Opinions on suit fit (Kashiyama)

[Nitrogen]

Hi!

I'm a really tall and pretty buff guy. I decided it is time to order my first MTM (or MTO) suit from Kashiyama NYC, which will also be my first proper wool suit. The fabric I chose is a navy (Vitale Barberis Canonico), with full canvas. The final price was around 800 USD, which is a lot of money for me, thus making it important to get a functional suit for the price.

Because I'm really new to all of this, I would greatly appreciate any opinions of how the suit fits me! You can see me try on in the following video:


My own take is that it feels pretty tight around the shoulder, bicep area, which also causes some weird wrinkling in the shoulders. The sleeve lenght appears to be pretty nice and otherwise the fit is ok, I guess.

 

[Phileas Fogg]

The length is good. Your gut is right; the suit is too tight. There’s too much waist suppression and with the jacket buttoned, the vent flap pull away. It should lay flat.

They could let the waist out a bit but I’m not sure what they could do about the sleeves short of reconstructing them.

 

[Nitrogen]

The length is good. Your gut is right; the suit is too tight. There’s too much waist suppression and with the jacket buttoned, the vent flap pull away. It should lay flat.

They could let the waist out a bit but I’m not sure what they could do about the sleeves short of reconstructing them.

Thank you for your observations! So, having read your comment and thought about it, I guess there is just too little space in the shoulders and in the arm sleeve, along with the problems with the waist.

I suppose they should know what is wrong when I go for a refit, but not so sure that's always the case. It will be interesting to see how this will proceed from here - I'll update once there are major developments, in case anyone else is wondering whether Kashiyama is a reasonable choice.

 

[dieworkwear]

When buying a suit or sport coat, the first thing to look for is how the collar behaves on you. The collar should hug your neck and should stay glued there when you move around (within reason). This is the first thing you should look for before anything else because it's the most difficult thing to alter. Issues such as waist suppression can be taken in or out, but it's difficult to get the shoulders and collar to sit correctly if they don't off-the-rack.

Here, the jacket is not properly sitting on your neck.

You want something like this

 

[Nitrogen]

An update on how its going so far:

Since last update, I received a custom shirt I ordered from Kashiyama and it was a pretty good fit. I took a plain white oxford, but only later realized this weave tends to be more on the casual side, if I got it right. Learning as I go.

Regarding the actual suit, I went back with the suit for alterations at a time when their tailor was present. I was very pessimistic about getting the jacket to firt, since I had realized the many fundamental problems like slight collar gap, too tight armholes, too tight shoulders, too tight waist etc (thanks for your comments). The tailor however started to work on it immediately, pinning the neck area, need for extending the shoulders, letting out the waist. Also some adjustments for the pants, more space for the seat.

I was still not very convinced that it would work, but the whole time I've wanted to get the whole process from the perspective of a regular customer, who is not very accustomed to suits. Thus, I did not force my opinions at any point too much, instead I want to see how the process guides the customer. I might end up doing a video review once the process is complete.

Anyways, I waited a week and went back on the morning of Christmas eve, as instructed. The jacket felt somehow better, but unfortunately the collar gap seemed to be even worse. This likely has to do with my quite broad and sloped shoulders, which do not fit well with the basic jacket template. I was quite disappointed at this time, but the staff had me convinced that they could make a new jacket and make it work. So we sized up one or two times on the coat, until the shoulder/arm fit was better. However, there's gonna be a lot of extra fabric on the waist that needs to be taken out, and some adjustments to the shoulders etc. I'm optimistic that in the end, I might get a relatively good fitting first suit.

Altogether, I have to point out that my shape and size is likely to be from the more difficult end of the spectrum, which explains some of these troubles. The next time I'll go to their store is gonna be my fourth visit, and likely I will have to go for a fifth one before I have a fitting suit. Fingers crossed!