We’ve all worn clothes that fit horribly before, and often it’s just because we’re terrible at finding the right fit. How Clothes Should Fit is a site that hopes to demystify how men’s dress clothes are supposed to fit to make shopping and dressing process a bit easier.
The site’s based on a guide book from Reddit, and its aim is pretty simple: make finding clothes that fit as easy as possible. To that end, it covers how to figure out if dress shirts, blazers, coats, chinos, jeans, dress trousers, jeans, ties and shoes are a good fit. This includes details about where the sleeves should sit, how it should look buttoned and plenty more.
If you have trouble finding clothes that fit, the site is worth a look to educate yourself on where you might be going wrong on your shopping trips.
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15 responses to “How Clothes Should Fit Keeps You From Looking Sloppy”
That “correct” sleeve length is far too short, you shouldn’t be able to see the break where your hand meets your arm. What they describe as too long is actually just right. That way when you wear a jacket, you get a cm or two of sleeve peeking out.
Agreed. The rule of thumb (if I remember correctly) is one inch of visible cuff when wearing a jacket.
Since both the arms of the shirt, and jacket move with am movement, I’m guessing this guy would very quickly have jacket cuffs around his elbow.
Also – that’s all well and good for skinny people. Would be good to see a similar guide for people with a bit more girth 🙂
The guide is for people of average build, not necessarily those you deem to be “skinny”
And what is the average person these days? The ABS essentially says the average person is not one with a “flatter fit” body.
The waist-hip-ratio of the drawings is for someone very lean.
Plus – from the site – “let us note that clothes best flatter a fit body” followed by instructions to get fit, even if you are tall and “lanky and stick like.”
I think it’s a “current style” thing – which can also be said of a few other things in that guide. It’s a decent start for people with zero sense of sartorial elegance, but fashionistas would likely baulk at this prescriptive approach to style.
True.
It’s not just a “fashionista” thing though, anyone who dresses to a style would be at variance with it to a degree, especially more conservative, retro styles.
It’s good advice for staying within the current style, as you say.
That advice is tricky (referring to all the rest on the website) because it’s also dependant on certain fashion trends i.e. it’s not universal advice, these things change over time and it’s also more applicable to younger age groups.
Shirt fit and trouser pleats are good examples of that.
It’s good advice, but it needs that caveat. None of it is a “golden rule”
Better advice would be where to actually buy clothes with such nuanced sizing. I’m lucky to find a long sleeve shirt that’s long enough as it is, let alone one that leave the “perfect gap”. Once I do find such a magical shirt, it’s usually because I’ve had to get an XXXL size, which of course looks ridiculous, and highlights the problem in the second diagram.
I’ve got a very thick neck but short arms so finding fitted shirts to bea perfect fit is hard, it doesn’t help there often in those stupid plastic boxes that stores don’t like removing them from.
It’s advising me to buy skinny jeans. Something which is thankfully already on the way out.
Thanks for informing me how to dress like a douche from 2011 website!
There’s no mention of skinny jeans at all in the article.
I’ll admit that my 90s upbringing means that anything tighter than super baggy equals skinny jeans in my mind but the article clearly talks about the slim fit of a skinny jean. Buy one size smaller, the jeans will stretch? Avoid the bootcut? We are talking jeans that like to hug bro.
You always buy a size down in jeans, especially raw denim, as it’ll go up 1-2 sizes. Nothing to do with skinny jeans. I have two pairs of jeans I bought that I couldn’t do the top two buttons up on and now they are baggy. This isn’t talking about “jeggings”, this is just talking about an appropriate fit.
I could do that or I could just go the whole hog and get into the latex/suffocation scene. But I’m not a pervert, so I’ll do neither.
I think you and I have very different concepts of what baggy means. If you have to buy a size down to cover yourself for when raw denim ‘stretches’ then your jeans are too tight and you like your jeans too tight.
Now as I already admitted in my original post, this has been the style for a number of years unfortunately. Fortunately, that style is on the way out and I couldn’t be happier. Perhaps you haven’t realised yet. That’s cool. I’m not one to suggest we must be slaves to the newest trends, I’m just personally excited about having more options when draping my squatters thighs.
Also, jeggings and skinny jeans are not the same thing bro.
Most of these skinny jean things won’t go past my knees, unless I go up about 6 sizes.