Guide To Buying A Perfect Fitting Suit In Toronto

Overview

When you wear a suit, you’re looking for a great fit in your natural stance with straight arms and an overall relaxed body. For men who are unusually tall, short, thin, stout, or muscular, custom suits are needed for a perfect comfortable fit. Assessing a proper suit fit can often seem as complicated and unnecessary, especially to those with little experience in the world of bespoke tailoring. At Giovanni Tailors, we applaud personal expression, individual styles, and modern takes on traditional suits. However fitting is a universal law that should never change for a custom suit or ready to wear suit. This law is what allows for maximal comfortability, mobility, and the most flattering silhouettes for a gentleman. The fitting rule applies worldwide but we will specifically dive into Toronto’s fitting issues and unspoken rules. To help you better understand this unspoken rule, we’ve outlined everything you need to know about a perfect fit for wedding suits in Toronto, custom suits in Toronto, bespoke suits in Toronto, and more.

Shoulders

Bespoke suits can instantly be recognized by the suit jacket’s shoulders. A well-fitted shoulder lies flat. Ideally, you want the jacket’s shoulder to end right where the armhole meets the sleeve, sitting right at your body’s natural shoulder line. An incorrect fitting will result in extra fabric dangling down the upper bicep as the fabric will never sit properly on the shoulder. This ripple effect creates lumps or wrinkles on the upper sleeve and around the shoulders of the suit jacket. Shoulders are one of the most difficult and therefore expensive alterations for a suit. Getting this fitting right is absolutely crucial to look great in a suit. To check if your suit’s shoulder has a bad fitting, stand side to side with a wall and gently press into the wall. If your deltoid and suit’s shoulder touch the wall at about the same time, you have a perfect shoulder fit.

Seat

The upper back of the trousers should smoothly drape and hang over the seat. A good fit will create 0 wrinkles or sags around the seat. It will lie loosely against the under garment without pulling tightly against the seat or drape loosely down to the thighs. If the fitting is loose, a u-shaped sag will form around the seat. If the fitting is tight, horizontal wrinkles will form around the seat. Although this fitting can be altered, there is a limit to how much can be fixed. Too little seam allowance or too much fabric will not be possible to adjust without moving back pockets out of place.

Trouser Break

The trouser break is that perfect amount of cloth draping over your shoe. Some prefer the half break while others prefer a full break or even no break at all. The fitting here is more subtle to the eye than previously mentioned fittings. One horizontal dimple is ideal. The trousers' cuff should slightly rest on the dress shoe’s heel for a full break. With half breaks, the trouser cuff slightly rests on the top of the shoe. And for no breaks, the trouser cuff hangs slightly above the top of the shoe. Too much cloth hanging over the back of the shoe is too loose of a fitting. The same applies for the gap between the bottom of the trousers and the top of the dress shoes. This a small and subtle feature that many off the rack suits or made to measure suits get incorrect. That is never the case with Giovanni Tailor’s bespoke suits in Toronto. We work delicately in the details as that is what ultimately radiates prestige and luxury.

The Jacket Closure

When wearing a custom suit in Toronto, you should always leave the bottom button for a 2 or 3 button single breasted suit unbuttoned. For double breasted suits, leave the last bottom one unbuttoned. This gives your body a flattering v-taper and masculine silhouette. For a perfect jacket closure, the left and right suit lapels should meet neatly without hanging forward off the body because of excess fabric or even flaring out because of a strong stretch on the jacket. The suit jacket’s buttons and also the suit vest’s buttons should close without strain or wrinkles forming. This is important to get right as a tight fitting around the waist is uncomfortable and a loose fitting around the waist is unflattering. Not just that but even the best suit tailor in Toronto can only make so many changes here depending on the cloth’s seam allowance

Jacket Sleeve Length

This fitting usually has 2 different preferences. Gentlemen with French cuff dress shirts like to see a quarter inch of shirt cuff underneath their jacket. This allows for just a hint of luxurious cufflinks to peak out from the shirt cuff. For gentlemen who prefer buttoned shirt cuffs, half an inch of cuff works perfectly. Just enough room to showcase monograms on the end of the cuffs but not too much to the point the suit jacket sleeves appear too short. Similarly, the jacket sleeve should never hide the shirt sleeve entirely. A perfect fitting in this area could make your ready to wear or even custom suit in Toronto look like a luxurious bespoke suit. As a bonus style tip, the waistband of the trousers should not be seen if the suit jacket button stance is perfect. Now the sleeve lengths are an easy adjustment to make if the surgeon cuffs / sleeve buttons are not working. In the case of custom suits for men, sleeve buttons are usually working and so the alterations can be very difficult and expensive.

Jacket Length

The suit jacket’s back length can make or break the suit. Too long and it seems as if you inherited the suit from someone. Too short and it seems as if you have outgrown your suit. The perfect length can be measured by our hands and seat. The suit jacket should cover 100% of your seat but no more than that. Some prefer the jacket to end right when the seat starts curving back inwards to your legs. To measure your perfect fitting simply place your hands right under your seat with palms facing the sky. If your suit jacket length is reasonably in that range, you have a good fitting. The hem of the jacket can be adjusted with ease but going too far can pull the front lower pockets out of place. Try not to alter more than 1 to 2 inches of the hem here.

The Jacket Collar

A well fitted collar is easy to distinguish from a poorly fitted collar. The jacket collar should rest against your shirt collar which should be resting right against the back of your neck. All of these should touch lightly without any big gaps in between. A loose collar is easy to see as a gap will form behind your neck. A tight collar forms because of too little fabric in the back of your neck for the suit jacket. A tight fitting will create bunching and folds and even wrinkles in the shirt collar. Determining the cause of the poor collar fit is more complicated because it can be from bad shoulder fitting, a tight upper back panel, or even a jacket that’s constructed with the incorrect posture (too forward or backward from your neutral stance). Altering these on ready to wear suits, custom suits, or even wedding suits will cost a lot of money and time. It is best to get the perfect fit from the start.

The World of Bespoke

Many of our clients at Giovanni Tailors first start off with ready to wear suits. But they quickly learn how uncomfortable and unflattering these cheap suits or sometimes over-priced suits look and feel. Joining the world of bespoke is something a gentleman never regrets. The comfort, mobility, and prestige you feel in a bespoke suit can not be found anywhere else. There is a reason gentlemen pay upwards of $10,000 for a luxurious bespoke suit that you will simply want to live, play, and breathe in for decades to come.

Create your symbol of prestige today with the best custom made suits in Toronto.

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