Club Obi Wan

This is a question for the moderator(s).
There is a lot of discussion of size and fit of various brands of jacket. I think it might be very useful to create a sticky topic which is a collection of critical landmark to landmark dimensions of jackets by brand and size submitted by owners of those jackets.
Obviously, this would only pertain to off the rack sizes (i.e. not custom sewn or altered).
This would prevent a lot of repetitive question traffic and we could also see how consistant the sizing is for any given model/size/brand.
Is this feasible or too much work?

There are a few stickies that could be useful to members in the jacket section.

Apart from it being an incredibly arduous task to even think on, there's simply no way we could keep track of any changes or inconsistencies in manufacturers' sizing. (Like we even have the time! ) And since every manufacturer seems to have their own sizing methods, it's ultimately up to the consumer to do his or her research and homework in this matter. There is plenty of information to be found here if you dig for it.

Regards!

A good idea in principle, but yeah..what Bink said!

Not only that, but once you think you've dialed in what a U. S. manufacturer does, it's not even close to what is done in Europe, as all their work is in metric sizing and has to be converted to the closest common denominator, so there's no real 'standard'.

Regards! Michaelson

I definitely agree with what you are saying about the magnitude of the task were it to be very organized. But, how about the modest proposal of a sticky subject with agreed upon landmarks (e.g. zipped up under armpits width, bottom of collar seam to tail etc) measured and posted with material, brand, size, date purchased etc. It would at least make doing the research onesself less arduous by putting all of such posts in one subject without having to do a lot of search, refresh repeat.

If you compile it, we'll sticky it.

Although it makes sense in principal, all clothing is slightly variable I expect the tolerances people work to are up to an inch in a given direction of the entire garment.

Take for instance the getting a pair of jeans from a major manufacturer, how many of you trust a sized pair to fit just by the label? Don't know about you but I have to try them on, no matter what.

Just saying this might be a lot of work, based on a slightly variable subject.

Kt Templar wrote:Although it makes sense in principal, all clothing is slightly variable I expect the tolerances people work to are up to an inch in a given direction of the entire garment.

Take for instance the getting a pair of jeans from a major manufacturer, how many of you trust a sized pair to fit just by the label? Don't know about you but I have to try them on, no matter what.

Just saying this might be a lot of work, based on a slightly variable subject.

You are actually agreeing with me. It is precisely the idea of buying something without first trying it on that we are trying to do by buying an off the rack jacket through the mail. If buying clothing this way were not possible, Sears and LL Bean would never have existed.
I am simply talking about putting all of the anecdotal data each individual gathers on their own garmets in one place.
When my new jacket arrives, I will start a thread.
Meanwhile, what measurements do you think are important in determining overall fit?

I think what KT is saying is that you could make a database for all the different manufacturers, but it wouldn't always mean much. For example no two Wested jackets could have exactly the same kind of fit. I know none of mine have. I have 3 from them, all the tags state 38, but ones quite a bit larger than the other two and one is a bit snug.

Rambler wrote:

Kt Templar wrote:Although it makes sense in principal, all clothing is slightly variable I expect the tolerances people work to are up to an inch in a given direction of the entire garment.

Take for instance the getting a pair of jeans from a major manufacturer, how many of you trust a sized pair to fit just by the label? Don't know about you but I have to try them on, no matter what.

Just saying this might be a lot of work, based on a slightly variable subject.

You are actually agreeing with me. It is precisely the idea of buying something without first trying it on that we are trying to do by buying an off the rack jacket through the mail. If buying clothing this way were not possible, Sears and LL Bean would never have existed.
I am simply talking about putting all of the anecdotal data each individual gathers on their own garmets in one place.
When my new jacket arrives, I will start a thread.
Meanwhile, what measurements do you think are important in determining overall fit?

I am assuming that since Wested jackets are made by hand as opposed to factory produced, they are, like KT mentioned, quite varied in fit. It seems that it is up to whoever is cutting the jacket that day to guesstimate what seems reasonable for a size 38, or a 40, or what have you...

From personal experience, I've ordered three off the rack Westeds. Though they are all size 40, one compliments me perfectly, one fits like it was intended for someone with a larger waist, and one fits very loosely overall.

My advice would be to do what I decided to do... Get yourself measured. Measure how far apart you want the shoulders to be, how long the sleeves should be in relation to your shoulder measurements, how long and wide the back panel should be, and so forth... That way you won't even NEED to look at a sizing database!

I know Wested recently raised the cost of custom jackets by 20 pounds, but I'm sure it's well worth it (provided you have accurate measurements), rather than having to worry about whether it will fit just right...

Personally though, I've had more than my share of Westeds (and I don't mean this is a bad way... I'm just having burn-out after buying so many in the frame of a year). Now,I'm just waiting for Nowak to make their jackets available to the public to see if I can get an even better fit!

In re-reading this thread since it first appeared, and though I totally appreciate and understand the thought process behind it, I'm still not sure how it's going to help someone who is in the process of ordering a jacket.

If a jacket is custom made, your measurements are not going to help me one bit, as it's been tailored to fit YOU, NOT me.

If it's standard sizing, it's going to be the same jacket after jacket, vendor after vendor, and that information is posted ad nasium throughout the jacket section, so why stickie something that already exists when a search will reveal all?

As bink stated, if you want to compile statistics, by all means, go for it.

Regards! Michaelson