Waist size query
Say the measuring tape gives me a 32.5in for my waist. Would I want to order a mtm pants to have the exact measurement or how much allowance should I give it
6 Replies
Any half decent online mtm business will tell you how to measure yourself.
No, you don't need MTM pants. Go try on some pants in a store and see what fits
edit: I may have misunderstood your question. Are you asking if you need MTM pants, or are you already ordering MTM pants and need sizing advice?
Generally, a tailor can take the waist in of any pants about 1" linearly / 2" circumference smaller, without needing to do any "interesting" work and without fucking up the fit. Up to 2//4" is often possible without recutting, but as you go above a 1//2" reduction recutting may become necessary. On the flip side, pants can generally be let out up to 1//2" inches without changing the shape if there is enough material allowance to do so; more is rarely possible.
What that means is that if you buy trousers and they're a little too big, you bring them to a tailor and pay about $20 and they make them smaller for you. A little too little, same thing, usually.
My perfect fit is 16.00-16.25" and I can get 17" down easily. My body shape is not interesting enough to require custom-fit, and trousers are way simpler to fit than jackets so most people don't need custom-fit.
Now that said, there are some overlaps in price between high quality RTW trousers, and good quality MTM, where you may feel you'd rather dial in an MTM pattern and get the "perfect fit" rather than pay someone for their brand strength and still need to do mild alterations. Many people do, so I won't say you shouldn't get MTM pants. I will say that online MTM will take several iterations to dial in ($$$) and unless you need it for shape reasons or want it for ... want reasons ... you are generally best off buying RTW and tailoring it.
To answer your very specific question, online MTM will tell you how to measure yourself and how to turn that into an order. Remember that there is no one perfect fit or perfect number, even for an individual, so going from a 32.5" waist to an MTM order is not as trivial as 'click it and ship it' unless you're getting the most default option and never deviating from it.
I don't disagree with @GSH in general but I wanted to give you maybe a fuller reason that includes the whys and why-nots
I took the question as "do I need MTM pants because my waist measures 32.5 rather than 32 or 33" but I think that's not what OP is actually asking
Yeah, need more details
OP, if GSH read your question correctly -- do note that "size 32" is not a strict 32" circumference. There are basically three reasons for that (that I can think of right now). First, most US brands skip inch increments, going from 32 to 34 to 36, but if they did this strictly then everyone who's like a 33 would be shit outta luck, so in reality brands kind of give you a size that's close to stated but might play games to make better fit for people. Second, there's quite a lot of variation in manufacturing where a brand might intend to make a 34" waist but actually end up making a 33.5 - 34.5" waist across a production run of a thousand garments, all get tagged the same but some fit better or worse than others. Third is unfortunately that men's clothes have started some time ago to fall victim to vanity sizing, I have never seen more than a full size up, but it is somewhat common to see pants tagged 32" to be 33" or even 34" around. The upshot of that is that if you are 32.5, you probably want pants that range from maybe 32.75 to 34" depending on various other choices, but they might all be tagged 32, so go into a store and try em on.
Oh and to make things more complicated, EU sizing is also a thing and EU sizing does not line up with US/UK sizing. So you might hypothetically find one american brand fits great and one EU brand that should be roughly equivalent does not, or vice versa, or you can find brands whose sizes slot in between other brands... it's a whole thing
Ok thank you. I guess no harm getting a bigger waist as it can be easily altered if it's not to my liking