Men & Style: Getting the Right Fit

Ladies, wouldn’t it be great if the shirt your man wears actually flattered his body? It’s not just a dream. Every man is different and has a unique build. Sometimes your man is a little broad in the chest and every time you buy him a shirt you feel like he is putting on a tent. Or maybe he is super skinny and unless you buy in the boy’s section, you aren’t going to find something to fit him. Or he might just be a regular build, but the sleeves are always too long or too short. Whatever his challenges are to find a shirt that truly fits him, here are the four most common fit mistakes and how to solve them!!

1. Big Neck, Small Waist
Many body builders and barrel-chested men complain to us that they are dissatisfied with their shirts because by the time they get a size to fit in the neck and chest, the shirt manufacturers figure the belly must be proportionately large. This leaves the man with sometimes and extra foot or more of fabric in their shirt in excess. This is difficult, because even a great tailor can only do so much to take in that much fabric, and it can look very awkward if not done perfectly.

2. Sleeves Length
This is probably the simplest problem to fix, and yet many people don’t even know where to begin. Where should the sleeves on a dress shirt hit? Should there be any excess on the sleeve or should it hit exactly at the break of the hand? Take our model for example, see how his sleeves hit right were the wrist and the hand meet? Ideally, you would like the shirt to hit the break of the hand and have some blouse up through the sleeve so when he moves, the shirts don’t slide half way up his forearm. If your man is built like a raptor or an ape, you may have two different sleeve issues, but both of them can be solved with custom or even a having a tailor shorten the sleeves. Eton is famous for having a longer sleeve, so it gives options for men with either of these fit issues.

3. Neck Size
How should the collar fit? Many times we will see people who look like they are drowning in their shirt, like the shirt is pulling them right down into the abyss that is the collar of the shirt. A simple rule of thumb is that you should be able to put two fingers side by side in between your collar and neck. If you can fit more than that, your shirt is too big in the neck. If it is less, you might need to reconsider a bigger size. Custom is also an option for different neck lengths. Your husband might have a really long or short neck, it would only then make sense to build him a collar that stands a little higher or shorter to make his neck look like it is in proportion to the rest of his body.

4. Taper Amount
How much is too much? If your buttons are pulling, you’ve gone too far and should turn back. But that doesn’t seem to be the problem with most men’s shirts that we see. We see just the opposite, men wearing shirts that are much too full. Many men who are “mature” and have earned a bit of a belly are doing themselves a great disservice by wearing a boxy shirt. A boxy shirt will make that man look even heavier than he is. The trick is to get a shirt that has a flattering taper, but stays away from being too tight. Most big guys are blown away when they get a shirt from us that fools their wife into thinking they have lost 20 pounds. It is truly amazing what a proper fit on a shirt can do for any man.

The best news is that with the right help, you can get your man looking like he knows how his shirt should fit in no time. We can show you individually how his shirt should fit, and if we don’t have the right fit in stock, we will make it custom starting as low as $100. You can’t go wrong.