David J. Tinter’s Post

Transcript

So today we'll talk about two very specific details that pertain to how your jacket should fit. And these are things that are difficult to describe if you've always bought off the rack, but they really impact the overall look of the jacket. And so they're going to be top button placement and then length of the jacket. So the top button placement is a very specific measurement from the shoulder seam to where the top button on a jacket. Most jackets these days are two buttons hits. And so if you think about where that lands. From a from an aesthetic standpoint, it should. Generally the top button placement should be the fullest part of your stomach, and so the reason for that is when you do that, what the? Lapel does is it folds neatly over your chest and the overall drape of the lapel is gonna look the best on you. So with an off the rack suit, there's nothing you can do about that. If you're commissioning a custom suit, that's one of the measurements that your clothier will consider to make sure that again, the top button placement is the appropriate length. The other thing to consider is the length of the jacket. And again, this is very difficult, almost impossible to adjust with an off the rack. So you certainly can't lengthen it, you can't shorten it, but you run into problems where the curvature is off. Or the distance from the bottom of the jacket to the side pocket or the bottom button hole is going to change. Now if you look at Hot Roger here, the jacket is going to coincide with his knuckle lines. So if you look at my jacket, when my hands are at my side and I curl my hands under the bottom of the jacket, that bottom hem is going to fit neatly into the crease of my hands. And that's where most guys are wearing the jackets these days. I know for a while the trend was an ultra short jacket. That trend has essentially seen its day, but. This is a classic length. Now something to consider if you are somebody who falls outside of the bell curve, which is most of us. But let's say that you're a six foot gentleman and your arms happen to be longer than is normal for somebody with. The six foot height, and that's again very common. Everyone has different ratios and proportions of their upper half to lower half. So it's a discussion you would want to have as to whether or not you want to make sure that that length is to the knuckle line. Or again, if your arms are longer than normal, perhaps you would shorten it and split the difference between the knuckle line and the wrist line. The reason for that is that proportionally you want the upper and lower half of your garment to be in proportion. So if you have longer arms you may have to play around with the length of the jacket a little bit there. This jacket here clearly is for gentleman who's bigger than the standard mannequin size and you can see how both the jacket half girth or the circumference is too full for the mannequin. And also based on this the top button placement is different, you can't see the hand or arm length. But again this is a ill fitting jacket for this particular managet so. In summary, top button placement, jacket length, Things to discuss next time you're commissioning a suit or Sport coat. Happy dressing, my friends.