Short Shrifted

It has over 1,300 locations in the United States (and outposts all over the world).

Dress shirts cost about $5, suits start around $20 (unless you wait for half-price days, which come every week).

Everything’s pre-washed and pre-shrunk, so you know exactly how it will fit right off the rack.

They even have a budget hotel in Iceland (nice place; I stayed there once).

It’s… the Salvation Army Family Store.

Sure, I’ve dallied with other shops. Gap was my go-to when I lived in the backwoods of Maine, thanks to their XS size. But who wants to look like a Gap ad? H&M can be good, but their styles change so fast and sometimes the of-the-moment stuff just looks ridiculous. Uniqlo? They’re great if you happen to live in NYC; otherwise you’ll have to book a flight to Japan. Black Fleece, Club Monaco, Rugby, Band of Outsiders, TopMan, and all the rest: damned expensive.

Nope. For me, it’ll always be Salvation Army. Over the course of my life, I’ve found more great clothes there than anywhere else. It’s my one constant. A chain I know that I’ll be able to find anywhere I live, work or travel. One that actually has affordable stuff that fits me.

Sure, any given trip to a Sally Ann’s can turn up zilch. But over the long haul it’s a goldmine. It’s all about knowing how to shop a thrift store. Tips on that here and here.

So, besides price, what makes Salvation Army unique? Sheer variety.

LABEL VARIETY
If you’re short — or really any sort “odd” size that falls outside of the narrow silhouettes of the apparel industry, you have it tough. If the couple dozen major brands at Macy’s don’t flatter your shape, you’re screwed. But at any given SA there are literally hundreds or thousands of labels. And many of them boutique, foreign, or defunct — weird, wild, under-the-wire stuff.

HISTORICAL VARIETY
Unlike every other store on the planet, Salvation Army doesn’t just carry clothes from a designer’s 2010 Spring Season (or whatever the current line is). You can find stuff from five, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. This frees you from the tyranny of the moment. You can find items from periods when cuts and styles were vastly different from the shape-du-jour. And I think that (barring Hammer pants in the early ’90s and those boxy power suits from the ’80s) most of the menswear in the latter half of the 20th century was cut tighter, shorter, and smaller than today. And arguably, the average size of the American male was probably a bit smaller. Besides shirts, pants, jackets and all the rest, it’s probably the #2 best place to score vintage neckties for this reason.

GENDER VARIETY
Sex is natural, sex is good, quoth George Michael. But gender is a social construct. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the history of men’s fashion. Towering bouffant wigs, makeup, stockings, corsets, earrings, glitter… all considered the height of male fashion at one time or another. So why should a guy feel bad about buying a shirt marked “women” in this day and age. Especially when, oftentimes, the only notable difference about a women’s shirt is that the buttons are on the wrong side. And it actually fits.

What’s nice about the thrift experience is that categories like these often begin to break down a little: I’ll zip down a row of men’s blazers, pull out a dozen with short sleeves, and a couple of them will be women’s blazers (usually on the less “effeminate” side: tweeds, not frilly, etc.).

As Michael of the LoveShip posted about a recent winter coat purchase:

“I have no problem wearing ladies clothing. At 5′4″ and a slim build, most of what I find thrifting makes me look like I’m playing dress up in daddy’s closet. Luckily, gems like this will slip by most guys and into my basket.”

NOTE: There’s a downside to this, too. Since organization is a bit more scattershot at used-clothing shops, the clerks who stock the racks use size as one of their sorting aids. I suspect there are loads of small and short men’s clothes that end up in the women’s and children’s sections. So you may have to pick through those, too.

CUSTOM VARIETY
Where else can you buy a custom-made shirt — that wasn’t made for you? OK, granted, the whole point of going the bespoke route is that you get a piece of clothing precisely tailored to your exact dimensions. So buying a second-hand blazer that was custom made for someone else may seem absurd. Still, what’s cool about it is this: With used custom clothing, you at least get a shot at finding something that fits your unusual shape. At the very least you’ll find pieces that are tailored to specs outside the mainstream. And since you find yourself in that number, the odds of finding something that fits you improve, too.

Good hunting, everyone.

Have a thrift-shopping secret you’d like to share? Know of any super-cool second-hand stores in your area? Or just want to crow about an awesome vintage find? I’d love to hear about it.

My blog just got a nice plug from Elizabeth Anne Designs, a wedding website updated daily with tips and stories from brides, newlyweds and wedding vendors. In a post called Tales of a Petite Groom, a bride-to-be recounts her and her fiance’s fruitless hunt for a suit for the big day.

Mo writes:

It is so hard to find a good fitting suit for the short, thin man in the States. I know, because the boy and I covered some serious ground in San Diego and the OC, only to realize that everything is way. too. big.

What was even more frustrating is that salesmen tried to convince us that suits that clearly did not fit in the shoulders were perfect on him. Sorry Hugo Boss, we’re not shelling out two thousand on a suit only to have it pulled apart for alterations.

Sounds exactly like my own frustrating experience as a groom — and the whole reason I started this blog. Very cool, then, that Mo and her man went home, fired up the internet, and were psyched to find Short Shrifted. Full circle.

It’s cool to see their process unfolding online. And it’ll be interesting to see what he eventually comes up with. Looks like they’re starting with a custom-made suit from Thick as Thieves.

On Mo’s personal blog Pink Argyle, she muses on possible necktie choices (might I humbly suggest my Necktie Length Chart?).

And here’s a photostream of the couple’s engagement pix.

Anyone out there planning (or recently had) a wedding/civil union/hand-fasting? Any recommendations for this lucky fella?

Year’s end. Time to take stock. Celebrate your sartorial victories. Review your fashion defeats. Plot a strategy for 2010. I know finding clothes that fit is tough when you’re under 5′9″. But not if you have the gift of knowledge.

So, happy holidays! May you have hours of surfing and reading pleasure. My gift to you: 197 Links for the Sharply Dressed Short Man.

These are things I’ve been collecting for years: websites, blog entries, forum threads, online shops, product reviews, news articles, etc. Quite the mishmash, but I hope you’ll have fun sorting through it.

Maybe you’ve noticed these bookmarks before. Over to the right on the sidebar. Scroll down a bit. Keep scrolling. Yep, past the Archives. Past my Flickr pix and the recent Reader Comments. No, too far. Don’t click on the Twitter badge. I’m taking a break from that. Too many spammers…

And loyal readers, please know this: Even when a week goes by without a post, I’m constantly updating that thing. Research, research, research.

So cast an eye over there from time to time, eh? Have a suggestion or a helpful link to share? Send it my way. And while you’re at it, please remember to save Short Shrifted to your social-bookmarking contraption of choice.

Join my Delish Network:

Xmas shopping in the Time Warner Center a few weeks back, I noticed that J.Crew now carries XS sizes! Guess it’s no coincidence that every time I go in there it seems like all the male sales associates are on the shorter side. I asked one of them how the XS stuff was selling: Flying off the racks.

Curious whether they’ll continue the smaller sizes or if this is just an experiment, I queried Heather McAuliffe, PR veep at the Crew:

“Like everything we do, it was really based on our customer feedback… We heard that our guys were requesting additional sizes in the store and so we brought them in. We have been really pleased.”

Well, so am I. Thanks, J.Crew. This really demonstrates how powerful customer feedback can be. The takeaway: If nothing fits you in a store you like, speak up. Occasionally corporate entities listen.

So…

THE FIT: XS button-up shirts fit well on my 5′5″/130-lb frame. Any tighter and they’d be too snug. XS sweaters were slightly too tight for my taste. A few years ago I picked up one of their size Small V-Neck cotton sweater, and it fits beautifully over a shirt. Loose but not baggy — just right for a sweater.

Anyone else scoped out the J.Crew XS sizes yet? What did you think?

“Diminutive players such as Maurice Jones-Drew and Steve Smith, once thought too small for pro football, now thrive at the top of the statistical charts. Quickness and the proliferation of spread offenses are factors.”

This, according to an LA Times story on short players in the NFL. (Thanks to Allen, a longtime reader, for sending me the link). I normally don’t post on ‘newsy’, non-clothing-related stuff like this, but hey. It’s Friday. And it’s football, about the only sport I try to follow. Here’s the list:

NFL PLAYERS SHORTER THAN 5-FOOT-9:

Stefan Logan, Pittsburgh RB: 5-6, 180 lbs.
Darren Sproles, San Diego RB: 5-6, 185 lbs.

LaRod Stephens-Howling, Arizona: RB 5-7, 180 lbs.
Garrett Wolfe, Chicago RB: 5-7, 185 lbs.
Maurice Jones-Drew, Jacksonville RB: 5-7, 208 lbs.

Allen Rossum, Dallas DB: 5-8, 178 lbs.
Jason David, Detroit CB: 5-8, 180 lbs.
Michael Adams, Arizona DB: 5-8, 181 lbs.
Dantrell Savage, Kansas City RB: 5-8, 182 lbs.
Tim Jennings, Indianapolis CB: 5-8, 185 lbs.
Sinorice Moss, New York Giants WR: 5-8, 185 lbs.
Captain Munnerlyn, Carolina CB: 5-8, 186 lbs.
Jim Leonhard, New York Jets SS: 5-8, 186 lbs.
Ray Rice, Baltimore RB: 5-8, 210 lbs.

Several readers of this blog have recommended Indochino, an online suit-maker that offer made-to-measure suits at reasonable prices. I was curious, but had never tried them out. This summer, they offered to make me a suit gratis for the purposes of a review.

I chose their Navy Blue Pick-Stitch Suit with Peak Lapels (regular retail price $379). The peak lapels because I’d always heard that they accentuate your height (and they just seem cool). After picking the style and entering my measurements, just a few weeks passed and my suit arrived in the mail. Now that I’ve worn it at a few weddings this summer I can say this:

I am extremely satisfied with my Indochino suit — and would recommend them highly (with a few minor caveats). Details below the slideshow.

THE FIT:

As a shorter guy, fit is paramount. And basically, the fit is perfect. Sleeve length, shoulders, jacket hem length, crotch, waist, inseam — all are spot on. I couldn’t be more impressed! Much better than anything I’ve ever tried OTR.

This is now my best-fitting suit.

That said, I’d already done an online shirt measurement with ATailoredSuit and jacket with DressMonkey, so I was checking and rechecking my numbers against those as I went through Indochino’s self-measuring process — just to see if the numbers were in the right ballpark.

I found that Indochino’s online measurement guides were helpful and accurate, but my first caveat is this: There’s probably always potential for a customer to screw up a measurement. Maybe it’s your first time going MTM, maybe you can’t handle a tape-measure, or maybe you *think* you know your measurements, but they’re wrong — or you’ve gained or lost weight. In any case, there’s definitely the potential for error (I experienced this my first time doing MTM with DressMonkey).

On the other hand, Indochino has a 100% Perfect Fit Guarantee. And this policy is a huge selling point for me. It boils down to these three options:

1. they credit you $75 for alterations at your local tailor
2. you send it back and they fix it
3. they make you a brand-new one for free

Amazing. I don’t see any risk here, which is incredibly smart from a marketing perspective. Indochino has removed the single biggest reservation that people ordering MTM clothing online have: fear that you’ll be stuck with something that doesn’t fit (and out hundreds of dollars).

And here’s another neat thing. Let’s say, the sleeves do end up being too long. You decide to bring it to your local tailor. Indochino has a printable Alterations Form to take with you. It provides detailed info on each aspect of the garment: exactly how many inches each element can be shortened or lengthened.

And once your tailor is done, they note the changes on the form, you enter the info into “My Measurements” on Indochino.com, and next time you order a suit from them, it should be perfect.

When it comes to fit, they’ve thought of everything.

MATERIAL & CONSTRUCTION:

Here’s the one potential downside: I didn’t think the quality of fabric and workmanship of my suit was super high. It’s perfectly fine, but certainly not luxurious or finely wrought. And they don’t seem to offer actual fabric swatches on their site, which is a bummer.

To be fair, I’m not an expert on fabric or garment construction. But I’m not a knuckle-dragger whose girlfriend can’t get him out of his baseball hats and into a suit, either. I’m interested in menswear and enjoy dressing well when it’s appropriate. And I just don’t feel like the quality is quite there.

But it may not matter to most people. To be honest, at this low price point, it doesn’t matter to me.

The thing is, I don’t think these details would be noticeable to anyone other than a true clotheshorse or someone in the menswear industry. The other 99% of people you’d encounter — at weddings, your office, the Oscars, or wherever you’d wear a suit — won’t be able to tell the difference. What they will notice is that you look sharp in your perfect-fitting suit.

COST:

Their suits run from $300 to $500, but the vast majority are under $400. And they offer free worldwide shipping. Gotta love those prices!

So, OK. If you want a high-quality MTM suit, you are just going to have to pay well over $1000, and should probably do it at a local brick-and-mortar suitmaker anyway. But ultimately, for less than $400, a great-fitting suit based on your exact measurements is completely worth it.

It’s way better than spending the same amount of cash — or more — for something ill-fitting you’d get off the rack at Men’s Wearhouse et al. I can’t put it more strongly than this: Although this suit was free, I would absolutely buy another suit from them with my own money. I’m already ogling this baby…

BOTTOM LINE:

With their perfect fit, decent quality, and low cost, Indochino is a fantastic option for short men — or guys of any size.

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“Would you happen to have any suggestions on a good place to find a winter coat? In terms of what I’m looking for, I just need a warm coat that’ll protect me from the brutal winter while I’m on the road in areas like Canada and North Dakota - my main concern is utilitarian.”

–Phil, 5-foot-5, 125 pounds

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Good point. There’s not a whole lot on Short Shrifted about winter jackets. Time to remedy that. Two things come immediately to mind — and then I’d love to get some reader suggestions for Phil.

1. When I interviewed the 5-foot-6 Anthony Valente in my review of a haircut at Xac Anthony Salon, he offered a few leads:

   The North Face: “The unfortunate thing about winter is you gotta wear those big, puffy jackets to keep warm. But The North Face is great because they’re not too puffy where I look as wide as I am tall. They’re classic; they’re not trendy, it’s not a fad. Just a good, basic winter jacket.”

   G-Star: “I just got a nice G-Star jacket recently. Down, fur hood. It’s a little on the puffy side, but it’s not to bad.”

2. Indochino (I’m going to post my suit review soon, I swear!) makes custom outerwear. However, not sure they’d be up to snuff for a Canadian winter.

I was born and raised in Maine, so I should probably have more of a handle on the winterwear. But that’s all I have.

So what do you think — Where should Phil look? What are you going to haul out of the closet when the snow flies this year?

It was on one of my recent forays deep into the wilds of Google that I spotted it. Searching the furthest corners of the virtual world, J. Peterman style, on my latest quest — to discover T-shirt brands with exotically short hems.

I was hacking a swath through the nth page of of my umpteenth advanced search of the day, tired, a bit nauseous, when lo and behold: something caught my eye as it bolted out of the textual underbrush.

A Japan-based designer graphic T-shirt label! Hmmm. I took a closer look.

They actually had an English-language site! My interest was further piqued.

I clicked through. Found the size chart. As expected from a Japanese clothing company, it looked promising. Much shorter than the average American-sized T-shirt.

But surely this was too good to be true. They probably wouldn’t ship to the US…. Not so! They do indeed. In fact, they offer free worldwide shipping on orders over ¥10,000 (approx $100). Jackpot.

This mythical-sounding species I speak of? They’re called Graniph. And after bagging a couple for myself, I can report that they are beautifully designed and fit great. In fact, for short men of average or athletic build, these are the best-fitting T-shirts I’ve come across. [full disclosure: samples were provided to me by the company gratis]. Here are the details:

DESIGN:

They’ve got a well-curated range of smart, tasteful designs that are a bit more highbrow than your typical graphic tee. Where Threadless is All-American and fun-loving, Uniqlo is Japanese and kitschy, and Top Man strives to be British and street, Graniph seems a bit more cerebral, German, above the fray. I can see how they’d appeal to graphic and interior designer and photographer types. Personally, I like their aesthetic, from the retro to the goofy to the clever to the off-kilter to the blatantly self-promotional. But don’t take my word for it, cast an eyeball over theirtheir full T-shirt catalog.

FIT:

As I said before, for short men of average or even heavier build, these are the best-fitting T-shirts I’ve seen. They seem to be shorter and yet a bit wider and looser-fitting than all the others I’ve tried — a rare combination. To give you a sense of how unusual this is, here’s how a Graniph Small stacks up against competing brands:

Advertised Chest/Length Comparison of Small T-shirts:

Graniph: 38-inch chest/26-inch length

Threadless: 36-inch chest/27.5-inch length

Fruit of the Loom: 36-inch chest/27.5-inch length

American Apparel: 34/36-inch chest/28.5-inch length

Clearly, Graniph has a roomier fit than these other major brands — while at the same time being significantly shorter.

Official company policy is not to use a machine dryer. T-shirt connoisseurs may hand-wash and line-dry, but for me (and probably a lot of other folks out there) that’s not a viable way to deal with my dirty-clothes-mound on a weekly basis. So if you plan to machine dry, David Smyth, a company rep, has some details on shrinkage and fit:

“We have two types of tees — basic tees (black tag) and soft tees (white tag). Soft tees will not shrink when washed as the material is polyester/cotton. Also the soft tees have a slightly tighter fit, which some people prefer. As for basic tees, these are 100% cotton, so when washed for the first time the white tees will shrink, hence they are slightly larger than other colors, to compensate for this shrinkage. Other colors will shrink very slightly.”

Personally, I found that Smalls went from a 38-inch chest/28-inch length to a 36-36.5 chest and anywhere from a 23.5-26 length (I think I had a mix of black and white labels) after a wash and a moderately toasty tumble in the dryer. Mediums went from a 40-inch chest/27.5-inch length to a 38-inch chest/24.5-26.5-inch length after drying.

You can see where this is going. For short men of moderate or even bulky builds, the eternal problem is that for those rare brands that may actually sorta fit kinda OK in the length, the chest/stomach/neck measurements are laughably too tight. Most T-shirts are skewed to tall-and-skinny Jarvis Cocker types. Even a large is 43-inch chest and only 29.5 long (and that’s before wash/dry) — the same length in AA only gets you a 34/36-inch chest.

PRICE:

Graniph’s shirts aren’t exactly cheap — about $25 a pop. But for the quality of cotton, printing, and design, I’d say these are a very good value. There are certainly plenty more expensive T-shirts out there. The shipping charge is $10 to the US. However, they offer free worldwide shipping on orders over ¥10,000 (approx $100, or about 4 full-price shirts).

So the smart thing to do is order enough shirts at a time to take advantage of the free shipping. If that’s more than you want or need, try splitting an order with a friend. David Smyth told me, “People often think that because we are in Japan it will cost a fortune to have the tees shipped, but we are trying to make our products accessible to everyone regardless of location.” With the shipping deal, I’d say they’ve succeeded.

(NOTE: Their extra-small size — “SS” — is cut differently and is meant for women, so “S” is probably the smallest you should order.)

FURTHER READING: Check out these related posts:

my review of the crowd-sourced designs of Threadless

write-up on Uniqlo’s UT line

reader question about T-shirts (with great reader comments)

City swelter. New baby. Demanding day job. And that infernally addictive August “news” cycle. They all conspired to derail Short Shrifted recently.

I’d like to say it was something more carefree, glamorous, and globetrotting. The kind of stuff the well-dressed short bloke in this snapshot was accustomed to. Oh well. (But really, who has time to read this stuff in the summer anyway?)

That said, I’ll be returning to a more regular posting schedule in September. Just wanted you to have something to look forward to after Labor Day.