tag, to confirm you are getting wool and not a blend
• Previous alterations, especially sleeves already shortened or a waist already taken in to its limit

And a lot of the best value on our floor is not secondhand at all. Most of what we carry is brand new overstock from twenty independent menswear retailers across the USA, tags still on, at up to 70% off retail. More on that in Overstock or Consignment?

Do the alterations math

A great price on a suit that needs a sleeve adjustment and a hem is still a great price. Factor in the tailor, then compare the total to what the same suit costs new today. On a quality suit the math almost always wins. On a cheap suit, alterations can cost more than the suit is worth, and it still will not hang right. Our article on getting designer menswear for a fraction of retail walks through that math in more detail.

Try it on before you buy it

Every rule above is easier to apply in person. That is the biggest advantage of shopping a showroom over a screen.

Our suits and sport coats section is one of the busiest in the store, with labels like Hugo Boss, Ermenegildo Zegna and Burberry in sizes from Small through XXXL. Wear a dress shirt and the shoes you plan to wear with the suit, and give yourself time to try a few sizes.

Label Legends, 28801 Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills, between 12 and 13 Mile. Monday through Saturday, noon to six. No appointment needed.

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