1940's Suit!

[Doc4]

In any event, it seems like a crime to modify the suit and make it more current.... It entirely negates the appeal and panache of a vintage suit.

+1

The trousers are my main concern. The jacket actually fits so well that it doesn't feel silly at all. The pants, however, are VERY wide and floppy...almost clownish. Maybe a really good tailor could still keep everything in proportion, but slim the pants down slightly...I might be good to go.

Any changes you make will be hard to undo ... and depending on what the changes are and how dramatic, impossible. I would take a lot of time to get used to the suit ... a lot of time ... before making any alterations.

Here's a thought ... wear just the jacket for now.

Pants tend to wear faster than jackets on suits anyhow (hence the old tradition of getting two sets of pants made when you had a suit made.) So you have some extra mileage on the jacket ... use that mileage now. Eventually you will come around to liking the pants, feeling comfortable in them, and not regretting having them butchered ... er, I mean altered by a tailor ... back in 2012.

[The Knize]

+1



Any changes you make will be hard to undo ... and depending on what the changes are and how dramatic, impossible. I would take a lot of time to get used to the suit ... a lot of time ... before making any alterations.

Here's a thought ... wear just the jacket for now.

Pants tend to wear faster than jackets on suits anyhow (hence the old tradition of getting two sets of pants made when you had a suit made.) So you have some extra mileage on the jacket ... use that mileage now. Eventually you will come around to liking the pants, feeling comfortable in them, and not regretting having them butchered ... er, I mean altered by a tailor ... back in 2012.

I just do not know, D4. You and I usually agree on this stuff. Do you think a good tailor is really going to agree to butcher a suit, much less make changes that cannot be undone?

I really would talk to a good tailor about the whole thing.

I would say my personal rule on vintage clothing is that "vintage" is great, "distinct" is great, but if you are crossing into "costume," you have gone too far. Everyone's idea of the latter differs though.

My focus, too, is strictly on the trousers. I bet if one goes back and looks at pictures from around that era--before and after--there were gradual shifts in how the trousers were done. From wide all the way top to bottom to this tapered approach to something else. I bet slimming the "thighs" of those trousers, if it can be done without ruining the overall lines of the suit, would look fine and also probably be consistent with suits from around that era. You are still going to have high waist, etc., which will see the suit off in the modern day.

Are the trousers flat front? Is so, amazing the subtle changes in fashion over time!

[Doc4]

I just do not know, D4. You and I usually agree on this stuff. Do you think a good tailor is really going to agree to butcher a suit, much less make changes that cannot be undone?

Mostly, I am urging caution, and the preservation of a wearable historical artifact that, once altered will in some sense be "lost" for good.

A tailor may or may not get into the details of "this can't be reversed" ... unless the guy is particularly chatty with a strong sense of history and not pressed for time, the conversation is probably little more than "make this look like regular suit pants today" "okay ... I'll take this in this much ... okay?" "okay." (Tailors are much more hesitant to do things that are out of the current norm, but "give me the regular" is not going to prompt a bunch of "do you really want me to do this?" chatter.)

Ultimately, this is just an old suit ... it's not like he's asking someone to put "the other Roosevelt" on Mt. Rushmore. But he should still proceed cautiously.

[The Knize]

Mostly, I am urging caution, and the preservation of a wearable historical artifact that, once altered will in some sense be "lost" for good.

A tailor may or may not get into the details of "this can't be reversed" ... unless the guy is particularly chatty with a strong sense of history and not pressed for time, the conversation is probably little more than "make this look like regular suit pants today" "okay ... I'll take this in this much ... okay?" "okay." (Tailors are much more hesitant to do things that are out of the current norm, but "give me the regular" is not going to prompt a bunch of "do you really want me to do this?" chatter.)

Ultimately, this is just an old suit ... it's not like he's asking someone to put "the other Roosevelt" on Mt. Rushmore. But he should still proceed cautiously.

All of the is pretty much fairly said. You are probably right that there is a difference between "give me the regular" and "see if you can rebuild this tightly, thinly tailored European suit so that it looks good on my short fat self!"

[Doc226]

Nothing wrong with that suit, wear it proudly. YOU must wear the suit, not the other way around

[Bobtrumpet]

How much of a difference is there between the build of the original wearer and the new owner? How it looked on the original owner (any photos available?) may give a hint as to how it could be successfully altered for the new owner.