Measurements of suits

[Chrome]

I was thinking of having topic about measurements of suits. As all know, fashion dictated different cuts and styles per decade (rough generalization) and because of that at least I have trouble to figure out is my jacket too big/small to fit by standards of it's age. I mean I'm 36R and I search jackets with 38-39 chest if it's from thirties and 40 or so otherwise. How about shoulders etc? thirties are about same as own measurements, but how about bold look, how much wider is right and what is too much?. Older twenties or so seems to have looser skirt, is it so or am I wrong?

This is just plain request to have pic of a jacket and it's measurement so at least I can have basic math right. I cannot post nothing now but will be back with some examples to show.

 

[avedwards]

I know it's a bit vague, but I find that on 40s jackets I can comfortably wear shoulders 1" wider than I'd usually wear at the padding makes them fit just as well as an unpadded jacket with narrower shoulders.

 

[dhermann1]

I would love to see a video on the subject of accurate measurements. I have more than once bought something on Ebay that turned out to be just unwearable. I've always suspected that proper fitting requires a live and in person experience to understand the sublteties of measurement and fit, or at least a well done video.

 

[Qirrel]

It is all really relative when it comes to measuring up a suit. You can make a coat with huge, padded shoulder, narrow shoulders like the early 20th c., no chest drape or lots of chest drape, drape in the back only, a fuller chest than usual, and so on. A good example is the "exaggerated" jackets popular for some time during the early 20th century, which were just coats cut one or more sizes too large, and made up in the usual manner, except for maybe a bit of extra shoulder padding if the shoulders were very extended.

I have a few tables of proportionate measures from the 1930s that I could share. I'll just need to unearth them from a pile of papers first.

 

[Miss Elisabeth]

I'd be really interested in advice on measuring suits as well. As a costumer, I have a stock of about 50 different suits sitting in my costume closet. The majority of them are completely unlabeled, and while I know what general suit size most of my actors wear, actually sorting through all of the suits, measuring them one by one and then assigning them is a pain in the butt. I have recognized, though, that just taking a suit and measuring from armscye to armscye is NOT a great way to indicate a suit size.

Also, is there a general rule on indicating slim cut/portly cut suits? I've never been able to figure that out either, baring taking the suit out, hanging it up and actually messing around with how the proportions work. I spent an hour today just poring through the collection, trying to find 5 different suits in 5 different sizes, and it's a pain.

Anyway. Rant over. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I can deal with pants and pant sizes, but the jacket sizing starts befuddling me after a while, and every semester I have to deal with it all over again.