Softening Suit Shoulders

[petitnoblesse]

Well I recently proved that old adage "you get what you pay for" true.

I went ahead and ordered a suit online from Thailand. Now that it is here I tried it on and the suit shoulders sit almost a full inch off my shoulders, as well there feels like there is a pillow in there for shoulder padding.

Is it a big deal to have a tailor soften the shoulders and take padding out?

Also will that shorten my sleeve length? The sleeves are dangerously short as is.

PN

 

[j]

It can be done by a good tailor, but things might be off afterwards. It will actually lengthen the sleeves because they will now sit that much farther down your shoulder. Have someone take a look at it.

 

[paul]

What firm tailored for you? If it's who I suspect, I would certainly encourage you to indicate this for the benefit of others and the members of the forum.

 

[TheFoo]

In addition to altering the fit of the sleeve, removing the shoulder padding may cause the shoulder to take a somewhat convex shape since the armhole was probably cut larger to accomodate the padding. When the padding was removed from some of my made-to-measure jackets, I had that problem.

 

[a tailor]

moofan is right.
when the padding comes out the shoulders will fall down because there is an empty space where the pad was. this will also cause the chest to collapse and the same in the blades. the sleeve needs to be removed and the shoulders sloped over the area where the pads where. then the sleeve cap to be reshaped to match the new armhole. and last the sleeve returned to the coat.
discuss this with your tailor.

 

[FidelCashflow]

From what I've read, altering the shoulders on a suit is one of the most complicated things to do since a suit is basically built around the shoulders. Adjustments to it rarely turn out good. If anyone (i.e. a salesman) tells you otherwise... don't believe them.

 

[petitnoblesse]

I went through A Song Tailor. The pants and shirts were well made but the jacket was terrible! The armholes were cut very low, one was cut lower than the other and the body was way too tight. Part of the problem may have been my measurements I sent him, but the sewing on the arms were atrocious.

At least the jacket was fully canvassed

I brought the jacket to Charles the tailor in L.A. He has done great work for me before but he took one look at the jacket and said to forget about it.