Every off-the-rack blazer I try in my chest size has the shoulder seam hanging past my actual shoulder point, and the sleeve has a little collapsed dent under it. Going down a size makes the chest too tight to button. I've been told this is the one thing a tailor can't fix, so I want to know what to ask for in the shop instead of guessing. 41 inch chest, fairly narrow shoulders.
Order of operations for anyone reading later: shoulders, then chest, then everything else. Sleeve length, waist suppression, and jacket length are all cheap alterations. Shoulders are not. Buy for the shoulder even if the rest looks wrong on the hanger.
Second hand is your friend with a narrow shoulder. There's a lot of well made older tailoring around in cuts that suit a narrower frame, and a 40 pound jacket with 60 pounds of alterations often beats a 300 pound new one that doesn't fit at the shoulder.
Hadn't considered this because I assumed everything old would be enormous. Apparently not in the shoulder.
Made-to-measure starts around 500-700 at the accessible end, which after two failed off-the-rack jackets plus alterations is not the gulf it sounds like. If your shape is genuinely off the standard grid it's the honest answer.
Just size down and leave it unbuttoned, nobody buttons a blazer anyway.
@bobbin_bind · 4mo ago · 3 replies
It's fixable but it's the most expensive alteration there is, typically 80-150 because the sleeve has to come off and go back on. Not worth it on a jacket under a few hundred, absolutely worth it on a good one you'll wear for a decade.
What to ask for in the shop instead: try brands cut for a narrower shoulder, and try soft-shouldered jackets with little or no pad. A structured jacket with a big pad has a fixed shoulder width that has nothing to do with yours. An unstructured or lightly padded one drapes off your actual shoulder and the 2cm problem mostly disappears.
Also ask specifically whether the model comes in a slim or drop-8 cut. Same chest, narrower shoulder and waist, and that's exactly your shape.
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@darning_dot · 4mo ago
Tried three unstructured jackets on Saturday and two of them sat properly straight off the rack. I'd been shopping entirely in the structured section without realising it was a category.
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@curl_chemist · 4mo ago
Worth adding that the dent under the sleeve head is the actual diagnostic. If the seam overhangs but there's no dent, it's a cut that just runs a touch wide and it'll look fine on you.
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