Sleeve and cuff guide for shadow transport minister Joe Sammut
Given that he was obviously raised in the wrong sort of household and married somebody equally miserably uninformed, I’ve gone to the trouble of raiding GQ for helpful details for Joe Sammut (the shadow bus minister, not the Gaddafi money-man), after seeing him on John Bundy’s show wearing a suit jacket over bare arms for that 1980s Take That look.
I am quoting GQ not because I don’t know just how much cuff should be seen beyond the edge of a jacket-sleeve, but because they won’t take my word for it and call me a ‘znobb’ (anzi, they leave in the N…) with pretensjonijiet, like they did when I pointed out that the communications midget should find a good tailor to take up his sleeves instead of wearing them dangling down over his hands.
There are also specific details for double-cuffs, but Sammut doesn’t seem to be a double-cuff and links person, rather a no-cuff-at-all man. But at least he hasn’t succumbed to the current fetish among even heterosexual Maltese men for ripping off all their body hair with wax or zapping it with lasers, for that horrid and creepy smooth-arm look.
GQ.com
Proper length of suit sleeves
Q. How should one determine the proper length of a suit sleeve? Every tailor tells me something different. When your arms are at your sides, should some of the shirtsleeve be exposed?
A. About a half inch of shirt cuff should show below your jacket cuff, just as a half inch of shirt collar should show above your jacket collar.
Most men wear their jacket sleeves too long or their shirt sleeves too short, and probably because of these dubious tailors you mention, most men show way too much shirt collar in back.
The jacket should be finished at the wristbone, and with the arm at rest, the shirtsleeve should extend one-half inch below (that’s 12.7 millimeters, for engineers and scientists).
A good tailor measures from your thumb tips, because everyone is asymmetrical, with one arm longer than the other.
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Daphne, do you also have to dress them?
U l-irgiel Maltin ma ghandhomx skuzi ghax qliezet qsar jew kmiem qsar because most of them are not tall (sigh).
Hadd, donnu, ma jaghti kaz l-immagini u dik veru turtani.
Kultant nara xi ragel fuq it-TV , jew b`xaghru verament mhux ta l-eta tieghu, jew b`xi par kalzetti bojod taht sJut, jew b`xi ingravata tas-satin, etc u f`qalbhi nghid “Imma impossibbli il-mara, jew habiba jew it-tifla ma ratux hiereg hekk? U ma tghidlux li ha jaqa` ta ridikolu?”
Ghax jekk anqas il-partner ma jkollha “dress sense”, imma almenu hafna nisa jafu jqabblu il-kuluri mentri il-maggioranza ta` l-irgiel ma jafux. U, f`dal-kaz, nahseb li kulhadd jaf li il-polz tal-qmies jrid jidher taht il-glekk, le?
Sa fejn naf jien ixxammar hekk meta tmur tahsel xi hasla platti.
@ Ciccio
Ciccio, din ma tafx li qeghda taghzaq fl-ilma?
Ghax ghalijja, ahjar tmur torqod u taqta` qalbha darba ghal-dejjem.
I feel sorry for her, giving a lecture on shirt cuffs and jackets at 2am which I bet will fall on deaf ears.
Most Maltese just don`t believe in detail and appearance, either that or they just have no clue and are not interested to learn.
Barra minn hekk biex glekk ikun perfett irid meta’ wiehed ikun bil-qieghda ma jridx ikollu dik it-tikmixa wara’ ghonqu.
Pat, Your last sentence includes men and women. I think you are very wrong. Perhaps you are referring to the Maltese you know.
Most Maltese men have ill-fitting suits. Daphne, do not pick only on PL candidates, the PN ones are just as bad, marginally better dressed though.
Since like most Maltese men I am vertically challenged, I have my suits made to measure. I normally have mine made in Thailand.
Suit sizes in Malta are a problem.
Most of the male population here seems to be oversize in one area or the other. Hence the overlong sleeves.
The only outlets I know of where you can mix and match jacket and trouser sizes are M&S and Debenhams. And they’re a bit expensive for the average pocket.
[Daphne – Or you can go to Bortex, where you can’t mix and match sizes, but where you can get a full tailoring service to shorten sleeves and legs and take in jackets and trousers. The excellent people there will also by default measure jacket sleeves to allow for the correct length of cuff to show. Their shirts are good and you can even get the sleeves shortened. ]
What I found convenient is saving my pennies and dashing off to the UK to buy all my clothes from Matalan, BHS or M&S. Suits fit perfectly every time and are of good quality. A steal for £55 – £100. Tried Primark a few times but the inconsistent sizes drove me nuts.
[Daphne – Total waste of money. See my note above – you can get suits at Bortex made perfectly from wool from some of the world’s top Italian (world) producers, like Ermenegildo Zegna, sold here in Malta at far, far less than they are on the continent and in Britain. And they’re the same suits. There are all sorts of styles, and it’s then up to you to choose the most appropriate. I would strongly advise against buying cheap suits (cheap, that is, not in terms of price) because they can be spotted at 50 paces, in the same way that a good suit is immediately recognisable. It’s the same with coats,suits, shirts and definitely shoes. Women operate in a completely different clothes category to women. Women can mix cheap and cheerful with expensive and it’s a style look. But men are stuck with traditional clothes and those traditional clothes have to be the most well-made they can afford. Never buy a cheap suit, a cheap pair of shoes or a cheap tie. Primark clothes are strictly for women, who can mix them in with other stuff to create a look. A Primark suit? Never. Big mistake.]
Some good may come out of this free advice to people who might be willing to learn.
And what about haircuts? Tonio Fenech has been looking ever so scruffy at Ecofin meetings -. finally he got himself a haircut for the last meeting.
What is this obsession with what people wear? Isn’t it a bit morbid?
[Daphne – A fascination with, say, death or coffins or suffering. would be morbid. An interest – as opposed to obsession – in what people wear and the telling way they wear it is 100% normal for most women and gay men. See it as the equivalent of football, with the difference is that we don’t go to those extremes.]
For most women and gay men? Please, any one with enough self respect should realise that some things look good and some things are better left on mannequins in abandoned corners.
I am neither a woman nor gay, and I love my football, but I also show an interest in what I’m wearing and what other people wear.
I think the modern man is expected to care about the way he looks and women like that in him.
Another related topic is men sitting down and exposing their short socks, sometimes rolled down. Shocking.
Most people are not aware of these details. I am. I adjust all the clothes myself. It’s not an obsession but I wouldn’t waste my time explaining how and why. I do it for myself and the very few who have an eye for detail.
Can you stil get bespoke tailoring in Malta? Someone told me that the great Freddie (just round the corner from Bortex in Valletta) passed away about two months ago. He was found in his shop, stone cold dead, with a suit jacket draped over his knees, still holding needle and thread. Apocryphal perhaps, but quite touching. Sic transit the last bastion of gentlemanly living.
Joe Sammut in that jacket with hairy arms sticking out reminded me of Fred Flintstone dressed up for the occasion.