Improve The Look of Your Body By Streamlining Your Off-The-Rack Suit

On a recent bright sunny normal afternoon, a shy but tall, handsome and courteous young man called Ian marched into our store. In his arms, he cradled a jacket, matching pants, a belt and some dress shoes. "I need some alterations on my suit please," he said.

After a couple minutes in the fitting room, Ian came out in his suit. Ah-ha! He was the perfect specimen for this article, I thought.

You see, Ian is a tall and fairly lean guy. And tall and lean guys often have trouble finding a suit that actually fits right in the arms length-wise or in the torso girth-wise. However, Ian did one very important thing right when buying his suit from the store: he made sure that the jacket fit him in the shoulders.

If the shoulders fit, then the rest of the jacket should be alterable to fit the rest of your body.

Ian's suit needed alterations in two parts and they are as follows:

First Problem: The jacket looked too billowy on his lean frame. Solution? Take in the center seam to cut out the extra fabric.





Second Problem: The sleeves were too short on him because his arms are long. Solution? Add fabric underneath the sleeves to make a false hem. That way, we could extend whatever original fabric there is left underneath the sleeves to make them longer.



Before the alterations, the suit looked sloppy on Ian. The natural shape of his body was hidden underneath all that fabric. Needless to say, the sleeves indicated a bad fit.

Several days later, Ian came back to pick up his suit and modelled it for me. Here's our little photoshoot:


Ian, in his altered suit. Streamlined to perfection.


Notice the sleeves are much longer.


The excess fabric on the back is gone.


The contour of his back is now clearly visible.


A fitted suit makes a smiley face.

Ian, if you're reading this, thanks for letting me take your pictures :)

Photography by Cindy Wu Photography