Shoulder Width Question

PattyPoo · Sep 13, 2012

Hello gents,

New to the forum but looooooooong time lurker. I just searched the last 10 minutes to see if a thread could help me before posting, so apologies if this has been answered before.

Very interested in a smoking deal online but this is my first time purchasing a suit online without a physical reference. I have taken my measurements and have this quick question:

The shoulder width of this particular suit is 19.5 inches and when doing my measurements tonight, my shoulder width on my best fitting jacket was just over 19 inches. How appreciable a difference will this be? Can alterations be done here? It is a RLBL suit.

stevent · Sep 13, 2012

Shoulders hardest thing to change. Tailor could maybe remove some padding though?

PattyPoo · Sep 13, 2012

stevent said:
Shoulders hardest thing to change. Tailor could maybe remove some padding though?

That is the impression I was under as well, that the shoulders are something that can't really be changed as it may ruin the integrity of the garment. I guess what I'm wondering is, the difference of a half inch...how appreciable or noticeable will it be?

I know some shoulders fit differently...I took my measurements in a HB Selection suit. It's not my highest quality piece, but it has always fit extremely well. I've never worn RLBL before, so 19.5 in Black Label compared to just over 19 in my Selection jacket...how much of a difference would there be?

Blackhood · Sep 13, 2012

That 0.5 inches will make very little difference. It balances out to 0.25 inches on each shoulder which when you look at a tape measure is negligible. If the suit ends up being too big then either have a tailor add some padding or sell it here; RLBL always has a very strong demand on the forum so you should be able to get your money back.

Despos · Sep 13, 2012

You really won't know until you try it on. The method you used to measure and the way the RL suit is measured may differ. The slope of the shoulder will have an effect of how wide the shoulder looks on you and how the sleeve is finished matters. You may or may not notice a difference.

winston · Sep 13, 2012

It might help to mention what size the suit is.

It's common for sellers to under-measure so if anything the actual measurement could be wider. Impossible to know, of course.

It's a small difference and as others have said it may or may not matter. In my experience it partly depends on fabric weight and how structured it is.

You mentioned the shoulder width of your best-fitting jacket. What about your other jackets? It's good to compare to as many as possible that you own and can try on and judge.

PattyPoo · Sep 13, 2012

Thank you gents. This is actually my first purchase on the B&S and this will be my first fully canvassed suit. Very exciting for a young-ish guy who has made some rather, um, ill informed suit decisions in the past 18 months.

I'm going to re-measure the original jacket and measure a few more, because I'm wondering if my numbers are off. The seller made a good point...it's not overly common to hear a 44R jacket at 19 inches. So, I'm wondering if my measurements are off. I'll upadte in the next little bit.

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