How a Woman's Suit Should Fit: Shoulder, Bust, Waist and Rise

A suit that fits is not the same thing as a suit in the right size. Size is a number on a label describing a body that does not exist. Fit is a set of relationships between a garment and the particular shoulders, ribcage, waist and hips it was drawn for, and each can be judged on its own.

The shoulder, and why it cannot be rescued

The seam joining sleeve to body should end where your shoulder ends, where the flat plane of the shoulder breaks and turns down into the arm. Inside that point, the sleeve head is pulled up and a diagonal crease runs across the upper arm. Outside it, the cloth has nothing to rest on and settles into a soft dent.

This matters more than any other point because it cannot be changed later. Shoulder seam, armhole and sleeve head are drafted together, so moving one means recutting all three. A tailor can take a shoulder in a quarter of an inch on a simple jacket; past that you are rebuilding it, and it will never look drafted.

The bust, and what the front dart is for

The front of a woman's jacket must accommodate a shape running two directions at once: out across the bust, then back in sharply underneath. Ready-made jackets manage it with a dart and a princess seam cut to an average projection for the chest measurement on the label. If your projection is greater, the jacket closes at the bust, stands away from the ribcage below, and the front edges pull apart in a shallow X above the button.

In a bespoke pattern the dart is not a standard shape added to a block. Its length, angle and intake come from the difference between the across-bust and under-bust measurements, and it can be split or carried into a seam so the shaping disappears into the construction. Buttoned, the front edges should hang vertical and parallel.

Waist suppression, and the nip

How far the jacket comes in below the bust is a decision, not a rule. What should not happen is the jacket gripping the hip to achieve the waist. If the nip is cut without enough flare below it, the skirt clings and the back vent springs open while the jacket is fastened. An open vent on a buttoned jacket is nearly always a waist-to-hip ratio the pattern did not account for.

Sleeve length, and the pitch nobody mentions

Length is taken to the wrist bone, leaving about half an inch of shirt cuff showing. Pitch is the part almost nobody is shown. A sleeve is set into the armhole at an angle, and that angle must match the angle your arm hangs at. Get it wrong and the sleeve can be the right length and still look wrong: cloth twists around the upper arm, or the sleeve swings away at the elbow. This is why we record posture and stance, not measurements alone.

Jacket length against the hip

The hem must clear the widest point of the hip or cover it. Landing exactly on it flatters nobody, because the eye reads the hem at the same height as the widest horizontal of the body. A shorter jacket finishing at the natural waist works well over a high rise; a longer one needs flare to cover the seat without clinging.

Trouser rise, and the seat

Rise runs from the crotch seam to the top of the waistband. A high rise sits at the natural waist, the narrowest point of the torso, where a suit trouser is designed to sit and where it stays without help. A low rise sits on the hip and has to grip. Most ready-made women's trousers are cut low to mid, a fashion inheritance rather than a tailoring one.

The seat is where ready-made trousers fail most often. The back needs enough cloth to pass over the seat and return cleanly to the leg. Too little and it drags into creases underneath; too much and it hangs in an empty sag. Neither is solved by taking the waist in. We cut two lengths of trouser for anyone who wears both flats and a heel. More on the process in a woman's first bespoke suit.

What off-the-peg sizing gets wrong

Women's sizing is built outward from one measurement, usually the bust, with waist and hip derived by a fixed grading. That grade assumes a ratio between the three, and set distances from shoulder to bust. If your proportions sit near it, ready-made will serve you well and good suit alterations will finish the job, and we will say so. If they do not, changing size will not help, because every relationship moves together. The size that fits the hip is slack in the shoulder.

What a pattern does that an alteration cannot

Alterations remove cloth, let out whatever allowance a factory left, and move a hem or a waistband. They work on a finished garment's surface and cannot change its skeleton: the armhole, the shoulder line, the balance of front and back lengths, the darts, the seat.

A bespoke pattern begins with none of that decided. We take around thirty measurements and three photographs, record posture and stance, and draw a pattern for one person. Every garment is full canvas, shaped to the body it was cut for. Max, the house's French atelier, has made for us since 2010 and sews each piece by hand in Southern Brittany. There are usually three fittings, and a year of alterations after.

A two-piece begins at $1,795 and a three-piece at $2,045, the figures set out under bespoke suit cost Los Angeles. The full range is on women's bespoke suits Los Angeles, and there is a separate page for women's wedding suits.

Questions we are often asked

What is the first thing to check when I try a jacket on?

The shoulder. Find where the flat of your shoulder breaks and turns down into the arm, and see whether the sleeve seam ends there. If it does not, stop there, because no later work will put it right.

Can a jacket be altered to fit my bust properly?

Within a narrow range. A dart can sometimes be deepened and a seam let out, if the factory left allowance. What cannot be changed is the projection the pattern was drafted for, so a jacket standing away from the ribcage below the bust will keep doing it.

Why does the vent at the back of my jacket pull open?

Because the waist has been brought in further than the cut below it allows, so the skirt grips the hip and the vent is where the tension escapes. It is a waist-to-hip proportion the pattern did not anticipate.

I am told nothing fits me off the peg. Is that normal?

It is common, and a property of the sizing rather than of you. Ready-made grading fixes the ratios between bust, waist and hip, and the distances between them. A body outside that ratio is not served by changing size.

What does a woman's bespoke suit cost, and how long does it take?

A two-piece starts at $1,795 and a three-piece at $2,045, with unlimited fittings and a year of complimentary alterations included. Cloth from the finer mills runs from $2,995. Four to six weeks for domestic cloth, six to eight for imported.

Come and be measured

The consultation is an hour and it is free, and you will meet Robb or Ben. Wear fitted trousers or jeans with a T-shirt or a well-fitted shirt, nothing baggy, and bring the shoes you mean to wear. We are at 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey, by appointment seven days a week, free parking. Reach us on 310-503-3592, pick an hour in the appointment diary, or book a fitting from the website.