Can I make this sport coat fit with tailoring?
Hi I bought this vintage tweed sport coat online. It’s a little bigger around the chest and waist than I was expecting. Shoulders and collar seem to fit well, sleeves are a tad long.
My question is: do you think I can have the chest and waist taken in so that the silhouette doesn’t look so wide and baggy? I’m concerned that the waist pockets are already somewhat “rotated” to face outwards, and that they will be even more laterally facing if I get the waist taken in. What do you all think? In general I am going for a looser more traditional fit, but not this loose. Happy to clarify my question if it doesn’t make sense.
4 Replies
I am willing to bet $5 that if you get it taken in at the side and back seams, it'll be fine.
I know it seems like a lot, but especially for a heavy tweed jacket, taking in like four inches might be entirely feasible and look good when you're done. I don't want to say "should," but I have had it done to my favorite tweed jacket and it worked out great - it draped just fine but if you looked closely had too much space at the waist, just like yours, and it was taken in to fit almost slim and looks solid.
The way it is right now, it's visibly a little larger than you want around the waist and skirt, but it's honestly passable as-is. Heavy stuff like tweed just drapes super well. So given that, I would actually recommend wearing it out as is a couple times so you get used to it and really feel out how you think it fits and looks. You know, just walk about town in it, whatever.
Thank you! You’re right, heavy wool fabrics drape incredibly well. I might try wearing it out before tailoring it like you said.
What size is it because I’d be happy to take it off your hands
As long as you don't mess with shoulders or chest, everything is possible more or less from my experience.
That said, I wouldn't take in a lot from the chest since it often changes the silhouette... I learned the hard way that you should buy only according to your chest size. If you have a 38, buy a 38, if you wear a 40, buy a 40. I wouldn't bother with buying too large, it will almost everytime cause a hassle...
Fit and a good drape are nice but you must also think about proportions. Taking in too much from the chest area might cause the chest pocket to move too far to the sleeve seam.
Talking about proportions, you can't change button stance/position either.
My overall advice is, buy to fit shoulders and chest perfectly 🙂