How & When to Get Clothes Tailored for Men

A lot of guys know they should tailor their clothing but are completely lost when trying to figure out anything beyond that.

If you're new to the world of tailoring, welcome. First, realize that every movie star, style influencer, and sartorial stud tailors their clothing. It's the reason most of them look incredible, and when you go buy the same items, you don't look so incredible (among many other reasons).

For context, I tailor about 60-70% of my stuff. The rest is from brands I KNOW fit me well, or it's made custom. You don't need to do that much, but I can almost guarantee most of the stuff in your closet could use a round of tailoring. So let's talk about it.

You also should realize that your body type if fairly unique - everyone's is different. Your specific combination of height, weight, distribution of muscle and fat, and the length of your limbs all add up to a unique sum that is specifically yours.

So, why is it that you expect a mass clothing brand store to produce stuff that fits YOU perfectly? It's a bit arrogant to expect the majority of brands to fit you, not anyone else.

But clothing manufacturers are smart folks. The big box retailer types don't focus on one specific body type - they focus on the average of everything. In doing so, almost nothing fits anyone perfectly, but it's passable enough to buy it.

This is why you're frustrated and can't find things that don't fit. This is why we tailor.

I'm going to list out the three most common alterations I see that most men need to do in order to get their stuff looking incredible.

#1 Hemming Pants

Far and away, this is the most common alteration you'll need/get. This is one of the easiest things you can get done that will have the biggest impact on your appearance. It can take your legs from looking short, stubby, and wrinkly, to long, lean, and stylish.

Most guys are wearing their pants too long. What we're aiming for is a very slight amount of fabric laying on the shoe, but not enough to bunch. In tailoring terms, we call this a "Quarter-Break" Meaning there is a quarter of a full fold of fabric laying over the shoe. Here's what it looks like...

If your pants are longer than that (give or take a small bit), put them in a pile to go get tailored.

Again, this will be one of the easiest things you can do. Even most dry cleaners offer hemming.

Also, it may behoove you to take a look at the inseam size you're always buying and then knocking that down a number or two if your pants are always longer than the above image.

Average alteration cost: $10-30

#2 Taking in Sides

I can't tell you how many guys have told me that they can easily find a shirt that fits in the shoulders and arms, but when they do, they feel like they're wearing a boxy, billowy trash bag around their mid-section.

If you feel like your shirts, sweaters, etc. all always have too much extra fabric around the middle area, this alteration is for you.

First, realize that most shirts are made with extra room in them to accommodate the bigger American belly.

Most men, unless pretty dang overweight, should be wearing "Slim Fit" versions of tops, which aren't actually all that slim. "Slim Fit" is sort of the average now, and it's what you likley should be shooting for, but again, everyone is different, so play around with different fits of shirts from different brands.

Most of the alteration I do personally to my clothing is taking in the sides of my shirts, jackets, polos, etc. This alteration can be done on nearly any type of top. Rumor has it famed designer Tom Ford tailors all his plain Hanes tees.

We're aiming to get rid of that extra fabric around the torso. Our goal is to make you look less "tub of lard" and more "V-shaped swimmers build".

If you can grab more than a fistful of fabric from both sides near your belly, your item likely has too much excess fabric and should be tailored.

All you have to do is head down to your local tailor and tell them you'd like to take in the sides of the shirt. That's it.

They'll open up the sides of the shirt, cut away some of that excess fabric, and in no time, you'll have a much better-fitting top.

Average alteration cost: $20-45 (Depending on the type of item)

#3 Tapering Pant Legs

One of the most common looks you'll see on stylish men is a leg that gradually narrows as it moves down towards the shoe and results in a smaller leg opening at the bottom of the pant.

This slimming towards the bottom is known as a tapered leg. You can buy tapered leg pants, or you can create them through tailoring.

This is one of those alterations that will take your outfits to the next level.

It's also great to do this in combination with getting a pair of pants hemmed, as you can hit both at once to make it easy, plus the more you hem a pant (shorten the length of the leg) the more you'll want to taper the pant (narrow the opening of the leg).

What we're trying to do is make your leg look long and lean and follow its natural shape. If you go rip your pants off right now, you'll see that your natural leg has that same effect where it graduates from larger near the thigh, then slims down as it gets towards the ankle.

Head to your tailor and tell them you'd like to taper the pair of pants. If the pant fits baggy all through the leg and the entire pant needs to be narrowed, you'll ask for a "Full-Leg Taper". If it's just the bottom you're looking to improve and want to just get that narrowed look near the shoe, you'll ask for a "Half-Leg Taper".

Average alteration cost: $20-45 (Depending on the type of item and half vs. full taper)

Summary

Tailoring is awesome. It's the secret sauce of menswear. Instead of begrudgingly shopping and then complaining about how nothing fits, decide to make it fit.

Once you start tailoring, you'll see it's not overly complicated and realize you should have started sooner (I speak from experience, 6-7 years ago I hardly tailored anything).

There are a ton of other alterations we could discuss and they're worth diving into, but for now, this will be more than enough to get you started.

Dive into the closet. Figure out what doesn't fit. Put it in a pile. Bring it to a tailor. Done. (Or have me do it with you).

It's time you had better fitting stuff. Go and make it so.

Much love,

x Patrick