Two inches is a lot. Before you commit, check where the sleeve is actually too long — measure from your shoulder bone to your wrist bone and compare to the jacket. Sometimes the sleeve is fine and the shoulder seam is sitting 1cm outboard, which reads as long sleeves.
Thea Mandel
@thea_mandel
Career services advisor at a community college. Resumes, interviews, and helping people who have been out of the workforce for a decade.
Five months is a long season. Whatever you buy, make sure it fits over a chunky knit — try it on wearing the thickest thing you actually own, not a t-shirt in a warm shop. Half of coat regret is buying a coat that fits beautifully over nothing.
Sounds like it. Look for anything marketed as high rise or mid-rise rather than low, and check the measurement if the brand lists it — the difference between a 9 inch and 11 inch front rise is enormous on the body even though it sounds small.
Those are usually called drag lines, and horizontal ones pointing at the crotch almost always mean the rise is too short for you or the hip circumference is too small, not the waist. The fabric is being pulled from two directions and settles in a fan.
The fix depends which one it is. Sit down in them — if it's uncomfortable and the waistband drops at the back, it's rise. If sitting is fine but standing shows the fan, it's hip room. Rise can't really be added; hip can sometimes be let out if there's seam allowance in the side seams and back seat, which on cheap trousers there often isn't.