Off The Rack Suit Alterations – Can You Get A Fit Similiar To A Custom Suit? – Male Style Advice

Off The Rack Suit Alterations – Can You Get A Fit Similiar To A Custom Suit_ – Male Style Advice

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Hi. I’m Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style. And today I’m going to be answering the question, can an off the rack suit be altered to fit as good as a custom suit?

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Okay. This is the question that came in. “Dear Antonio, I love your website.” Thank you. “But I can’t afford your clothing. Can I take an off the rack suit that has been altered to fit and will it fit the same as a custom suit? Thank you.”

All right, very much to the point. He doesn’t have the money to buy custom clothing. But he wants a custom fit. So, can he get it with an off the rack suit? I mean, is it possible? The short answer is yes. It is possible. And this is coming from a custom clothier.

What you really buy when you buy custom clothing, besides being able to get whatever you want and able to choose from any fabric, is really speed. Because there is probably a suit out there that could fit you perfectly, but who knows where it is and do you have the time to go out there and find it. And for some men, it’s going to be much harder to fit.

So, I’m going to break this question down into five parts. And these are the five things – if you’re short on funds and you really need a good suit, that you should be asking yourself if you’re going to be making the decision between a custom suit or going with an off the rack. And this is all focused on fit right here.

So, the first thing is how close of a fit can you get off the rack. So, you need to go out there and look and try on a number of suits. And if you can find something that – wow, this thing fits really well. Then, go for it. I mean, there are men out there who can go out there and find certain brands, especially if you’re looking towards European brands. And if you’re in good shape, you’ll find that those are made for less people.

The problem with most clothing is that it is made to fit tons – I mean, it’s made to fit a hundred different body types. And because it’s made to fit so many body types, it doesn’t fit any of them well. So, this is when you go – and again, I don’t want to bash any Warehouses or JoS. A. Banks. You know they fit a purpose. But the clothing you find there, for the most part is going to be too big on most men who try it on, simply because it’s made to fit a lot more men than if you go into new trend like Zegna.

But if you’re looking Zegna, then you might as well be looking at custom because we’re talking to the $4,000 suits. But Zegna suits, those are made for a very specific type of profile. If you’re a portly man, you are not going to be able to wear a Zegna suit. And Zegna makes it that way because they only want a certain type of body type in their suits.

So, if you can find a brand, go for it and that you may be able to find a fit that would fit you just as well as custom. The next thing you’re going to want to look at is how well put together the suit is. So, this is another thing that you buy when you get custom – is you get to choose the fabric and you know that since this is being made by hand, the construction is going to be most likely really good.

You know when it comes – I mean, if you look at my shoulder pads here. These are hand packed with cotton. Now, if – there’s a lot of jackets out there that they use foam. And you just will never be able to get the same type of fit, the same type of drape that you get by using quality materials. So, that is something that you need to be looking for in that off the rack jacket.

And understand that it may initially fit good but if it’s not made from good quality materials, that great fit is not necessarily going to last over time. So, that was number two, make sure it’s well put together.

Number three, the alterations, specifically, what needs to be to be altered. So, if you can find something off the rack that fits you overall pretty well but it’s just a bit tight in the shoulders, you need to move on because you’re not going to be able to bring out those shoulders.

However, if it’s just a bit small, you can have – and if it’s made of a good quality – you know, from a good company – let’s say you find this in a thrift store, you can and it would pay possibly to have those shoulders brought in.

Now, this is like reconstructive heart surgery here for tailors but that takes me to part four, because if you got a good quality jacket and the alterations, whether they be small or big, it really comes down to the tailor. And can you take it to a man who – or a woman…

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…who is used to working with jacket and can, in a sense, work miracles. So, the shoulder, I talked about. That’s going to cost you a lot of money. We’re talking well over $100.

But if you’ve got a jacket that overall fits you pretty well, but it just needs to brought in, or loosened up in the midsection, that’s a pretty easy alteration. And something that you can have done – gosh, I can have it done here in Wausau, Wisconsin. I mean, it isn’t hard to find somebody.

And so, the skill of the tailor though, if you want a major alteration done, you’re going to have to find somebody that can actually, almost build jackets. And that’s really what you need. In that case, you know – again, if you find in a thrift store a great jacket that just maybe needs those shoulders altered – well, maybe it’s worth spending $150 dollars to get that work done. And it may turn out beautifully. But again, you’re going to want to make sure you’ve got a skilled tailor. So, that was the fourth one.

Number five – you need to know what you want, because fit is very personal. And you may want something close fitting. You may want something loose fitting. Whatever you want, make sure you get it.

Okay.

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