Have you ever found a great pair of pants and wondered, “Should I buy them and have them tailored . . . or keep looking?”
In this episode, Natalie welcomes back her style friends Nick and Stacie of Beyond Bespoke to answer the pant alteration questions she hears from clients every single season. From choosing the right size in the fitting room to understanding which alterations are simple, which are more complex, and where a pant hem should actually hit, this conversation is packed with practical advice you'll use every time you shop.
Whether you're shopping for jeans, trousers, or wide-leg pants, you'll walk away with a better understanding of what tailoring can—and can't—do, helping you make smarter purchasing decisions and get more life out of the clothes you already own.
Episode Notes & Resources:
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Read the full & Raw Episode transcript:
[00:00]
Natalie: Hello everyone. I am thrilled to be back with two of my most favorite Style Friend guests, Nick and Stacie of Beyond Bespoke, our tailoring shop in Midtown Manhattan that we love so much. And it is spooky season, right? And today I am going to talk about something that terrifies a lot of my clients and sometimes myself, and that is pants. They can be so freaking scary when you get to a store and put them in the fitting room and have to try them on, right? So today we're gonna try to make pants a lot less boo and a lot more yahoo. Thanks, guys, for joining me again.
Stacie: You ever have?
Natalie: Yeah.
Nick: Happy to be.
Natalie: All right. So we're gonna talk about—we're gonna go through a series and go through specific items because I think it's really important for people to know what the boundaries of tailoring are. And we are here with custom tailors. This is not just your corner dry cleaner tailor. We are with custom tailors. So keep that in mind.
And I think, though, there will be times you can hit on kind of a what's a more experienced alteration. So let's start where it all begins if you're not getting it custom made or bespoke or semi-bespoke: in the fitting room. If somebody is trying on pants—and a lot of people, they just don't fit off the rack. They don't fit for me off the rack. I usually need my waist, right? Like, if you're very short, straight up and down, right? I've got a booty and a small waist. That's just how it is, right? So if you're trying on pants or jeans, what is the thing to look for fit-wise? Like, what do you fit for first?
[02:13]
Nick: Well, you definitely wanna be comfortable, you know, a hundred percent. So in terms of if you're someone with, like, strong thighs or really big calves and every time you sit down and stand up you have to shimmy your leg to get your pants back down—I know that happens to a lot of my customers—or you sit down and you're like, man, these are too tight, but the waist fits perfect, so now I have to size up. Can the waist be taken in? You know, I always expect: be comfortable. Your biggest part of your—like, you know, make sure that area is comfortable. Everything else could be sized down.
Stacie: Just like you said before, Natalie, you have a big butt and a small waist. That's one of women's biggest problems. You have a bigger hip section than you do a waist. So fit your biggest part, so your widest part. Everything else could be slimmed in.
[03:02]
Natalie: Another thing I see a lot is the way that the rise will wrinkle. So right in the—and we'll call it the crotch area. We'll just use anatomy, what it is. And so short problems. I will say a lot, like—and this could be totally correct or incorrect, you tell me—but when the lines are all sorts of diagonal, yeah, that's probably a difficult alteration.
Stacie: Unless you want to spend a lot of money to fix that, I would leave those in the dressing room. So that's not just a standard alteration. This is a very custom alteration. You need a very talented tailor to do this. So you're basically remaking the whole front panel of the pants. You're not just doing a, like, a bring up here, a cinch in. It's making the whole pants over.
So that is definitely something that if you love the pants and there's something that your grandmother handed down to you and you want them to fit you, invest in it. But if it's a pair of pants you're buying from Zara and you really like the pattern, find the pattern elsewhere.
Nick: Correct. A lot of times those wrinkles happen because the waistband is also being pushed down by your anatomy. So what Stacie—exactly what Stacie was saying—you know, one of the main things is lifting the whole waistband up. So it's a big alteration, especially if it's in the front. Yeah. 'Cause now you're working with the zipper, you're working with a lot of other, you know, complicated areas.
[04:19]
Stacie: This happens to short people a lot because the waistbands make—it happens to me all the time, I'm short. The waistband is made for somebody with a taller—a longer torso, rather. And then it has nowhere to go, so that fabric just goes all into your crotch.
Natalie: Like it's an arrow there, and I don't think a lot of people see attention from it. I will—
Stacie: I won't even wear them. I won't even wear them. It's not—
Nick: Right. And again, it goes with your anatomy. You know, that's why you have high-rise, mid-rise, low-rise. You know, when you have a small waist and a booty, you know, you kinda wanna stick more with the high-rise because you want the pants to be able to fade out. Another issue is your pockets flare a lot. Yeah. Because of that situation. So, you know, it all depends on the design of the pants.
[04:59]
Natalie: Speaking of, then we're gonna play a little game. And it is called “How Hard Is That Alteration?” So on a scale of one to ten, ten being the most difficult—and you can have little caveats and comments if it's not as straightforward as it is—but I'm gonna go through an alteration that maybe you would have on a pair of pants, and you're gonna tell me how difficult it is on a scale of one to ten. All right, hemming.
Nick: One being the best, the hardest, the easiest one?
Natalie: One. One. One, easy peasy. Really?
Stacie: I would change that. I would say it depends on the pants. It depends on the pants. We have cut, like, a pair of Tom Ford pants. That's not a simple hem. That's not a simple hem. You come in, there's buttons, there's buttonhole situations. It's not a simple hem.
Natalie: So a straightforward pair of pants. So if it doesn't have—if it doesn't have something or if there's a zipper, like, we're wrong where there's a zipper. But a straightforward pair of pants, a one?
Nick: One.
Natalie: Okay. All right. But it's good to know because you don't want someone like, “Well, you said it's all easy.” Taking in the waist.
[06:08]
Nick: Taking in the waist, I would say three, four, depending on who you're working for. You know, it's all based on the anatomy. If it's someone slender, you know, very slim, very easygoing. But if someone with a little bit more curves, you know, it becomes complicated. You have to work with the sides. Everything's about proportion.
Natalie: Gotcha. Okay, then what about the hips?
Nick: Kinda like, you know, the same, three, four. It all depends on the person.
Natalie: And also make sure you don't have a big, like, track stripe on the side or something and expect—
Nick: Because now, for instance, tuxedo bands, right? That becomes a little bit complicated 'cause when you take it in, now you have to make sure the stripe is laying straight.
Natalie: Again, this is why you need a skilled custom tailor, everyone. I'm just gonna say that probably 37 more times. What about letting out the waist or hips?
[07:02]
Nick: So you're only—you're limited to what's provided inside the pants. It's very easy to let out. I actually think letting out's a little bit easier than taking in. But of course, you know, you always wanna give the correct expectation to the customer.
Natalie: So that's where I think sometimes, too, it's changed a lot based on quality not always being, like, designer-based anymore. But it used to be historically, if you were investing more in clothing, luxury designers would leave more room to let things—
Stacie: At least two, two and a half inches. But now everything's like underwear cuts. It's really sad. There's, like, nothing left. There's nothing left in there. Yeah, lingerie cut just means there's no fabric inside.
Natalie: Interesting. I didn't know that. That's a good term. We brought in, like, some really nice suits from clients with my expectation that they were gonna have left fabric allowance to let out a pant. And Nick's like, “I'm so sorry, it's not there.” I'm like, fabrics—
Stacie: It's expensive now, Natalie.
Nick: And I always hate to give the bad news.
Natalie: You know what? Don't shoot the middleman, guys. All right. Tapering a leg.
[08:03]
Nick: Tapering, like—I mean, again, it all depends on the design. I would give it a five, six. Only reason because it depends on how wide we have to taper. If we're reconstructing, like, you can fit two of you in there, it becomes quite complicated. I gotta resize the pockets, everything comes into—
Natalie: It's like redesigning it. So all this then, within reason, that's the number. We talked about this a little bit about altering the rise.
Nick: Altering the rise, it depends on if I have to work with the front or the back. If it's the back, I would say two, three. If it's the front, 'cause now you're working with either zippers or buttons, you're gonna say six, seven. Is that—
Natalie: Okay. Still a thing? I don't know. I heard that adults made six-seven not cool.
Nick: We just did that just now.
Natalie: Sorry, Gen—whatever they are. Alpha. All right. Last one, removing the pocket bags, which means sometimes pockets flare, as you said, and that's removing the actual pocket bag, right?
[09:07]
Nick: We're gonna remove the pocket bag, sew the pockets closed. I would say two, three. Yeah.
Stacie: Not a hard process to do. It's just time-consuming.
Natalie: I feel like that's one that makes a big difference if you're buying off the rack for clients. I have a lot of clients that that's just, like, the first thing they do is remove—
Stacie: We have a lot of customers that do that too.
Natalie: It's pretty—it's a good one that makes a big impact. Okay. Next thing with pants. I get asked this all the time with clients. Where should a pant hem actually hit in relation to the ground?
[09:35]
Stacie: So you can't—you can't say. So I think that, in our opinion, depending on the shoe—and sometimes me and Nick go back and forth about this too. So even in the same shop, it depends. Like, I don't like to see my shoe if I'm wearing a wide leg. I want my shoe completely covered. I want it to just be touching the floor. And sometimes Nick'll be like, you need a little bit 'cause then it's gonna be filthy, you know? Or—so, like, me, I'd rather drag just a little bit. But it depends on the width of the pants. It depends on the shoe you're gonna wear. It depends.
Nick: Depends on the circumference of the leg opening as well. That takes a big play. If it's more narrow, you're able to go all the way up to ankle length. When it's wider, you go longer. Otherwise it kinda looks like the flood is coming, you know?
Natalie: Yeah, that was—that was my next question of, does it change—no, no, no, this is great. Does that change depending on the style of the pants? So wide, we would say generally visually pleasing is just above the ground?
Stacie: Just above the ground.
Natalie: And then what would you say for a tapered?
[10:33]
Nick: Taper, you know, the sky's the limit. It's kinda how much break you want, if you want more of a no break or if—in the female aspect—
Stacie: That's your style.
Nick: Mine? Yeah. If it's more tapered, I would say small, medium—
Stacie: Break?
Natalie: Small, medium. Yeah. What about a straight leg? I always find straight leg to be a little bit more confusing.
Nick: Again, it depends on the circumference. So if you're doing a straight leg, I would go more around the ankle area, mid-ankle. If it's a little bit wider, I would try to stick somewhere more—I would say the top of your—the back of your heel. Okay? Yeah.
Natalie: Yeah, that's good. That makes sense. I didn't think about that.
Stacie: It's crazy now, though. Everybody's pants are very short right now. It's a very, very big trend right now. They are—
Natalie: Yeah. There's the Thom Brownes coming back. But then—but then there's all the wide leg. They're kind of all over the place. It's a weird—
Stacie: Yeah, it's a—
Natalie: Time. It's kind of like the Wild, Wild West for pants.
[11:23]
Natalie: Okay, let's talk about heel heights then, because this is a big one. If someone wears—a lot of times they'll bring in a flat and bring in a heel. What are the parameters and guidelines for how much you can make it visually pleasing?
Nick: Yeah, I like to give a realistic expectation. So, you know, if you're wearing—wanna wear for both flats, I was trying to say no more than an inch and a half to—I wouldn't even really want to do a two-inch. Would you agree?
Stacie: I mean, we usually just say, look, make it as long as possible for the flat, and then that's gonna accommodate the heel. Not every pair of pants that you're gonna wear with a flat is gonna be flattering with a heel. It just happens that way.
So we just did this with Allison and the customer she brought in before. She wanted to try to figure out a way to get, like, the pants to stay up when she's wearing a flat, but then bring them down, and it's—it's something, if somebody has an idea, maybe. But it really depends on the shoe. But I would suggest—and we usually suggest—the longest it could possibly go with a flat, and then you're kinda limited to, like, a three-inch heel.
[12:29]
Natalie: Two inches. Yeah. Like, no, the heels—I always say no, then keep them with—with my clients. And again, correct me if I'm giving bad advice because I love to learn. I always tell them, like, just make it the max, maybe two inches more. And then bring those in and look at it when you pin it, just to make sure you're gonna be happy with it and you have realistic expectations. And maybe you're like, “I don't like it with a flat. I only want it with a heel.” And you just have to know.
Stacie: I know with all of my wide pants, anything that's a wide bottom, I'm never gonna wear a flat with that. It's never gonna happen. I'm gonna always wear a wedge or a small heel. And I know the size of the shoe I'm gonna wear, a wedge sneaker even. Like, I won't wear a flat with a wide leg.
Nick: Again, it's just preparing your customer with those expectations. You know, you can't say flat and then they come in with a four-inch heel. Now you're like, “Hey, listen, come on now.”
Natalie: But to your point, maybe if it's a cropped or slim leg, then sometimes you can get away with that.
Nick: Because then you're tapering to the mid-ankle and it works a little bit.
Natalie: That's a trick, then, if you're okay with that style, then just know that's what you can do about it.
[13:22]
Natalie: All right. How much can you realistically alter a pair of pants before it's no longer worth it?
Nick: I would say, you know, is it worth it? Do you have sentimental value to it? Because it all comes into play. Is it really worth paying for it? You know, I could reconstruct a lot. You know, the sky's the limit. I could recreate your pockets, recreate a lot of things if you really wanna invest in it. But, you know, I try to just steer people away from it if they don't really—they're not really fully in love with it.
Natalie: Yeah, I think that's good advice. Okay. I want to talk about something that you're so good at. Many things. But one of the things in particular that I really appreciate is trend versus tailoring to you. So, for example, I had a pair of wide-leg pants that I really loved. If you remember, they had, like, pearls down the side. They're really cute. But, like, the butt was saggy. And so I wanted to keep the wide-leg pant, but Nick is so big on you can do a trend, but you can make it in proportion to you.
Exactly. So what advice do you have for that? What are some things that maybe are trending now that you're like, these are some things you could consider?
[14:39]
Stacie: Well, he hates wide pants.
Natalie: I know he does. I know he does.
Nick: With what you said, just, you know, it's all about—you never wanna feel like the garment's swallowing you. You know, you could still maintain the design as long as, you know, the butt area is shaped out right. So by doing that, you kinda, like, take in the crotch and taper the legs, the thigh area a little bit. And that really helps still keep the style you're going for, but show your anatomy as well.
Natalie: And you've done it too. Another pant that we did it with was a flare of mine, and you took in the flare just a little bit because we were altering it to sneakers, right? And so then it just made it a little bit—it made it sit nicer and look more proportional instead of being, like, very narrow at the knee and then flaring out bell-bottom stuff.
Nick: Everything's about proportion, a hundred percent, tailoring. And you know what? Yeah, you just gotta kinda, like, feel your customer, see exactly what you're working with, and make sure the proportion is right.
[15:33]
Stacie: So if Nick had a pull string, one of his things he would say is, “The designer's not wearing it, you are.” So you could tailor it to what you want it to be and not what the designer expected it to be.
Natalie: And that is so true because that's really what the clothes are supposed to be in your closet, and you wear them, and then you'll wear them longer. You'll buy better, buy less, you'll wear it longer 'cause you've made it fit to your—
Nick: Exactly. Fashion comes and goes, you know, all different—you know, it's a fad today and then it's gone tomorrow. You want to make sure you look at it.
Natalie: Exactly.
All right, last question. Do you have a favorite trouser alteration or a specific story of creating something, like, really cool with someone's trousers or jeans?
[16:13]
Nick: Hmm, what comes to play? Yeah, you know, a lot of things I've done recently is do a lot of recycled suits. And I have this one customer that comes to mind where I turned his slacks into shorts. So now he's wearing these kind of, like, cool two-piece short—like, short blazer outfits. It's really trendy on him. He pulls it off amazing and, you know, he's just a stylish guy.
Natalie: That's cool. So you basically, like, created a new garment to get a look. I love that.
Thank you again both so much for your expertise. And Nick and Stacie will be back. Thank you so much for listening to another Wear Who You Are episode. Follow Beyond Bespoke on Instagram at Beyond Bespoke Tailors NYC or visit their website.
Don't be scared. Don't be scared of a tailor, even though it's spooky season. They're a nice place to be. The tailors are your friends.
Thank you so much and have a great day.