You don’t need a luxury label or expensive cloth to make a suit look clean and sharp. The fastest way to change how a suit looks is to get three lengths right: the sleeves, the trouser hem, and the jacket length.
But if you take the “recommended lengths” you find online and hand them straight to an alterations shop, there’s a good chance it will go wrong.
I’ve worked in fashion and apparel for more than 20 years, and I’ve spent 13 of them making made-to-measure suits in Sasa, a town next to Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture. Measuring customer after customer has taught me one thing: there is a big gap between the “right answer” written online and what actually looks good on a person who moves.
Here are the three length rules I actually use in fittings, so you can get them right the first time.
1. Sleeve length: the wrist bone is too short. Go 1 cm below it
Online articles often say the sleeve should end right at the wrist bone.
In practice, if you set it exactly at the wrist bone, the sleeve rides up the moment you bend or move your arm, and the jacket looks too small for you.
The tailor’s rule: set the sleeve about 1 cm (roughly 3/8 inch) below the wrist bone. With your arm relaxed at your side, the wrist joint stays neatly covered.
The trap people miss: if the sleeve length of your dress shirt is wrong, no amount of work on the jacket will save it. A shirt that’s too long makes the jacket sleeve look short, and one that’s too short makes the wrist look cramped. You want about 1–1.5 cm of shirt cuff showing below the jacket sleeve, so always wear the dress shirt you normally wear when you go in to be measured.
2. Trouser hem: don’t decide standing up. Check it sitting down
Most advice online today recommends a shorter hem with little or no break, such as “no break” or “half break.” Standing up, it does look sharp.
But there’s a catch.
If you set a perfect no-break hem while standing, the moment you sit down the hem rises a long way and shows your shins and socks.
What I hear in the shop: a great many customers tell me they don’t like how far the hem rides up when they sit.
How to decide: do you want a sharper look standing, or more coverage sitting? Neither is wrong. What matters is whether it bothers you while you wear it. Once a hem starts to bother you, it will bother you all day at work.
Tip for alterations: when you have trousers hemmed at a local alterations shop (in Japan this usually costs around ¥2,000–3,000), ask them to pin the hem and then sit down in a chair right there before they cut.
3. Jacket length: short jackets are dated. Cover 80% to all of your seat
For a while, short jackets that showed about half of the seat were in fashion. Plenty of articles online still explain jacket length that way, but by today’s standards that look is quickly going out of date.
With menswear returning to classic styles, what a grown man needs from a suit is dignity and composure, not a light, casual look.
The tailor’s rule: seen from behind, the jacket should cover 80% to all of your seat. That is the mainstream length today, and it looks the most settled.
A note on alterations: shortening a jacket upsets its balance with the pocket positions, so 1–2 cm is the most that can be taken off. When you buy off the rack, check carefully that the jacket isn’t too short and isn’t showing too much of your seat.
Summary: check the suits you already own in front of a mirror
When you take an off-the-rack suit to an alterations shop, keep these three points in mind.
- Sleeves: 1 cm below the wrist bone, measured while wearing the shirt you’ll wear with the suit
- Trouser hem: decide by how far it rises when you sit, not just how it looks standing
- Jacket length: long enough to cover 80% to all of your seat
For most standard builds, getting these three lengths right will make the suit you already own look noticeably cleaner.
However…
After seeing so many customers, I know there is one harsh truth left.
Some people still don’t look good even when all three lengths are perfect.
The reason lies in a structural flaw built into off-the-rack suits, and in a basic rule for dressing well.
[Continued in Part 2]
Tailoring a Suit for a Former Bodybuilder with 65 cm Arms: The Customer Every Shop Had Turned Away
A suit made to your measurements
Sleeves, trouser hem, jacket length, shoulders and arms are all cut to your own body, not a size chart. Fittings are by appointment only. Tell us the dates you are in Japan and we will propose a time.
