The Power of Tailoring: Before & After – UNIQLO Tweed Blazer

UNIQLO “Tweed” Slim Fit Jacket – $89.90 ($99.90)

“The Power of Tailoring” is a series that champions finding a tailor and developing a relationship with him or her. Fit is key, and a little tailoring can go a long way in the world of affordable off-the-rack clothing. Here are the four basic alterations your tailor should be able to accomplish with little trouble, depending on the construction of the garment.

UNIQLO’s proportions for their jackets are, for many, kinda odd. Crazy long arms. Short if not chopped tails. A higher than most would like button stance. But they’re CHEAP.

At 5’10” / 180lbs / 40R, a medium in UNIQLO’s slim fit jackets are just too tight through the chest/shoulders, and too short in the tail. So a large was ordered. It fit decent enough through the shoulders, arms, and back, but the sleeves & mid section were way too generous. Still, the pattern was terrific (for me), the button stance was tolerable, the soft construction was just what I wanted… and the price was right. Here’s what happened:

 

 Before. The Mayor of Dump City.
Boxy body + Sleeves are way, way too long.

 

 After. Much better. A little waist suppression and major shortening of sleeves.
You can now see some shirt cuff. Waist is now tapered instead of boxy.

 

The sleeves were so long that ALL of the buttons had to be removed.
Cut was made just above where the button closest to the elbow used to be.
Buttons were then sewn back onto the jacket. 

 

$45 was the total cost for tailoring this jacket. $20 for the sleeves, $25 to taper the sides.
Yes, the tailoring alone was half the cost of the blazer itself, but it was worth it.
Is it now the perfect blazer? No. (See #6, here) But it’s 50x the blazer it was before,
and despite what some of the menswear obsessed will tell you, perfect is the enemy of good.