Tailoring tips for guys who aren't model size

A great suit should be your boardroom battle armour – something that you can slip on and boss the day, no matter what you've got pencilled into your calendar. In short, if you're looking for some new tailoring, it pays to take a little extra time and get it right. The problem is that, as a general rule, the suits you'll see hanging from the rails on the high street are scaled according to lithe, tall model proportions - and most of us aren't models. If you're a man who's a little taller, a litter broader or a little rounder, you might need a few pointers to help you make sure you get a fit that shows your physique at its finest. That's where David Robotham comes in.

A tailor at Savile Row house Cad & The Dandy, Robotham's personal Instagram account@sartorial_en_plus is dedicated to showing that, as he himself states, "Plus size can be dressed stylishly and smart!"

And who better to prove his point than the man himself? His account is a constant feed of Robotham looking superb in some seriously sleek custom suits, as well as close-ups on his tie and pocket square combinations and stylish Savile Row types. So we headed down to the world's most famous suiting street to talk to him about tailoring tips for men who fall under the "plus size" umbrella, his personal style icons and the power of wearing what the hell you want.

GQ: The term "plus size" is more commonly used for womenswear, but what do you make of the it when it's used in relation to men's clothing?

David Robotham: I know that these days there is a definite drive to remove the "plus" for a lot of hashtags. I mean for tailoring, because there’s no sizes, there’s no sort of set limits on the end of the range. We don’t have to refer to it as "plus size" - it either fits or it doesn’t fit. So, you can work with a lot more on a different palette of terminology. You can use scale and balance and things like that to make sure the clothing looks the best it can. You can look at the width of lapels and things like that to just bring everything together and create something that looks great on someone no matter what size they are.

Is there a term that you feel would work better in the context of menswear? that you’d prefer to hear it referred as?

I mean, the Instagram that I run even is called "en plus" so it’s still there, right in the title! But I set that up quite a long time ago, and I don’t necessarily know what I would call it if I were to name my account now. There’s a fantastic group of guys that I’m a part of that is called #biguomo. It’s all a very Ivy League, American style, and there's also a bunch of black guys who use the hashtag. Their style and the way they’re mixing it up is amazing.

Personally, the point I’ve reached is that I rarely go to shops to get my clothes because of working here, so I don’t ever need to use the term. But it has a lot of baggage with it. It’s one of those things where people will say that they’re being discriminated against because a range doesn’t do plus size clothing, but not everyone has that sort of range space within their collection to expand into it. In terms of the actual terminology, there are a lot of brands now that do an extra big section, whereas a lot of womenswear stores now don’t a specific "plus" section - they simply go up those sizes.

Yes, it still feels like there can be a segregation there...

Yeah, they don’t say, “This is the normal and average range”. And "normal" is a very, very dangerous word for anything in this day and age - because nothing is. It’s all just what you are, isn’t it?

One of the reasons I wanted to ask you about this is that it seems in menswear, the term "plus size" feels problematic because it's inherently used to cover three very different body types: men who are taller, men who are more broad or muscular, and men who are a little rounder. So what would be your tips for these three types of man if they are looking to buy a suit?

For the guys that are in the middle (the round guys, we always say), if you’ve got a bit of a tummy, you’ve got to make a very specific choice when you’re getting your trousers: do you wear the trousers under your tummy? Or do you wear the trousers over your tummy? Don’t ever go half way. A lot of guys will choose a lower slung trouser, but what’s actually more elegant is a high-rise trouser.

For guys who are broad, quite often they will see a picture of David Gandy looking amazing and they want that tailored waist as well as broad shoulders. The problem is if you tailor it broad in the shoulders, right on to their waist, the suit collapses down on itself - you actually have to leave them with quite a bit of space at the waist to create balance, otherwise they just look like a triangle which is unbalanced.

For taller guys, again it’s about balance with the details of the suit as well. So, if you’ve got a jacket that’s got the lapels coming down and a single button, you’ve then got a lot of jacket material that comes down with no buttons - so we always suggest that taller guys have two buttons, because that breaks up that the expanse of material. For very tall guys who will probably have big feet, you also want to ask for a slightly more tapered trouser because it’s going to look much neater coming down. If your leg is really long and you've got this wide, un-tapered trouser leg, it can look very 1950s and not everyone wants that. It’s all about keeping it trim, because you could end up with lots of cloth in the whole suit and you want to minimise the look of that.

And for men with a bit more of a tummy – how would the trousers fit best? Would you still recommend a tapered trouser there?

As long as it doesn’t taper down too much - you’ve got to look at the whole trouser. If you’re wearing them high on the waist and you’ve got a flat fronted trouser, that still looks fantastic and you can still wear it with a slightly more tapered trouser. But if you’ve got pleats, double or single, then you probably want a slightly wider trouser opening because it looks a little bit more natural.

Would you also recommend, having tabs on the trousers as well?

You would never, ever wear a belt with a trouser over your stomach because you’re wearing the trousers that high to create the nice straight lines, If you're putting a belt on that’s cinching the whole thing in, it will ruin that silhouette. Step two is braces! So, you can wear a trouser that is slightly looser, because when a big guy sits down the waistline gets bigger. Wearing braces, it can take some getting used to, but I would always always suggest it. It is so much more comfortable, and so much more elegant as well.

Are there any sort of colours or materials that you would recommend or avoid for these three types of men?

For all three, they should try to avoid very lightweight cloths as they are going to be very flighty and not drape very well. Go for a medium to heavy weight cloth that is going to come over the shoulders and hang beautifully. And it’s the same for all three categories that we’ve got there. I’m wearing a 16-ounce cloth today - which is insane - but it wears so much better. The trousers are so much more comfortable and they hang better, whereas if I was wearing a suit of a light cloth it would be sticking to me, it would just be catching, it would be creasing up – it wouldn’t be very nice.

Mohairs are very good because they’ve got lots of structure and they hold their shape, so they just keep you honest as it were. They never crease up or look tired – and that's great because if you’re feeling a little bit self-conscious, having a suit that you know looks great will give you so much bonus confidence.

How about waistcoats?

I would say for rounder guys, waistcoat all the time. It hides the waistband of the high-rise trousers you’re obviously going to be wearing, and so it just makes a really neat silhouette as it hides your waist bands.

For much taller guys, check that a double-breasted waistcoat isn't cut too high because it can mean you look a little unbalanced - however, for shorter guys, a double-breasted waistcoat is great because it makes your legs look really long.

For really broad guys, I think the single-breasted is best because you can easily put extra darts in the back to make it fit perfectly over the chest

When it comes to suiting style, do you have any personal idols?

I always go back to golden age Hollywood. There are a lot of famous actors back then who were just who they were and there’s sort of no pressures to conform to anything for celebrity. I’ve got a fantastic picture of Nat King Cole wearing a double-breasted suit (literally defying all the things I've just said!). He’s got a three by one double-breasted jacket on, fastened by just one button at the bottom, and he’s just stood there with all of these people around him, laughing and looking fantastic. Laurel and Hardy, actually, is a very interesting one. If you look at the way the trousers were created, or the way the suits were created for the black and white television shows, there are also a lot of interesting ways that they dressed those characters to look fantastic. That’s who I always get a lot of pictures of when I’m trying to inspire myself.

Are there any styling tips for plus size guys you've heard or read that are pure myths?

[Laughs] So I’ve definitely read in multiple places, people suggesting that you take your trousers lower, which I just would not suggest at all. There's always "don’t wear a horizontal stripe" or "don’t wear a big check" or something like that. When it comes to cloth and the patterns on it, you can wear whatever the hell you like - it’s the fit that people are going to notice. Also turn-ups are often called out...

Do people think it shortens the legs?

Yes, exactly. However, I usually have a turn-up that's about one and a quarter to one and a half inches on most of my trousers and I’ve got tiny tiny legs - so I just say to hell with it!

So what would be your ultimate tip for a plus-sized man who's out suit shopping?

Keep an eye out for balance, whatever you're buying. If you are browsing a range of clothing, pay careful attention to how they’ve made it. So, for example, I went to try on a coat the other day from a high street retailer and it just didn't look promotional: the pocket was the same size as a smaller jacket, as were the lapels - so all the details looked too small and it just looked silly.

The thing I love about bespoke suits is that you can get all that balance just right. Any suit that I get made for me now, for example, has five-inch lapels, which is insane - but there’s a lot of me to cover! So, they’re big, but it looks in balance. Then the jacket pocket is bigger too. You can’t have a big jacket without scaling everything else up with it. You just have to pay attention to those smaller details, and if you get the opportunity to go bespoke or made to measure, definitely give it a go to get all the balance perfect.

Follow David Robotham on Instagram at @sartorial_en_plus.