How to Find a Good Alterations Tailor

Tailored clothing is great, but it often requires some alterations to fit you just right. Finding a tailor who will do good work, who you can develop a good rapport with and who has a deep working knowledge patterns can be a challenge, depending where you live. But if you can find one, it’s a thing of beauty.

Here’s a short guide to help you find a good alterations tailor. 

1. Google alterations tailors in your area (duh)

I prefer an honest-to-goodness tailor over a seamstress at a dry cleaner if you can find one. For basic things like hemming pants or maybe shortening sleeves, there isn’t any special knowledge needed. But once you get into altering the side seams on a jacket or other alterations in the body of a garment, you’re getting into the three-dimensional shape that the seams intersect to create, so it’s better for someone who has a deep working knowledge of how those patterns are created to be doing the work.

2. Look on Internet forums like Styleforum, Reddit’s MFA or Ask Andy About Clothes for threads about tailors in your (closest) city

When I moved to a new city, I found a few sparse threads on Styleforum with some recommendations. It was helpful to at least narrow down the list of candidates, even if some of the information is maybe outdated. The opinions on forums like these are more qualified than, say, Google or Yelp reviews, since it’s other menswear nerds and not just random people getting jeans hemmed or whatever. Hopefully there’s at least some anecdotes of people who can either recommend or warn to avoid the tailors near you. If not, start a thread and ask!

3. If there are any nice menswear stores in your area, ask them

They sometimes have someone in-house doing all their alterations, or sometimes they use an outside tailor. If it’s the former, ask if they accept outside alterations and if it’s the latter, find out who it is. In Nashville where I live, there is a great local menswear shop that has an alterations tailor who I’ve used for many things, and I’ve found that their prices for outside alterations are much lower than an independent shop. However, I prefer the work on more complicated alterations elsewhere.

4. Ask people you know who dress well who they use

In my own life I’m thinking of older guys I’ve worked with/for whom I would have asked for recommendations. Nowadays I know younger guys who have a common interest in menswear that I’ve asked, and used their suggestions. My go-to place in Nashville now is a place I was recommended by a friend.

5. Pick one and have him/her do a simple alteration, like hemming a pair of pants so you can assess your working relationship and also their work

At the end of the day, you want good work done, so there’s no substitute for seeing the results. Something like a hem doesn’t reveal a ton about a tailor’s knowledge of complex pattern, but you can at least see how clean his/her stitching is. Something a little more complex that you could make a judgement about would be a pants/trouser waist alteration. A level above that would be a jacket sleeve alteration (which involves a corner seam, the vent of the sleeve and handling the lining).

The other factor is being able to establish a good rapport. Over time as you take more things to your tailor, they can learn how you prefer things to fit and sew accordingly. It’s a hassle to go to someone new who makes a jacket too slim for your liking, or hems a pair of pants too long.

It’s greatly preferred that the person doing the sewing on your clothes is the one pinning you, asking you what you want done. That just leaves less to go wrong in communication break-downs, and ensures that you’re telling your preferences to someone who understands what needs to be done to achieve that.

Nashville and Cincinnati Tailor recommendations

If you happen to live in the Nashville area, or the Cincinnati area (the two cities I’ve lived near), here are my recommendations based on experience.

Nashville

Stitch It & Co.—They do custom clothes, so I trust their understanding of patterns. In my experience, the person who pins you is also doing the sewing. They do clean work. It’s expensive ($80 to slim a jacket at the waist, $28 for a pants hem), but I’ve long ago learned to suck it up and pay more the first time, rather than pay less at first, then pay more to someone else to fix it.

There are other tailors in Nashville who I’m sure are fine, but who I simply haven’t used before. There’s a list of menswear shops and tailors on my Nashville Menswear Shops page here.

Cincinnati

Hyde Park Tailors—The only tailor I really trust is Tom Licata who owns Hyde Park Tailors. I’ve known him for nearly 15 years, and he understands my preferences. Tom makes fully handmade bespoke suits, and he deeply understands patterns. His work is impeccable. He’s a little cantankerous at times, but the upside to that is that if I want something done to a garment that’s going to turn out poorly—or that would take so much time it would cost nearly double the price of the garment—he’ll flat out tell me. His prices are expensive (at least $80 to slim a jacket, though maybe more at this point), but worth every penny. Sadly I believe he is looking to retire in the next several years. After which, I don’t know what I’ll do!