How to measure for a Suit Jacket
There’s nothing worse than an ill-fitting suit jacket. Every single one of us has, at some point, experienced the frustration of trying to throw our hands up (perhaps for Detroit, perhaps because Fred Durst told us too) at a wedding party and finding that we have limited movement in the arm department. Nightmare. Let’s avoid that, shall we?
1. Shoulder Width (Across the Shoulder)
Place the measuring tape at the point of one of your shoulders, where it curves. The point at which shoulder becomes arm. Where, if you were to draw a headless human being as a rectangle, the right angle would be. Measure across the back, following the natural curve of the body as opposed to in a straight as-the-crow-flies line, and stop at the corresponding point on the other side. That’s sleeve seam-to-sleeve-seam on the jacket itself.
2. Pit to Pit
Go from what you’d deem the centre point of one armpit, across the chest, to the centre of the other pit. It’s easy to spot on your jacket—it’s where the sleeve seam meets the side seam. Also a good alternative name for the London Underground at rush hour, ‘pit-to-pit’.
3. Chest Size
This is a bit like the old pit-to-pit except it goes all the way round your chest and back. Measure across the fullest part of your chest, which should form a line that comes to somewhere near your nipples, around the back, and back to where you started.
4. Sleeve Length
Remember that point we talked about earlier—where shoulder becomes arm? Measure from there, down the outside of your arm, to your wrist. Easy.
5. Front Length
This one goes from the top of your shoulder—so where your traps meet your neck, if you’re lucky enough to have discernable trapezius muscles, to your waist i.e. somewhere around your belly button.
