Tell a man he needs to upgrade his wardrobe, and he’ll probably assume that means a trip to the store.
But sometimes you don’t need new clothes — you just need better fitting clothes. Fit is the difference between a cute maxi dress and a muumuu, high-waisted jeans and “mom” jeans, a GQ-approved suit and a clown suit.
And fit is even more important when you’re petite. Menswear designer Jaden Lam had that exact problem. Standing at 5 foot 6 inches, Lam told HuffPost Style, “I have always struggled to find clothes to fit my body.”
The issue wasn’t size — after all, most men’s clothes come in sizes small and extra small. It’s about fit. “The proportions of everything they’re buying are off,” Mike Paul, a rep for Jaden Lam, told us. “Standard mediums, smalls and extra smalls are just too big for as many as half the male population,” added Lam. The CDC puts the average American man’s height between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 8 inches, but most men’s clothes are cut for a men 5 foot 10 inches and up.
Said Lam, “I believe that all these men are facing the same problem: They have to sacrifice everything from the fit and the style.” His solution was to create a line of men’s clothing specializing in smaller proportions, aimed at men 5 feet 9 inches and under. And there are other brands, such as Jimmy Au’s For Men 5’8″ and Under and Peter Manning NYC, that do the same.
Because getting a perfect fit, not simply the right size, makes all the difference. Don’t believe us? Check out these male models, wearing styles by Jaden Lam and photographed by Heidi Gutman. Can you see the difference?
A case for men’s tailoring:
