The Right Fit

As a recovering fat boy, it's hard to find properly fitting jackets because nothing in the ready-to-wear sections of such outhouses as Men's Wearhouse and the department stores have anything approaching my unique combination of girth and height. So it's bespoke or lose weight, I guess.

Bespoke costs mucho dinero. H'm, lose weight it is.

Will is a guy who I've written about before. He posts at A Suitable Wardrobe and does a pretty good job of laying out his opinions about classic men's style. On March 14, he has the following list of recommendations for a properly fitting jacket:

Starting from the top, the jacket collar should hug the rear of the shirt collar at all times. [My emphasis]

The jacket shoulder should end at the edge of the shoulders, and the armholes should begin no more than an inch below the armpit. High armholes help a jacket to ride properly through a range of motion.

The position of the jacket's buttoning point should be at the natural waist or half an inch below it to keep it from bunching up when the wearer is seated.

The jacket should also be large enough to button without strain - but not too large. There should be no more than three inches of space between the button and the chest.
Jacket lapels should fall straight down the chest without buckling or pulling away from the chest in any other way and the jacket back should not have horizontal creases anywhere along its length. If a coat does buckle or crease it is usually too small, and that's not a correctible[sic] problem.

Finally, the sleeves should show half an inch of shirt cuff when the arms are hanging straight down.

I really like the first point, it's very important. Otherwise, the jacket would look like one's wearing one's dad's jacket and what's more, it looks goddamned sloppy.