Skellington needs wardrobe help

[PaxImbrium]

Hi guys. I've lurked here intermittently for the past year or so. I've learned a lot from you guys in that time, but never really joined until now. I need help guys; I'm at the end of my rope, so I'm turning to you.

The deal is that I am, unfortunately, Jack Skellington, at least in body size. I have a short torso and ridiculously long legs. I also have (literally) the torso of a twelve year old, due to a scoliosis surgery I had at that age. Twelve year old me got lucky; he could still bend most of his back, and got to brag about how expensive his spine was. Modern me has to deal with a distorted hourglass figure, and a chest measurement that matches his waist (34 inches). Now, unfortunately, while my torso had stopped growing, no-one told my arms that they should follow suit to keep up appearances, so here I am with a (roughly) 2 foot torso, a 34 inch chest, and a 36 inch sleeve (from the base of the neck). On a good day, I'm Jack Skellington. On a bad day, I'm the ice cream man from Legion.

Now, I've done my homework, followed a few leads, but no luck. The final straw was when I ordered a few "Slim fit," dress shirts over the internet, only for them to fit like garbage bags over me. I'm a poor college student, so I'm dreading the conclusion this has drawn me to, but it's the only one that continuously pops up.

I'm going to have to make good friends with a tailor, aren't I?

 

[jeff13007]

The best thing you can do is to go to a tailor in person and forget about ordering over the internet or buying rtw. At least that way he can see what he needs to do.

 

[cbbuff]

You could still try to do MTM for shirts over the internet, but yes, starting with a tailor would be a great start and would minimize the number of times it takes to dial in the fit.

 

[MikeDT]

Who's "Jack Skellington"?

EDIT:

sorry scrub that... Wikipedia to the rescue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Skellington

 

[Sanguis Mortuum]

I also have about a 34" chest, and actually also had scoliosis which was corrected, though I don't have your problems with arm/torso length.

Since RTW shirts all fit like tents, I get all my shirts made to measure from ModernTailor or TailorStore; depending on the fabrics you choose it barely costs anything more than buying RTW, but you get shirts which actually fit.

Suits and sport-coats on the other hand are a bit more difficult to get right over the internet, so for them it is probably best to find a local tailor if possible. Although there are places offering them online very cheaply it can be wasted money if the result fits like crap (see the Indochino thread for example).

 

[Gibonius]

For a friend of mine: What's a good source for moderately priced sweaters for you 34-36R guys?

 

[Sanguis Mortuum]



For a friend of mine: What's a good source for moderately priced sweaters for you 34-36R guys?

I get all mine from Uniqlo.