Quick Guide to Online Shopping for Men

While buying tailored pieces online can be a tricky experience, it has a number of advantages, which the personal shopping experience can’t offer.

Just to name a few: you can choose the environment, the people around you (probably to get the most out of it, it is best to browse alone, then ask somebody’s opinion, who knows your preferences) and you have all the time you need to make considered choices.

To make the online shopping experience even more worthwhile, we have created a list of tips, which helps you evaluate your purchases in the most effective way.

Start with the pictures, make a pre-selection. Your first impressions will always be the pictures on the online platform.

This can be a double edged sword, because to look at one picture of a garment will never be enough to get the pieces you will cherish in your wardrobe. Therefore a great way is to go through the complete selection and copy the links of the garments you like based on the opening picture.

Then start to examine them again one by one. There are three main aspects you need to decide about looking at the set of pictures about each garment.

JUDGE THE COLOR

One of the trickiest elements is to judge the cloth the selected garments is made from. Colors will never be 100% exactly the same in real life as on your computer screen. Lighter colors tend to be brighter, while darker colors tend to be more muted on screen.

ASSESS THE WEIGHT

Another aspect is finish of the fabric. Surface texture on the garments can define whether they are made out of worsted or woollen fabrics. One can also estimate the garment's approximate weight by assessing the fabric texture. At Sartoriale we always include basic information about fabric weights, which you can find in the description of the garments.

GET THE FIT RIGHT

Cut and proportion can be also determined, if you carefully look through all the pictures. First of all as with a real life purchase, you must gather information about the shoulder construction, is it more square or sloped, roped or shirt shoulder and how much padding does it have.

Another good tip is to visually cut a jacket in half, then look for the buttoning point on it, or look at the jacket's lapel in the same way. The length of the lapel in proportion to the overall length of the jacket is good indicator of its balance.

During this assessment process, it helps to actually put on one of your favourite jackets, see yourself in the mirror and look for proportions. Always check how your shoulders look in it, where the buttoning points are and how high the gorge of the lapels are.

Then get back to your screen and make a visual comparison of the two garments.

The same goes for trousers: the length of the rise proportioned to the overall length of the trouser can help you to distinguish, where the pants will sit/hang on you.

SIZE MATTERS

After contemplating the visual proportions you can test your ability by inspecting the size chart we put together for each individual item. Don’t forget, the tape measure is your friend. Make sure you ask a relative or a friend to measure you, or measure your best fitting garments by yourself.

Store the information somewhere safe and go back to it periodically when in need of a little extra help in deciding on a purchase.

If you have already progressed beyond the beginner level of sartorialism, you will know, how different items can be altered.

In this case it will be easier to know, what to check precisely on the sizing chart, where the important places are, where a few extra centimeters does not count that much.

THE LITTLE DETAILS

Then go back to the pictures one more time to look for styling details. They may not be so striking at first, but can be all important regarding your feelings towards the garment in real life.

For instance, consider the buttons, visible stitching, pocket shapes, lapel weight or the length of the slits on the back.

Again use your existing wardrobe pieces or photos that you may find elsewhere on the web to help in your investigation.

ASK US FOR ADVICE

If you have any questions about any particular garment, remember that we are always at your service on email at : info@sartoriale.com

We also offer a generous 'no-quibbles' returns policy should your purchase not be totally satisfactory