Personally, I don’t think a man will ever look better than he does when he wears a suit. It can be worn at a variety of occasions and locations without ever looking too out of place, all the while enabling the individual to look and feel truly stylish.

However, a man will never look worse than when he wears a suit wrong. By which I mean, without putting any thought into getting it tailored. Because unless you are very, very lucky, the chances of an off-the-rack suit fitting you perfectly are slim at best. Be it high street or designer, suits are all cut from a precise block in order to fit the specific sort of clientele the brand is after. Sometimes that will be you, and sometimes it won’t be.

One way you can guarantee that a suit will fit you is through after-tailoring. With a few small alterations to the jacket and trousers, you will see an unbelievable transformation in the way that it wears on your body and the way your body appears in it. As far as I’m concerned, there are far too many guys walking around in suits that don’t fit them and there’s no excuse for it. Well, not after reading this article anyway.

Tailoring can also make a relatively inexpensive suit look expensive, so for the guys out there who think that looking good in a suit is out of their price range – you’re wrong, son.

Step 1: Before You Start

Before you even consider heading to a tailor, you need to make sure that you at least get a few things right concerning the fit of your suit.

The jacket should fit you in the shoulder: it should hug your shoulders and encourage you to hold yourself upright. You should not be able to do an over arm throw comfortably in your jacket but you should be able to raise your arms. For example, I’m a 41? chest in suit jackets but if I find myself in between sizes I opt for a 40? to be on the safe side.