Reading a shoulder

Shoulder slope, blade width and posture decide more about how a jacket looks than the cloth ever will. A quarter inch of extension past the natural shoulder reads as borrowed; a quarter inch short reads as strained.

This is why fittings begin at the shoulder and work down. Sleeves can be re-hung, waists can be taken in, but a shoulder cut wrong is a new jacket.

In our atelier the shoulder measurement is taken twice, by two people, before a pattern is cut.