Adding a shoulder pad to a jacket?

[moon unit]

I recently purchased a beautiful navy two button Brioni jacket at NM during the Last Call sale in a lighter weight cashmere weave(?) that can be worn year round. When I tried it on I thought it fit perfectly, even the arm length was spot on. The cuff buttons needed to be sewn on (never seen that before) so the salesman called the tailor to double check the fit. After checking it he wasn't happy with the fit so he grabbed a shoulder pad and put it over my right shoulder (my right shoulder does hang slightly lower than my left but no one had ever noticed that but myself) and put the jacket back on and told me that now it fit properly and that he would be sewing it into the jacket as well as lengthening the right sleeve a bit. I questioned him but he was pretty adamant about it so I agreed. The salesman said it was not uncommon to see that done when I questioned him as well. My main worry is that the additional pad might be visibly noticeable under the right shoulder. I know Brioni jackets have pretty structured shoulders but this jacket was a bit softer in general than the other Brioni jackets I have.

Have any of you guys had this done to a jacket and if so is the additional pad noticeable at all? Is it a fairly common practice? I would really appreciate any comments on this.

Thanks

 

[Sator]

Only the better alteration tailors notice details like a dropped shoulder. Bespoke tailors do it as a matter of routine and build that into the contruction. Adding or removing shoulder padding from RTW coats is an extention of the same practice.

 

[j]

It is entirely down to the skill of the tailor whether the alteration will look good. Unfortunately, you really won't know until you get it. I've seen very good extra padding and very bad extra padding and some stuff in between. Hopefully he will know not to use foam...

Wait and see, it will be reversible.

 

[Jared]

I have a dropped shoulder. So far I've chosen not to have extra padding added, although tailors have mentioned it (although never really recommended it). The problem as I see it is that your silhouette will be symmetrical at the expense of askew lines in the jacket. So in my view the cure is as bad as the disease.

The other reason why I haven't had it done is that I've been meaning to look into fixing my shoulder - I believe it's a muscle problem. Do you know the cause in your case?

 

[j]

In most cases, the padding is added to remove those 'askew lines'.

 

[Jared]

Originally Posted by j

In most cases, the padding is added to remove those 'askew lines'.
Good point, I should be more precise: you're trading horizontal skewed lines for vertical skewed lines (or maybe it's the other way around?). If there's more you+padding on one side of the jacket than the other, it can't lie perfectly unless there's more fabric on one side than the other (ie: bespoke). Perhaps an imperfection in balance is less significant than an imperfection in shoulder height, but I'm paranoid.