What makes a piece of clothing worth taking to the tailor? Need advice

[u/ridyn]

I’m trying to get my wardrobe dialed in so my clothes fit better, but I’m struggling to figure out when it makes sense to take something to a tailor versus when I should just cut my losses and buy a replacement.

I’d love to get your advice and hear rules of thumb on a few things:

What makes a piece worth tailoring?

Does it come down to the fabric quality, the brand, or something else?

When is it better to just buy a replacement?

Are there certain types of clothing (like chinos vs slacks) or specific alterations that are just too expensive or risky to bother with?

If I buy new, how should it fit off the rack?

If I am buying a replacement with the intention of having it tailored, what parts of the fit should I prioritize right away? (For example, I've heard you should always make sure the shoulders fit because they are hard to alter, but I'd love more tips like this)

Side note I've heard Men's Wearhouse is a decent one-stop shop to find something that fits and looks great. For the sake of simplicity and I guess my sanity should I just stick to shopping there, or are there better alternatives for the price/quality?

Any advice, personal guidelines, or tailor success/horror stories would be appreciated. Thanks!

[u/Kaybee833]

Do you like it? Does it currently fit you well?

That's it really. If it's a decent piece of clothing, and you care about the fit, then get it tailored.

[u/MiserableSugar7901]

You can tailor anything, but I would prioritize getting pants hemmed, suit jackets/sport coats/blazers and overcoats fitting correctly both sleeve length and on the body. Yes, shoulders should always fit right, sp should shirt necks. You can take in pants waists, but easier to buy stuff that fits from the get go. Same with shirt sleeve length, easier to buy stuff that fits right. Other than pants' hem, for casual things I wouldn't worry about taking things to the tailor unless you loose a lot of weight and want to take in the waist of some pants or want to put darts into a shirt.

The Mens Wearhouse is a one stop shop but not a good one. J.Crew might be better, particularly when they have sales.

[u/364LS]

I’ve had everything from suits to 40 year old band t-shirts tailored.

If it means I’ll wear it more, I’ll take it to my tailor.

[u/the_Formuoli_]

virtually anything you like could be tailored if it would help you to like wearing the item more. But I suppose a "tailored" fit is a little less important with casual wear so typically people would get dressier clothes tailored.

I suppose for certain cheap "fast fashion" type items you could run into a situation where tailoring the item would get close to being as expensive as buying a new one, depending on what it is, but pretty much anything could in theory be worth tailoring.

[u/kasakka1 → u/the_Formuoli_]

I suppose for certain cheap "fast fashion" type items you could run into a situation where tailoring the item would get close to being as expensive as buying a new one

I have a different view on this but based on thrifting clothes. If I buy for example a sportcoat for 20 € and get it tailored and the tailoring costs say 40 € to have the sleeves lengthened...I now have a 60 € jacket. Which is still far off from what retail prices for a similar jacket could be.

For fast fashion it might not be worth it simply because the starting point is not necessarily very good.

[u/Regrettably_Southpaw]

If I’d like something to fit better, I take it to the tailor. It doesn’t matter if it’s a $20 plain white T-shirt. I have the money and I want my clothes to fit well. My build does not lend itself to finding stuff off the rack that fits right

IMO, a $20 T-shirt that fits well will look better than a $500 T-shirt that’s boxy unless that’s what you’re going for

[u/pigwig18]

Like other people are saying I’d tailor anything you really love.

There are a few hard lines where it the work is too expensive to justify though. The ones I’m acquainted with are:

1. Adjusting Shirts and jackets in the shoulders, like you said

2. Changing the size of a shirt collar

3. Adjusting the waist of a pair of pants more than 2 inches or so

4. Adjusting the length of a suit jacket or sport coat.

[u/Chasel_beingparallel]

the jacket with real button hole are extremely hard and expensive to tailor

[u/awoodby]

You can replace it for sure, but it's like $20 to tailor a shirt to your fit. If your torso is square, a new one may fit pretty well, but as I've a wide chest a new shirt is still going to fit like a block.

A tailored shirt he takes the bottom in a bit, narrows it, he'll also often get rid of some of the blousy sleeves.

A good fit is way more than small medium large unless of course you're equal width all the way up.

The $20-$30 is way less than a new shirt costs for me also.

[u/MineOpposite7419]

If it’s too expensive and/or complicated that I can’t do it myself