Proper sleeve lengths for shirts and jackets

[dah328]

The oft-quoted guideline for the amount of shirt cuff shown beyond the jacket sleeve is 3/8 to 1/2 inch. I assume this guideline applies when standing with your arms at your side.

How does this look when you bend your arms? Consider that the correct sleeve length on a shirt should include enough extra length to prevent the cuff from being pulled away from the wrist when the arm is bent. A jacket sleeve has no such extra length. If it is sized to show 1/2 inch of cuff when the arm is straight, the jacket sleeve will retract when the arm is bent and show considerably more than 1/2" of shirt cuff.

I assume that's the way it is supposed to be, but I ask this because it's like pulling teeth to get a tailor to cut a jacket sleeve short enough to show anything more than a millimeter of cuff when standing. It's almost as if they intend for shirt cuff to be shown only when the arm is bent.

Regards,

dan

 

[BjornH]

I assume that's the way it is supposed to be, but I ask this because it's like pulling teeth to get a tailor to cut a jacket sleeve short enough to show anything more than a millimeter of cuff when standing. It's almost as if they intend for shirt cuff to be shown only when the arm is bent.

This rhymes with my experience with tailors. No matter what I tell them, I almost always get the sleeves of the jacket about a 1cm too long for my tastes leaving only a tiny amount of cuff. Afterwards,I can't be bothered to have them shorten it further as I'm anxious to take it for a spin. This happens in two out of three cases.

 

[drizzt3117]

I noticed this as well, if you look in the member pictures thread, the Brioni jacket that I am wearing in the first picture normally shows about 1/2"-5/8" of cuff, but when I have my arms angled slightly forward as in the picture, it shows a bit more, more like 3/4" to 1" I personally don't mind this particularly much, as I think it looks a bit better than say, the second suit, which shows barely a sliver of cuff.

 

[Manton]

Shirt sleeves should be long enough so that the cuff stays with the wrist when you move your arms.  When your arms are at your side and the shirt cuff is unfastened, the cuff should hang beyond your wrist.  When buttoned, it should rest on your palm and the base of your thumb.  The excess sleeve should "gather" above the cuff.

Coat sleeves should be short enough to show 1/2" (or so) of shirt cuffs when you arms are at their side.  If both shirt sleeve and coat sleeve are the proper length, then your shirt cuffs will indeed extend far beyond the coat sleeve end when you move your arms, especially when you extend your arms straight forward.  This is perfectly normal.

 

[scottmag]

My clothes are decidedly more pedestrian than the tailored stuff usually discussed here, but my experience is exactly the same as far as sleeve length. I find I am constantly pulling my shirt sleeves down to extend beyond the jacket. I was noticing this very thing today during a long meeting.

A related issue I have is that my shirt sleeve buttons are never quite right. My best fit comes from the Brooks Brothers shirts I took to the tailor. I had the two cuff buttons (one to tight, the other too loose) replaced with a single button between the two positions. He charged me a couple of bucks per shirt (Brooks want $15 each). Little steps like this make me realize how nice clothing tailored exactly for me would be.

Otherwise loose cuffs can extend too far down onto the hand and tight cuffs get hung up above my watch. I think that shirt sleeves should be long enough not to pull away from the wrist when the arm is bent, but that requires the cuffs be sized right to stay in place.

 

[acole]

Shirt sleeves should be long enough so that the cuff stays with the wrist when you move your arms.

Of course, the cuffs also have to be tight enough not to slide up and down your wrist at the slightest provocation.  All of my Charles Tyrwhitt shirts have far too much slop in the cuffs; I'm still trying to get my MTM shirts "dialed in".

I've had the same lousy luck getting department-store tailors to listen to me on the cuff-length issue--apparently they have their own standard that puts the cuff in a fixed position relative to the wrist bone, and they just dismiss customers who want something different as ill-informed.  I've been told repeatedly, "Oh, but you don't want it that short."  Well, damn it all, yes I do: I actually shoot for 3/4" shirt-cuff showing, as I'm what you'd call "big & tall".  Luckily, my local independent tailor actually listens and complies when it comes to such requests.  

You should also consider the distinct possibility that your arms have different lengths.  I only discovered my own 3/4" discrepancy when someone pointed it out to me in a photo I posted here.  I've had in-store alterations done where they just made both sleeves the same length, which naturally didn't work too well.

 

[truthhurts]

I prefer to never show more than 1" of shirt cuff. To me showing more looks inelegant. I err toward showing a sliver while standing with arms at my side and a max 1" when arms bent.

 

[johnw86]

My best fit comes from the Brooks Brothers shirts I took to the tailor.  I had the two cuff buttons (one to tight, the other too loose) replaced with a single button between the two positions.  He charged me a couple of bucks per shirt (Brooks want $15 each).  

I do this myself and save even more--and that's about the limit of my abilities with a needle and thread.