I am a 22 year old male university student, prone to taking part in typical university style activites, such as going to clubs/bars and drinking. Now, I’m not exactly at the forefront of fashion, but I like to at least dress nicely when I go out. Typically, that means wearing some sort of button up (button down?) dress shirt.
The problem, though, is that I have a great deal of difficulty finding sizes that fit. You see, I am both vertically challenged and muscularly challenged. I’ve purchased shirts labelled simply as “small”, and they hang down around my ass, thus looking stupid. So basically, I’m looking for even smaller sizes, leading me to consider the following possibilites:
Buying over the internet. From what I hear internet clothing vendors sometimes offer more unusual sizes - confirm/deny? I’ve never looked into it.
The kids section. The idea of shopping in the kids section sort of weirds me out, but it may be the best way to go. Do kids sizes typically go up to the equivalent of a small men’s? The only other thing would be whether or not I could find nice shirts. Now, I’m not looking for the latest designer brands or anything, but would they even make nice looking kids stuff?
Tailoring. I guess I could do this…I’ve never had a shirt tailored before and its something thats just always struck me as being really expensive. But I really have no idea what sort of costs would be involved in tailoring a shirt. So some insight into the world of tailoring would be helpful.
In other words: I’m a small guy and I can never find good fitting clothes. Please help me look better, dopers.
Where do you shop, exactly? If you’re trying to buy plain ol’ t-shirts at Sears or something then yes, you may have a problem. Have you tried the “hipper” places like American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch or Hollister? The style now is leaning away from the huge baggy tshirts and towards a more fitted look, so you may have more luck in those places.
Go to a men’s clothing store, a real one. (Not in the mall, on Main Street.) You can go to a haberdasher and have one made for you, but you shouldn’t have to; just go to a real nice men’s clothing store and speak to the experts, who should be able either to help you then and there or give you some suggestions.
^^That might be worthwhile for a suit or other clothing for a real formal occassion, but that seems like a rather expensive and tedious route to take just to pick up a few “generic” dress shirts for a night out.
[slight hijack] Is untucked the fashion with the collar crew in your area? Every time I go out with my local collar crew, we’re all tucked - which helps hide a too-long shirt, and one that billows because you’ve lost a ton of weight on the poor law student diet.
Hear me out. My sewing class is full of 19 year old fashion majors who come to class half naked, your school probably isn’t much different. Plus you’d be the only guy in there! Just make it clear that you’re not gay and not only do you have instant potential love interests, you’ve got a classroom full of wingwomen. Chicks live to set up their adorable guy friends. You’d have 'em eating out of your hand in a week.
Seriously – why not? My sewing teacher says it’s just a big of a pain in the ass to be really small as it is to be really big. The fashion industry is never going to cater to small guys any more than they’re going to cater to fat chicks, so screw 'em.
It’s not hard. All you gotta do is master ONE shirt – find one pattern in a really great style. Practice with an old bedsheet to alter whatever pattern you buy (my sewing teacher says the most important thing is to get the shoulder area right), and presto, you’ve got yourself a pattern that fits you way better than anything you’re ever going to find in a store. Soon you’d be able to slap yourself together a shirt in a day, and you could control everything about it – color, fabric, buttons, etc.
All of this takes time, of course, so I realize you’re not going to buy a pattern and be sewing your own shirts next week.
So in the meantime, go to a tailor. When you’re hard to fit, I think it’s best to drop some money on one really great shirt that fits, as opposed to buying whatever the store has and never being happy. Go for quality – if your weight doesn’t fluctuate too much (lucky bastard), after a while you can build yourself up quite a wardrobe.
Why? I’m not talking about going to whatever the masculine equivalent of Chanel Couture is, just to wherever men who want to look good go to in his town. (Here it’s Lourie’s.) You’ll know because it will have a dedicated clientele of businessmen, older men who like personal service, and hopefully younger men who have figured out that the secret to really snazzy dressing is fit and having some guy pick stuff out for you. Wherever you go to get your suit tailored to hide your 50 extra pounds is also where you can often go to get a sharp-looking shirt selected to actually fit your body.
And, Abbie, while often I suggest learning to sew to women, don’t you think it’s a little cruel to suggest he learn to sew a man’s shirt? I mean, I think one generally works one’s way up through simple skirts, not shirts with yokes and collars and cuffs.
Really? I was sewing for quite a while before I felt ready to hit that, and when I’d made my first one I said “Okay, that’s quite enough of that”. Although the man’s version would be a lot easier to alter, particularly since the OP’s problem is evidently simple height.
Well, I suppose that’s true enough! And it’s sort of a tutorial for all sorts of skills; buttonholes, getting your buttons right, sleeve caps, etc.
Oh, and around here a guy with his shirt tucked in is laughed out of the establishment. Untucked is a requirement. (And if you’re untucking, will you please undo one more button on top? You can’t just have the top button undone and untuck, particularly if you’re short and in any way round.)
^^“laughed out of the establishment”, heh, yeah, that’s the more direct way to put it.
What about just a place like Sears? They have a pretty extensive men’s section, and employees running around with measuring tapes. I imagine they’d offer tailoring services?
Sorry, that was cruel in retrospect. A nice department store (I don’t know if Sears counts) will certainly do free alterations, but I’m not sure that “shorten this shirt” is a standard alteration. You’d have to ask. They’ll definately hem or take in your pants, though, that sort of thing.
Speaking as a guy, I second the advice to go to a good men’s store. It doesn’t matter that you’re not buying a fancy suit. A good salesman will be able to recommend shirts to meet your needs. Actually, a good salesman won’t even need to measure to tell your size.
Well, if you want to just buy a shirt that fits in about 20 minutes and get on with your life, I’d vote to go to the boys (Size 8-16) section of any department store. Old Navy and Gap also have teen sizes.
Kids that age want to look like adults, so the fashions are identical. A big, big plus - they are less expensive than adult sizes.
Oh, and nobody else cares that you’re not 14. The reluctance to get a shirt that was hanging in the junior section is all in your head. In a store like Old Navy or Gap you’d even be sharing the same dressing room area as everyone else.
Going to a Nordstrom and up type store to get a men’s shirt that fits will be quite pricey.
Unless you’re a sewing savant - the first 10 or so shirts you make in sewing class will not something you’d want to wear in public. Although this does sound like a very good way to pick up girls.
One of my good friends is 4’11" and weights about 100 pounds. She gets her clothes in the juniors sections. They look fine on her and she saves quite a bit of money.