A suit fits when the shoulders sit on yours, the jacket buttons without pulling, the sleeves show a sliver of cuff, and the trousers break once — or not at all — over the shoe. Everything else is preference. Most men judge a suit by how it feels in the changing room, which is how the two classic errors happen: a jacket bought for its comfort across the chest that swims at the shoulder, and trousers pooling at the ankle because the leg felt "relaxed". Check the suit in the order below and neither error survives.
1. The shoulders — the one thing tailoring cannot fix
The jacket's shoulder seam should end at the edge of your shoulder bone, and the shoulder itself should lie smooth, with no divot or dent where the sleeve begins. This is the fixed point of the whole garment: a tailor can adjust a waist, a sleeve, a trouser length — but a shoulder that is too wide or too narrow stays wrong for the life of the suit. If only one measurement is right, make it this one.
2. The chest and the button test
Fasten the jacket (the top button of a two-button jacket; the middle of a three) and stand naturally. The front should close without effort and without an X of creases radiating from the button. A slight pull when you reach or sit is normal; a standing X means the jacket is too small across the chest and no alteration will give it cloth it does not have. You should be able to slide a flat hand inside the buttoned front — not a fist.
3. Jacket length
The traditional measure: with your arms relaxed, the hem should reach around your knuckles, and it should cover most of the seat. Shorter jackets are a legitimate modern style, but they should look chosen — a hem ending above the seat entirely reads as the wrong size rather than a fashion decision. On a three-piece suit the waistcoat changes nothing about the jacket rules; it adds its own (below).
4. Sleeves and the sliver of cuff
Jacket sleeves should end at the wrist bone, showing roughly a centimetre of shirt cuff. Sleeves to the knuckles hide the shirt and shorten the arm visually; sleeves halfway up the forearm look borrowed. Of all the common alterations, shortening or lengthening a sleeve is among the cheapest — so if the shoulders and chest are right, a wrong sleeve is a fixable problem, not a reason to reject the suit.
5. The waistcoat, if there is one
A three-piece — our Clerkenwell Double-Breasted Tweed Three-Piece (£299) is the type — adds a waistcoat that should sit flat against the torso with no gaping at the armholes, cover the trouser waistband with no shirt showing between the two, and keep its bottom button undone, as tradition dictates. The full occasion guide to three-pieces is in our tweed and three-piece suits guide.
6. Trousers: waist, then break
- Waist. Trousers should stay up without a belt doing structural work. If they need the belt tightened hard, they are too big; tailors can take a waist in far more easily than letting one out.
- Seat and thigh. Smooth when standing, no horizontal pulling across the front. Slim is a cut, not a squeeze.
- The break. The break is where the trouser meets the shoe: a full break folds once onto the shoe (traditional), a slight break just kisses the leather (the modern default, and our recommendation), no break ends above the shoe (sharp, and unforgiving of a wrong length by half an inch). Hemming is the cheapest alteration in tailoring — always buy the length long and have it finished, never buy the near-enough length.
What a tailor can fix — and what one cannot
Fixable, cheaply: trouser length, sleeve length, taking in the jacket waist and trouser waist, tapering a trouser leg. Not realistically fixable: shoulders, jacket length (beyond a fraction), a chest that pulls, a collar that stands away from the neck.
Spend your decision on the unfixable half and let alteration handle the rest.
The suits in our range
The men's suits collection is deliberately narrow: four suits at £299 — including the Burlington Slim Wool-Blend Business Suit for work, and tweed and check three-pieces (Clerkenwell, Wimbledon, Hurlingham) for winter weddings and occasions — plus the Amersham suit jacket (£179) within tailoring for men building separates. If a full suit is more than the occasion needs, the same fit rules apply to a standalone jacket — see our guide on how to wear a blazer. And when the invitation says black tie, none of this applies: that code has its own rules, laid out in our black tie guide.
The short version
Shoulders exact, button closed without an X, a centimetre of cuff, trousers finished to a slight break. Judge a suit by the parts a tailor cannot change. UK delivery is free — dispatched in 1–2 working days, delivered in 3–5 working days — with 30-day returns, which on a suit means: try it at home, check it against this list, and only keep it if every point passes.
Frequently asked questions
Should a suit be tight?
No. Slim and tight are different: slim follows the body with clean lines, tight pulls at the button, strains at the seat and wrinkles horizontally across the back. If the buttoned front forms an X, the suit is too small.
How long should a suit jacket be?
Long enough to cover most of the seat and reach roughly the knuckles of a relaxed arm. Much shorter is a deliberate fashion cut; much longer swamps the legs.
What is a trouser break?
The fold where the trouser hem meets the shoe. A slight break — the cloth just touching the shoe — is the modern default and suits most men and most shoes.
Can a tailor fix a suit that's too big?
Within limits: waist, sleeve and trouser lengths, and a trouser taper are routine. Shoulders and overall jacket length are not — buy those right and have the rest adjusted.
How much does a WARDLEY suit cost?
£299 for each of the four suits in the current range, including the Burlington business suit and the tweed three-pieces; the Amersham suit jacket is £179 on its own.
