Posted on March 08 2016
You can usually spot it the moment a man walks in the room. There’s something about the fit, finish and fabric of a tailored suit that gives the wearer an air of poise and confidence that he may not otherwise have.
To an untrained or uncaring eye, one suit, tailored or not, might look much the same as another.
But it’s small styling cues, from cuffs to jacket length, that really make the difference in the look of a jacket. And one of those cues gets past most of us.
Once you know what it is, you’ll probably never again able to look at a jacket without checking for it.
The Jacket Sleeve Divot
Sometimes it’s high on the sleeve at the shoulder, other times you’ll spot it lower down by the bicep, but wherever it pops up, it’s a fashion faux pas that’s made by some of the most famous among us.
Following the recent Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, Gentemen’s Quarterly was quick to point out the tailoring mistake on at least three attendees, including Jason Sudeikis, Lee Byung-hun and Toronto’s own, The Weeknd.
While GQ called it the shoulder divot, the same problem can appear lower down on the jacket sleeve where it looks even messier.
Regardless of where it shows up, the sleeve divot has the same cause: improper sizing and/or positioning of the shoulder opening and sleeve. The problem is becoming even more common because of the popularity of working on the “guns” at the gym. Large bicep and shoulder muscles create a problem for ready-made and tailored jacket construction because the upper arm and shoulder muscles are not in the same proportion as the average body.
If you’re a victim of the sleeve divot, you’re not alone; it’s a common problem. It happens whether you buy a jacket from the local department store or shop exclusively at a tailor.
If anything, you’re lucky. Now you know about the sleeve divot, you can take steps to avoid it in the next jacket you buy.
