Today’s topic is about altering men’s suits properly. We will discuss about how to make your dresses fit for your distinct body type.

Fitting is an important thing that should be considered for all clothes. From T-shirts to Jeans, everything should be well-fitted to your body type. Especially, when it comes about men’s formal dresses, such as suits, you should be much more careful. You have to alter your suits, blazers or jackets for better fitting.

Custom made suits don’t require altering, as you give your body measurements to the tailor to make it the best fitted. The tailor sews the suits according to your body measurements, so it is rare to alter bespoke suits.



A lot of people don’t have enough cash to afford bespoke suits. May be they are just in an entry-level position, or just enrolling in the job market. These people used to buy ready-made dresses, which is not well-fitted. That’s why; they have to go into an alteration process.

Types of Alteration in men’s suits

Every suit requires minimum three types of basic alteration.

  1. Suppress the waist
  2. Hem the pants
  3. Shorten the sleeves

How To and How Much To Alter A Men’s Suit

These basic alterations are relatively cheap and easy to do. There are some other additional alterations that you need to do. Check the below guideline and prices of alteration.

  1. Shortening the sleeves of your suits by keeping the right distance of working buttons. It is more expensive and trickier task than cutting at the wrists. You may need $30-$40 to do this alteration.
  2. Don’t buy a suit that’s shoulder doesn’t fit perfectly. Shoulder adjustments are really a difficult and costly task to do. In case, you need to do shoulder adjustment, you may need to spend $30-$50 for that.
  3. Button replacing is an easy task that needs few costing. You should ask the tailor to attach matching buttons. Also, replace all buttons at the same time. It may need $5-$10 to replace your suit’s button.
  4. Non-working button altering and sleeve length shortening are easy to do. You may need to spend $20-$30 for tailoring.
  5. Ask your tailor to suppress your suit’s waist as coveted “V” Shape. Altering waist costs a few dollars from $40-$80.
  6. You may need to shorten the length of your suits to make it balanced with your height. You may need to shorten 1 inch in length. Avoid doing that type of altering, as it may ruin the proportion of your suits, and unbalance the button distance.

In order to remind you, don’t buy any suit that is exceedingly unfitted with your body type. Give much emphasis on shoulders. If the shoulders are not well-fitted, your tailor needs to do hard to alter them. Often time, it becomes impossible to the tailors to make them fit.



Similarly, you should make sure that you are not buying anything that is longer than your actual body length. Altering jacket length is a tricky task. If you keep these guidelines in mind, you can decrease your potential cost of altering. Just be picky. Don’t settle with the shopkeepers.

image source : Getty Images: movie “From Russia With Love”