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Vêtement · Tailoring

The suit

A suit is simply a jacket and trousers, sometimes with a waistcoat, made from the same cloth at once so they match exactly.

A suit is a jacket and trousers, sometimes with a waistcoat, made from the same cloth at the same time, so the colour and weave match exactly. That is the whole definition. Everything else, from how many buttons to how the lapel is cut, is a matter of convention and fashion.

A navy suit on a valet stand
A navy suit on a valet stand

Why the same cloth matters

Cloth varies between production runs. A jacket and trousers cut from the same piece will match; ones cut from different pieces of nominally identical cloth may not, and the mismatch is visible in daylight. This is why a suit is bought as a suit and why replacing the trousers of a worn suit rarely works.

It is also why an odd jacket and odd trousers, deliberately different, look intentional in a way a near-match does not.

How it should fit

  • Shoulder. The seam should end where your shoulder ends. This is the one thing that cannot be altered, and everything else follows from getting it right.
  • Collar. The jacket collar should sit against your shirt collar with no gap, standing still and moving.
  • Chest. With one button done up you should be able to slide a flat hand inside comfortably and no more.
  • Sleeve. Ending at the wrist bone, showing roughly a centimetre of shirt cuff. Both sleeves may need to differ; most people's arms do.
  • Length. Long enough to cover the seat. Fashion moves this more than anything else on the coat.
  • Trouser waist. At the natural waist if the trousers are cut for it, held there without a belt straining. A trouser that needs pulling up is cut for a lower rise than you are wearing it at.
  • Trouser break. A matter of taste, from no break at all to a full one, but consistent with the trouser's width. A wide trouser with no break looks unfinished; a narrow one with a full break bunches.

Where it came from

The suit descends from the lounge suit of the mid-nineteenth century, which was informal wear: the comfortable alternative to a frock coat or morning coat. It became business dress as the older formal hierarchy collapsed, and it has been quietly informalising ever since. The garment now considered the most formal thing a man owns began as the casual option.

Its structure descends from military and riding dress: the vents at the back exist so the skirt does not bunch in a saddle, and the buttons at the cuff have no function at all beyond the memory of one.

What to look at

  • The chest: pinch the front panel below the buttonhole and feel for a loose layer between cloth and lining.
  • The lapel: a soft roll rather than a pressed crease means a shaped canvas underneath.
  • Pattern matching across the pockets and the centre back seam.
  • The buttonholes: irregular stitch length means hand-worked.
  • Inside the trouser waistband: a hanging curtain and a split back seam mean the trousers were built to be altered.
1 2 3 4 5 6
  1. 1
    Épaule
    s'arrête là où s'arrête le vôtre ; ne peut être modifié
  2. 2
    Col
    contre le col de chemise, debout et en mouvement
  3. 3
    Poitrine
    une main à plat passe ; un poing ne passe pas
  4. 4
    Manche
    jusqu'à l'os du poignet, un centimètre de manchette visible
  5. 5
    Longueur
    couvre le siège
  6. 6
    Ceinture
    resserré, mais le devant ne tire pas
Là où une veste est jugée, selon ce qui peut être corrigé L'épaule vient en premier parce que c'est le seul élément qui ne peut être modifié ; tout ce qui se trouve en dessous peut l'être. Les points deux à six sont tous des retouches ordinaires pour un tailleur compétent. Schéma réalisé pour Il Sartoriale.

Images

Licences →
A man's suit in a museum collection
View from Central footbridge, Hong Kong at night. Bonham Strand Bespoke Suit. Address: Suite B, 2nd Floor, On Lok Mansion,, On Lok House, 39-43 Hollywood Rd, Central, Hong Kong

En un coup d'œil

Definition
Jacket and trousers cut from the same cloth at the same time
Origin
The lounge suit, mid-nineteenth century, originally informal
The one thing you cannot alter
The shoulder

Artisans qui lui sont associés

An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, full canvas chest, drape: soft, full chest, long skirt. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 01 Tailleur sur mesure

Anderson & Sheppard

Anderson & Sheppard, the softest Savile Row tailor, cuts jackets with extra cloth across the chest so they hang softly and move with you.

 A Brioni boutique in Las Vegas 02 Marque

Brioni

Brioni is a Rome tailoring house founded in 1945, known for staging what is called the first men's fashion show and for clean, firm-shouldered suits.

 An illustration of the house's recorded cut: shirt shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan, high armhole. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 03 Tailleur sur mesure

Cesare Attolini

Cesare Attolini is a Neapolitan clothing house run by descendants of the creator of the soft Neapolitan jacket, and it produces in volume while keeping much of the work done by…

 An illustration of the house's recorded cut: roped shoulder, full canvas chest, lean, high-waisted, single button. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 04 Tailleur sur mesure

Huntsman

Huntsman, Savile Row's sharpest tailor, makes lean jackets with strong shoulders, a high nipped waist and usually one button, rooted in riding clothes.

 Kiton's shop in Toronto 05 Marque

Kiton

Ciro Paone's answer to the question of whether Neapolitan handwork could be industrialised without being ruined.

 An illustration of the house's recorded cut: soft shoulder, light canvas chest, rounded, wide lapel, dartless front. Not a photograph of the house's own work. 06 Tailleur sur mesure

Liverano & Liverano

The house that made Florentine tailoring internationally legible: wide lapel, round chest, no dart.
  1. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, soft, short, open quarters. Not a photograph of the house's own work. Rubinacci Tailleur sur mesure · Naples · 1932

    Rubinacci is the oldest and best-known tailoring house in Naples, founded in 1932, where the soft Neapolitan jacket without heavy padding was first created.
  2. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan, restrained. Not a photograph of the house's own work. Sartoria Dalcuore Tailleur sur mesure · Naples

    Sartoria Dalcuore is a small Naples tailor known for soft, well-proportioned jackets and fine handwork, and other tailors rate it more highly than its modest fame suggests.

Comment c'est fabriqué

Toutes les techniques →
A jacket front showing its full canvas 01

Full canvas construction

A hand-shaped skeleton of horsehair and wool, sewn (never glued) between cloth and lining.

 A cutting room with pattern, basted jacket and ledger 02

How a bespoke commission works

A bespoke commission takes four to six months of measuring, a pattern made just for you, and repeated fittings, which are what you are paying for.

 Fusible interlining pressed onto cloth 03

Fused construction

An interlining bonded to the cloth with heat and adhesive. Fast, cheap, and the reason most suits feel like boards.

 A jacket front showing a half canvas 04

Half canvas construction

Canvas through the chest and lapel, fusible below: the compromise most good ready-to-wear makes.

 Shears cutting chalk-marked cloth 05

Hand cutting

One person, one pair of shears, one layer of cloth at a time.

 A check matched across a pocket flap 06

Pattern matching

Pattern matching means lining up stripes or checks across seams and pockets so the design looks unbroken, a quick sign of careful making.
  1. The inside of a bespoke trouser waistband Trouser waistband construction

    The least glamorous part of a suit, and the part that decides whether the trousers sit where you put them.
  2. A tailor's iron shaping a shoulder over a ham Ironwork

    Ironwork is a tailor using heat, moisture and pressure to shrink and stretch wool into body-shaped curves, like a rounded shoulder, before sewing it.
  3. Rows of pad stitches on a lapel canvas Pad stitching

    Thousands of small diagonal stitches that curl flat cloth into a permanent three-dimensional shape.
  4. Pick stitches along a lapel edge Pick stitching

    The small visible stitches along a lapel edge: sometimes a hand finish, more often a machine imitating one.
  5. A basted jacket marked in chalk The basted fitting

    A garment loosely tacked together, tried on, marked in chalk, and then taken apart again.
  6. A sleeve being set into an armhole by hand The hand-set sleeve

    The one seam that most rewards a person doing it, because it is the one seam that has to be eased.
  7. A hand-worked silk buttonhole The hand-worked buttonhole

    Twenty minutes of silk and gimp for a hole that a machine can cut in fifteen seconds.
  8. A roped shoulder with a raised sleeve head The roped shoulder

    The sleeve head lifted slightly proud of the shoulder line: the opposite decision to the Neapolitan one.
Dernière révision: September 2026 Signaler une erreur sur cette page

Connexe

Par iciChoosing your first serious suit TechniqueFull canvas construction Par iciHow a suit should fit HistoireHow the suit happened VêtementTrousers AccessoireCaring for tailoring VêtementThe sport coat TissuWool Figure historiqueCary Grant Terme de glossaireDrop Terme de glossaireHorn buttons TechniqueHow a bespoke commission works
Crédits photographiques 24
  1. A navy suit on a valet stand: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  2. HK Central night Hollywood Road Bonham Strand upstairs workshop May 2016 DSC: Photograph · Hwoofuangmei · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
  3. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, full canvas chest, drape: soft, full chest, long skirt. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  4. Brioniboutique: Photograph · Coolcaesar · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
  5. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: shirt shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan, high armhole. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  6. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: roped shoulder, full canvas chest, lean, high-waisted, single button. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  7. IMG Kiton Toronto: Photograph · Shanmeichen · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
  8. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: soft shoulder, light canvas chest, rounded, wide lapel, dartless front. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  9. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, soft, short, open quarters. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  10. An illustration of the house's recorded cut: natural shoulder, light canvas chest, soft neapolitan, restrained. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  11. A jacket front showing its full canvas: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  12. A cutting room with pattern, basted jacket and ledger: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  13. Fusible interlining pressed onto cloth: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  14. A jacket front showing a half canvas: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  15. Shears cutting chalk-marked cloth: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  16. A check matched across a pocket flap: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  17. The inside of a bespoke trouser waistband: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  18. A tailor's iron shaping a shoulder over a ham: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  19. Rows of pad stitches on a lapel canvas: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  20. Pick stitches along a lapel edge: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  21. A basted jacket marked in chalk: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  22. A sleeve being set into an armhole by hand: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  23. A hand-worked silk buttonhole: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
  24. A roped shoulder with a raised sleeve head: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art

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