How much can I shorten the length of a suit Jacket?

[ReL]

I was just wondering how much can a tailor shorten a suit jacket without affecting its look? thanks in adavnce fellas you guys have been great help.

 

[mrchapel]

General consensus from various visits to local tailors suggest no more than 2 inches.

 

[chobochobo]

2 inches sounds about right, but then jacket should cover your bottom. You can upset the look of the jacket particularly by shortening the distance from the pockets to the bottom edge too much in proportion to the rest of the garment.

 

[Sator]

Originally Posted by ReL

I was just wondering how much can a tailor shorten a suit jacket without affecting its look? thanks in adavnce fellas you guys have been great help.
I am cutting and pasting my own old AAAC reply: Coat lengths are a tricky business to play around with. They are also a time consuming business to fix so it will cost you a bit more than just altering sleeve length. The safest recommendation is to say that you should avoid altering coat lengths by any more than 3/4" at the most. In some cases you may get away with 1" or even 1.25". The main issue is how low the side pockets are because they can end up too low/high. In fact a coat that is designed to be shorter has everything higher - the chest pocket, the gorge, the side pockets, the buttons, the arm holes. It's not just pure length. So if you fiddle too much with the length the proportions can end up being all wrong. One good tailor tells me the length from the top of the side pockets to the bottom of the coat should be at least 9". That said I prefer to have pockets a touch too low than a coat that is too long as it covers my legs and makes them look short. If you are tall and long legged you can get away with a longish coat length.

 

[a tailor]

1/2" without question. but check the distance between the top of the pocket and the coat bottom on one of your coats. compare it to the new coat. see if the proportion is similar. the new coat could be a little shorter but not extreemly so.