So I am trying to find "reasonably priced" shirts. I have a rhythm short already but wanted another one that was loose in the neck. Something with some sparkle is in the area of $600 so I will just stick with what I have. I do need a shirt and/or outfit for smooth. In the past I wore a dress black suit (I have been dancing about 15 months) but would like to get a dance outfit. Custom suits seem to be about $2000. My proportions are not regular. I am 5'6 with a 17 1/2 inch neck, 42 inch chest, 34 inch waist and 32/33 inch sleeve. I can't find a shirt to fit. Do I need a custom shirt and it so where could I get one? Any suggestions on a reasonably priced solution?
Men's ballroom shirts
- Thread starter rminnehan
- Start date
bia
Forum Master
If you sew or have access to someone who does, your best bet would be getting a shirt that fits your biggest body part and taking it in where it's too big. For example, my husband bought a shirt that fit otherwise but was too big in the neck, and I removed the collar and replaced it with one from a non-dance dress shirt. Other alterations are even easier -- shortening sleeves, making the torso more fitted, etc. (Alterations for the shoulders are more complicated -- better to get something that fits there if possible.) You can do the same for a ready-made dance jacket, though the caution on fit in the shoulders applies even more there.
For everything except a dance jacket, any competent tailor is capable of doing alterations. Buy some off-the-rack dance shirt (possibly even consignment), and get it adjusted to fit you.
As Bia notes, you want to pick something that fits your largest proportional dimension. For you, that would be chest and neck. Anything off-the-rack that fits you there will almost certainly be long in the sleeve and torso, and likely roomy around the waist as well. But all three of those are fixable with alterations.
Jackets...they only work well with a custom fit, I'm afraid, and dance jackets are so specialized that a normal tailor will not know how to make one (and I would not trust them to alter it). But that's OK--jackets are only "expected" attire at Open level, and with 15 months under your belt that probably isn't where you're at yet. So again, Bia has a good suggestion: black vest over black shirt. Vests, like shirts, can be altered off-the-rack.
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