Fashion Tips

How to ensure proper fit

Button-down shirts

Dress shirts tend to shrink after a few washings, so before buying and getting a shirt tailored, make sure the sleeve is slightly longer in order to counteract any eventual shrinkage.

• Shirt sleeves should cover your wrist and reach the beginning of your thumbs.
• Cuffs should be tight enough to prevent them from slipping down your wrist.
• When leaving the button-down shirt untucked, it should hang just above your pants zipper (at back pocket level).
• When wearing a jacket and extending your arms, the sleeves should land between a half-inch and one inch past the jacket.
  

Collars & shirts

If the shirt's seams meet at the shoulder, you know it fits quite well.

• Your forefinger should be able to fit in between your collar and your neck when the shirt is buttoned to the top.
• The collar's tips and outer edge should be covered by your blazer or suit jacket's lapels. To ensure that this happens, always fit your dress shirts and button-downs before fitting your jackets and blazers.

Blazers

The blazer or jacket's sleeve should rest at your thumb knuckle when your arm is extended, and the blazer or jacket should cover your backside.

• The blazer/jacket's collar should leave about a half- inch of your dress shirt's collar visible.

Pants

Trousers

Try them on without shoes; they should just touch the floor. With shoes on, the back part of your pants should barely touch the ground (one rule of thumb is that pants should break at about 1/3 of the way down the shoe). And your socks should not show when you walk.

Neckties

The simplest way to ensure a well-fitted necktie is to have a well-fitted shirt to wear it with.

Here are some guidelines to remember:

• Your tie should always hang barely above your belt buckle.
• The size of the tie knot should not lift the tips of your shirt collar.
• The inverted triangle of the tie knot should fit snugly into the triangle created by your buttoned-up shirt collar.

Four-in-hand knot

Windsor knot

Belts

• When it comes to belts, you should buy one size bigger than your pants. A 34" waist means a 36" belt.
• The buckle's notch should fit into the center hole of the belt (usually hole number three; most belts have five holes).
• The tail of the belt should end just past the first loop on your pants.
• The edge of the belt buckle, the row of buttons on your shirt and your fly should all line up vertically.

Fashion Tips from AskMen.com.