Rugged Old Salt
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Random Florence Street Shot
One must wonder: is this just an unflattering photo of the gentleman on the left or does he indeed have way too much fabric in the upper back of his jacket? Or maybe he recently hit the gym and shed some pounds. Who knows.
But notice how much better the jacket homie on the right is wearing fits.
Pinching and raising the neck of a jacket is usually done to correct collar flaws. However, any time I have had my neck pinched and raised, I’ve noticed a better fit across the back as well. You’d think this Florentine gentleman would have gotten that fixed, whether by pinch and raise or some other technique.
In any event, nice bag, bro.
A tailor much more skillful than myself once tried to explain to me the fascination of overtly tight clothing in young men new to tailored clothing. I mentioned to him the trend of those coming to me for suits, favouring jackets far too small, that looked magazine worthy while standing still but lacking any elegance or drape for movement.
The example he used was that of a leather glove - close a fist and it looks molded to the skin, stretched as it is against the back of the hand. But open the fist and the glove will bag at the knuckles and extend past the ends of the fingers. It explained it well for me and I’ve strived for elegant fit ever since, not always successfully considering how well my wife cooks.
While neither gent has particularly great fit with these obviously off the rack cotton jackets, judging by a static image of two different body shapes in motion is a poor case study. While the man on the left has his left shoulder up and back, causing the imbalance and what you are seeing as the excess cloth, the man on the right is wearing a tight jacket to hide these sins. With a forward and sloping shoulder, the jacket pulls tight like the glove on a fist, and gives the impression of fit.
Dropping a collar is a fix for a too long back balance. The issue here is an imbalance from left to right, and a cotton jacket worn off the rack in a size that isn’t skin tight. Had the photo been taken a second later you might be deriding Mr Short rather than Mr Tall.
While taste is subjective without bounds - what I post and what I wear might have the coolest of tumblr scoff - fit has parameters, particularly in classic clothing. While it is tempting to praise the ultra slim, two dimensional fit, achieving clean lines with enough drape for movement and ease to remain elegant is the true marker of beautiful tailoring.
Desu(Source: ethandesu, via nicetrybro)
