Sizes of men's suits: how to find out and choose the right one?

Any business man wants to look personable and respectable. A perfectly matched suit can play an important role in his image. However, in order for him to sit on the figure like a glove, you should be very careful about choosing the optimal size for each of its parts - a jacket and trousers.

So let's start at the bottom. To determine the size of your trousers, you will need 2 sizes - hips and waist. Often a third parameter is added to them - the length of the legs.

• Strip down to your underwear.
• Take a measuring tape and measure your waist where you usually have your trouser belt. In this case, it is best to relax the stomach, not to draw in or puff up.
• Hip circumference is measured at the convex part of the buttocks.

Now we take measurements to buy a jacket.

• For the calculation unit, as a rule, the half-girth of the chest is taken. Pull the measuring tape along the most convex points on the chest, then divide the resulting figure by 2. This will give you the desired size. For clarity, here's an example for you: you measured the sternum, got 100 cm. Divide 100 by 2 and you get the number 50 - this will be the desired size of your jacket.
• However, there is a small clarification, and it applies to overweight men. If your belly is larger in volume than your chest, you will need to focus specifically on its half-girth.
• If you get a non-circular figure, for example, 55.1, round the figure up, that is, up to 56.

Many are interested in the correspondence of the Russian size to the foreign one, especially when making a purchase remotely via the Internet. Well, let's try to guide you.

• If you are purchasing a suit from an American manufacturer, subtract 10 from your Russian size (if you have 50, then the American will be 40).
• The European labeling practically does not differ from the domestic one, well, except that from rare manufacturers. However, as a rule, they suggest using a special table to correlate your parameters with the proposed size.
• China, as always, distinguished itself. Here, even the sizes of the same manufacturer can be "larger" or "small". But with the development of online commerce, the Chinese also began to provide tables for checking parameters.

For your convenience, we have collected the dimensional grids of classic men's trousers and jackets in tables.

Table 1. Classic men's jackets.

note that the table shows "half" numbers. This is done so that you understand which size to choose if the measured parameter is on the border of two sizes. If it exactly matches (for example, exactly 96), choose the size for which this indicator is at the lower border (in our example, it is 46).

Table 2. Summer men's jackets, shirts.

Table 3. Classic trousers.

Choosing a suit in Europe, you may come across the following data on the tag: 48 / 7L. What do they mean? As a rule, Western clothing companies imply 3 indicators: size, size, fullness. In this example, 48 is the size, and you already know how to determine it; L - size, 7 - fullness. The latter two are worth mentioning below.

So, growth happens:

• Extra Long (XL) - from 190 cm and above;
• Long (L) - 180-190 cm;
• Regular (R) - 175-180 cm;
• Court (C) - 170-175 cm.

Now let's find out what is meant by completeness. In this context, this is the name given to the difference between the waist circumference and the chest circumference, divided by 2. The marking of this parameter is a number from 0 to 8, where zero means a full man with a voluminous belly, and eight is practically an athlete, with wide shoulders and a narrow waist. Let's look at an example for a better understanding.

So, let's take the chest volume equal to 112, and the waist circumference equal to 100. We calculate the completeness by the formula: (112-100) / 2 = 6. A man with such completeness is considered standard with a "square" build. Tall and slender guys usually wear a seven.

So, you chose the model you liked in the store, put on it in the fitting room and went out to admire yourself in the mirror. What you need to do while doing this.

• Take your usual posture, do not stand in the model's stance, pulling in your stomach and dashingly throwing your head up. It will be difficult for you to constantly maintain this body position if it is not familiar to you, and we choose a suit for everyday wear.
• Raise your arms up, then take them to the sides, put your feet shoulder-width apart, walk. Are you comfortable? Doesn't it press anywhere, doesn't it pull, trousers don't "jump"? Great, so you were able to find the suit you wanted.

It often happens that a person's figure is not quite standard, and a jacket suits him in one size, and trousers in another. What to do in this case? Of course, choose them individually.

And so, you put on your jacket. Pay attention to the following parameters.

• The length of the garment should be sufficient to cover the buttocks by about the middle. This is optimal. A jacket that is shorter or longer should not be taken.
• Now we look at the line of the shoulders. It should not "wrinkle", "hang" or fold in a wave - any of these visual signs indicate that you have chosen the jacket is not the right size.
• On the back, the product should not sit tightly, there should be no folds.
• Sometimes it happens like this: you put on a jacket, it fits your shoulders perfectly, but you cannot button a button. Let's say right away - this is not a reason to ask for a larger size, you just chose a product of the wrong completeness. Verify this by doing the following: straighten up and fasten the top button - this should happen easily, without tension on the fabric. If you see that the lapels and the hem of the jacket converge - bingo! If the result is an X-shaped fold, the product is small, if the floors can be “overlapped” on each other, it is large.
• A very important parameter is the length of the sleeve. In a perfectly fitting jacket, a shirt sleeve peeps out from under it, about 1.5 cm.

Classic men's trousers should look like this.

• The length is perhaps the main thing to pay attention to. In front, the leg should slightly "lie" on the shoe, creating a kind of small fold, and in the back it should be 1 cm higher than the heel. Walk back and forth: is the sock visible when walking? If not, the length is good.
• The “arrows” on the trousers always go strictly vertically, passing along the very middle of the knee.
• The waist of the trousers should be in the same place as the waist of their owner. Low and medium fit is excluded when sewing a classic product.
• If wrinkles form when walking, the trousers cut into the stomach or tighten the hips, refuse to buy them.All these signs indicate that this is not your model or size.

How to choose a men's suit, see below.