How a Suit Should Fit: Eleven Checks You Can Make in a Mirror

Most men have only ever been told whether a suit is too big or too small. Those are the two faults least worth worrying about. A jacket can be exactly the right size and still stand away at the collar, pull across the back and hang a half-inch low on one side — and it will be sold to you quite cheerfully, because the chest measurement was correct.

What follows is the check we run at a fitting, written so you can run it yourself on a suit you already own, in front of a mirror, in about ten minutes. Stand as you normally stand. Do not square your shoulders and do not hold your breath; a suit has to work on the body you carry about all day.

The short answer

Four things carry almost all of it. The jacket collar lies flat against your shirt with no gap. The shoulder seam ends where your shoulder ends. The front closes on the waist button without an X of strain radiating from it. The trouser breaks once, cleanly, over the shoe. Get those four and the rest is detail. Miss the first two and no alteration will rescue the garment, because both are drafted into the pattern before a stitch is sewn.

The jacket, in order of importance

• 1. The collar. Stand side-on and look at the back of your neck. The jacket collar should lie against the shirt collar along its whole length, with no daylight behind it and no fold of cloth bunched beneath. A gap means the jacket is hanging off the chest rather than the shoulders. A roll means too much length in the back. This is the most reliable tell of a garment cut for an average figure rather than yours.
• 2. The shoulder. The seam where the sleeve joins the body should finish where your own shoulder stops and your arm begins. Beyond it, the sleevehead collapses into a divot an inch down the arm. Short of it, the cloth strains and the armhole digs. Nearly all of us are slightly uneven here; a bespoke pattern records the difference and a size on a rail cannot.
• 3. The waist button. Fasten the top button of a two-button jacket and look for an X. Strain lines radiating from the button mean the chest or waist is too close. A gaping triangle of shirt means too loose. Correct is a gentle straight line, with a flat hand sliding in comfortably.
• 4. The back. Turn away and use a second mirror, or ask someone. No horizontal creases under the collar, no vertical pull across the blades, and the vents hanging closed rather than splaying across the seat.
• 5. The sleeve length. Arms loose at your sides, the sleeve should finish at the break of the wrist, leaving about half an inch of shirt cuff showing. That is set to the shirt you actually wear, which is why we ask men to bring a shirt whose collar and cuff they like.
• 6. The jacket length. It should cover the seat. Curl your fingers at your sides and the hem should meet them — an older rule that has outlasted every fashion of the last fifteen years. A jacket cropped above the seat makes short legs of an average pair.
• 7. The lapel. It should lie flat against the chest and roll in a soft curve down to the button, not sit on it like a pressed ribbon. If it flutters away as you walk, the chest is overfull or the canvas is not doing its work. The layer inside the chest decides this, and it is the part of a jacket you can never see.

The trousers

• 8. The waist. It should stay up without a belt. If a belt has to be pulled tight to hold position, the waist is too large and the front will be dragged out of shape by the tension.
• 9. The seat. Side-on, the cloth should follow the seat without cupping underneath or hanging in a hammock behind. This is where posture shows most plainly, and where a pattern drawn from photographs earns its keep.
• 10. The thigh and knee. Enough room to sit and cross your legs without the cloth going tight across the thigh, and a clean line falling from the knee rather than clinging to the calf.
• 11. The break. One soft horizontal fold where the trouser meets the shoe, and no more. Two folds is too long; a flash of sock standing still is too short. From behind, the hem should finish level around the top of the heel. Trousers are often hemmed level to the floor rather than to the shoe, which is why one leg so frequently looks longer in photographs. The break is set to a particular shoe, so bring the shoes you mean to wear.

What the mirror will not tell you

A mirror shows a man standing still. A suit is worn sitting in a car on Lincoln, reaching across a table, carrying a case up stairs. So repeat the four principal checks after you have sat for a minute and stood up again. A jacket that looks immaculate at rest and creases hard across the back the moment you move is too close through the blades — a common fault, and almost always invisible in a shop. Nor will a mirror show you how a garment behaves over years: a fully canvassed jacket takes the shape of your chest across the first months and keeps it for a decade, while a glued one is at its best on the first morning and declines from there.

What can be altered, and what cannot

A good deal can be fixed: trouser waist, seat, hem and taper, and jacket sleeve length, side seams and usually the waist. What cannot be reliably fixed is shoulder width, the armhole and the balance of the collar against the neck. Those are structural — which is the real argument for a pattern drafted for one person, because the faults that cannot be altered out are precisely the ones a stock pattern creates. If the fault is in that second list, money spent altering is money lost. Ours run at $80 an hour and are complimentary for the first twelve months, and there is more on keeping a suit well in our note on resting, brushing and pressing.

Have it looked at properly

If something is bothering you, bring the suit in. We will say honestly whether it is an afternoon's alteration or a garment that was never going to fit, and we have no interest in selling you a suit when the one in your wardrobe can be saved. The first consultation takes an hour and costs nothing — you meet Robb or Ben, never a salesperson, and here is what the hour involves. Should you commission something, a two-piece starts at $1,795, fully canvassed, cut from a pattern drawn for you alone and made by hand in our atelier in Southern Brittany; the whole card is on the page about what a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles. A custom shirt is $295, worth knowing because half the fit faults men blame on a jacket belong to the shirt beneath it.

We are at 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey, appointment only, seven days a week, roughly nine until six, with free parking front and back and forty-eight hours' notice requested. Book a private consultation, or telephone 310-503-3592 if nothing on the calendar suits. Men come to us from Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Marina del Rey, and we visit homes and offices anywhere in Los Angeles for $300. The full account of how the house works is on the bespoke page.

Questions we are often asked

How should a suit jacket fit in the shoulders?

The seam joining sleeve to body should end exactly where your shoulder ends and your arm begins. Too wide and a divot forms an inch down the arm; too narrow and the cloth strains across the blades. Shoulder width is the one measurement that cannot be reliably altered afterwards, so judge it first.

How do I know if my suit jacket is too small?

Fasten the waist button and look for strain lines radiating from it in an X. Add a tight armhole, a collar that lifts off the shirt when you reach forward, and sleeves riding up the forearm. One of those may be alterable; all four together means the jacket is simply too small.

Should a suit jacket be buttoned when standing?

Yes — the top button of a two-button jacket, the middle of a three, and never the bottom one. Unbutton when you sit, because the jacket is cut to a standing figure and the waist button takes all the strain when you fold at the hip.

How much shirt cuff should show?

About half an inch. It is set to the shirt you actually wear rather than to a standard, so the cuff of a well-made shirt and the sleeve of a well-made jacket have to be decided together.

What is a trouser break, and which should I choose?

The break is the fold of cloth where the trouser meets the shoe. One soft fold suits almost everybody and almost every suit. A full break of two folds reads as older and heavier. No break at all is a fashion rather than a fit, and it dates quickly.

Can a badly fitting suit be altered to fit?

Partly. Trouser waist, seat, hem and taper can be corrected, as can jacket sleeve length, side seams and usually the waist. Shoulder width, armhole and the balance of the collar against the neck cannot — they are built into the pattern.

How tight should a suit be across the chest?

With the jacket buttoned, a flat hand should slide between the chest and the cloth without a struggle. Less than that and you will feel it by the afternoon; much more and the lapels will flutter away from the chest as you walk.