Suit Alterations Perth: Why Your Expensive Suit May Still Look Wrong

There is a question we have been asked in one form or another for decades:

How much do I need to spend to look good in a suit?

It sounds like a question about money.

More often than not, it is actually a question about fit.

Beautiful cloth matters. Good construction matters. A well-cut pattern matters. The internal structure and workmanship of a quality garment absolutely matter.

But after decades of cutting patterns, constructing garments, fitting clients and altering suits from almost every level of the market, there is one thing I believe every suit buyer should understand:

The price of a suit and the way that suit fits your body are not the same thing.

An expensive garment can be beautifully made and still be wrong for the person wearing it.

A comparatively modest garment can look remarkably sophisticated when its underlying construction is suitable and it has been properly fitted, balanced and reshaped around the wearer.

Because ultimately, people don't see your receipt.

They see you.

The Camera Doesn't See the Label

This is particularly important when we are fitting clients for weddings.

Think about your wedding photographs ten or twenty years from now.

Nobody looking at those photographs will know whether your suit cost $500, $2,000 or $5,000.

They won't see the label inside the jacket.

They will see your shoulder line. Your chest. Your waist. The length and balance of the jacket. The line of the trousers. The way the cloth falls and, most importantly, how all of those elements work together with your body.

They will see the silhouette.

The camera doesn't see the label. It sees you.

This is why we encourage wedding clients to think beyond the question:

“What is the most expensive suit I can afford?”

A better question may be:

“How do I achieve the best possible silhouette with the budget I have?”

Those are not necessarily the same thing.

David Genat in his Tom Ford suit after BGM tailoring at Perth Tailoring Co. The original garment is an exceptional luxury suit, but BGM fitting refines its balance, proportion and silhouette around David’s individual body geometry.

Measurements Provide Dimensions. The Frame Provides Geometry.

Measurements are fundamental to tailoring.

But measurements and body geometry are not the same thing.

A measurement can tell us length, width or circumference. It cannot completely describe the three-dimensional shape of a human being.

Two men can have almost identical chest and waist measurements and require very different fitting solutions.

One may stand upright while another naturally leans forward.

One may have square shoulders and another sloping shoulders.

One shoulder may sit lower.

The chest may project differently. The shoulder blades may be more prominent. Pelvic position, stance and posture can all change the way gravity pulls a garment across the body.

Put the same jacket on those two men and it can behave completely differently.

This is why we often say:

Measurements provide dimensions. The frame provides geometry.

You Cannot Beat the Frame

There is an old principle in tailoring: you cannot beat the frame.

Every garment begins with a pattern, but every person brings a different structure to that pattern.

A good tailor does not try to force the body into an idealised shape. We study the frame in front of us and work with it.

Shoulder height, posture, chest prominence, the position of the shoulder blades, the waist, hips and pelvis all influence how a jacket hangs. Even the way a person naturally stands can change the balance of a garment.

This is where pattern cutting becomes so important.

When we cut a bespoke pattern, we are not simply recording measurements. We are interpreting the client's physical structure and building allowances, balance and shape into the pattern itself.

With an existing suit, we obviously cannot go back and recut the original pattern.

But a sufficiently well-constructed garment can sometimes be rebalanced and reshaped around the client's frame.

That distinction is important.

It is not simply making a jacket smaller.

It is altering the geometry of the garment so that its lines, balance and silhouette work more naturally with the geometry of the person wearing it.

That philosophy is the foundation of what we call Body Geometry Molding, or BGM.

Not All Alterations Are the Same

The word “alterations” covers an enormous range of work.

Shortening trousers, adjusting a waistband or shortening a sleeve are traditional alterations. They are important skills, and when performed properly they require accuracy and experience.

But reshaping the architecture of a tailored garment is a different discipline.

A jacket is a three-dimensional structure. Its shoulder, chest, fronts, back, waist, vents and internal construction all interact. Change one area and you can influence another.

This is why simply taking a garment in until it matches a set of measurements does not necessarily produce a well-fitted suit.

For complex alterations, the question is not only:

“How much fabric should be removed?”

The more important question is:

“Where does the garment need to change so that it balances correctly on this particular frame?”

That requires an understanding of pattern cutting and garment construction.

A tailor who makes and cuts suits approaches this work from the pattern outward. We are looking at balance, pitch, proportion, suppression, drape and the relationship between the garment and the body beneath it.

This is the fundamental difference between conventional resizing and the type of structural alteration we perform through BGM.

Suit Alterations Perth: Does a More Expensive Suit Always Fit Better?

Not necessarily.

Price can buy extraordinary cloth, finer construction, more handwork, better internal structure and a beautifully developed house pattern.

Those things have genuine value.

But none of them can guarantee that the house pattern was developed around your individual frame.

This is an important distinction when buying ready-to-wear clothing.

A luxury suit may begin with considerably better ingredients and construction than a less expensive garment. In fact, that superior construction can sometimes give an experienced tailor considerably more to work with.

But the label cannot change your posture.

It cannot change the height of your shoulders, the shape of your chest, the position of your shoulder blades or the way you naturally stand.

The garment still has to meet the person.

And when those two geometries do not agree, fit becomes the bridge between them.

What Should You Look for When Buying a Suit?

My advice is surprisingly simple.

Buy the best garment that comfortably fits your budget, but do not judge a suit by its label or price alone.

Look at the construction. Look at the cloth. Look at how the shoulder sits. Look at the balance of the jacket. Look at the proportion between the jacket and trousers.

Most importantly, look at yourself in the mirror rather than the name inside the garment.

Ask yourself:

Does the shoulder line suit my frame?

Does the jacket hang cleanly?

Does the waist create the right proportion?

Are the jacket length and trouser line working with my height and build?

Does the garment make me look balanced?

When considering suit alterations Perth clients should first ask whether the garment has the construction and allowance to be properly reshaped.

Sometimes the right answer is a different size.

Sometimes it is a different cut or brand.

Sometimes it is made-to-measure or bespoke.

And sometimes an excellent existing garment simply needs the right tailor to unlock what was already there.

That is the part of tailoring I have always found fascinating.

The objective is not to make the body fit the suit. It is to make the suit work with the body.

The Suit Is Only the Beginning

After decades at the cutting table, I have learned that there is rarely one simple answer to achieving a beautiful fit.

Ready-to-wear, made-to-measure and bespoke all have their place. A well-made existing garment can sometimes be transformed. Another garment may never be right for a particular frame, regardless of how much work is put into it.

The skill is knowing the difference.

That is why, before recommending alterations, we first look at the garment itself, its construction, its available allowances and, most importantly, the person wearing it.

Sometimes we recommend extensive reshaping. Sometimes only minor adjustments are necessary. And sometimes the best advice we can give a client is not to spend money altering that particular garment at all.

Good tailoring should not begin with selling a service.

It should begin with understanding the garment, understanding the frame, and giving the client the right advice.

Anthony Van Pham

Director & Master Bespoke Tailor

Perth Tailoring Co

Est. 1982

Anthony Van Pham has spent more than four decades in tailoring, specialising in bespoke cutting, garment construction, fitting and structural alteration. As Master Bespoke Tailor and Director of Perth Tailoring Co, he works with both individually commissioned garments and tailoring from leading international luxury houses.