How Your Coat Should Fit Over Your Fall Suit
We've said it before, but it never hurts to reiterate the most important style lesson there is: Fit, fit, and fit. A $50 well-tailored suit will forever look better than a $5,000 one you sport straight off the rack. But we know it isn't always easy to know if something fits or if it's simply too snug, especially once layering season arrives. Things can get even more complicated as you look to spring for some sick new outerwear—whether it be a traditional topcoat or something more technical—but then remember that your new, fall-weight suit will add bulk. Here's how to know the coat you buy this season will fit you in any setting, whether you're getting all dressed up or not.
Wear Your Suit Jacket to the StoreThis is a no-brainer. If you're going to be test-driving a coat, you should be testing out the things you're actually going to wear with it. A coat may look killer with a T-shirt, but with a tweed two-button jacket the story could be much different.
...But If You Don't Have ItYou're not out of luck. You just need to make sure that the coat's fabric isn't pulling across your back, and that your biceps aren't under blood-pressure-checking strain. You can always bring in the sleeves and back later, or even shorten the sleeves, all at your local tailor. It's much harder (actually, impossible) to add fabric to these key areas.
The Cross TestAfter putting on the coat, walk around for a little. Make some motions like you would in your daily life, like hailing a cab or grabbing a glass from a high-up shelf. Most importantly, cross your arms in front of you. If you can't do it without feeling like you're going to collapse a lung, you need to size up or find a different coat with a more forgiving cut.
The Long and Short of ItMost coats these days are long enough to extend past the bottom hem of your suit jacket (the trend is for them to be cut much longer, actually), and you should never buy one that doesn't. Some peacoats and wool jackets are cut cropped, which looks cool with jeans and boots, but looks backwards with a suit. Even your heavy-duty fur-trimmed parka should be on the longer side.
Don't Over-TailorThis may be counterintuitive, but you actually don't want to tailor the thing so precisely with your suit jacket that it doesn't look good with anything else. Chances are you're going to be wearing your coat all season long with all kinds of things. So when at the tailor, keep in mind that without a suit jacket underneath, the coat will fit a little bigger and the sleeves will be about a half inch longer. A good coat should be able to handle any occasion, not just your treks to and from the office.
Jake Woolf is a writer who has covered men’s style for over ten years and has contributed to GQ since 2014. A graduate of Parsons The New School for Design (good school, long name), he also has bylines at Robb Report, HighSnobiety, Pitchfork, and the defunct #menswear website Four Pins... Read moreWriterXRelated Stories for GQCoats and JacketsFall