Costs
Part of Women's professional wear: a weekly wardrobe plan
What does it actually cost to fix a professional wardrobe mistake?
Repair costs for common professional wardrobe mistakes, from a free pass with a fabric comb to a shoulder reset that runs most of a new jacket.
What a professional wardrobe mistake costs to fix depends on how much of the garment has to come apart. A dropped hem is ten minutes of thread. A shoulder that sits in the wrong place takes the sleeve out of the jacket and puts it back.
The figures below are typical ranges for a mid-market alterations shop in a large American city. Your tailor's quote is the only number that counts, and it moves with the cloth, the construction and the city.
Where you buy changes the bill. Nordstrom gives cardholders free basic alterations on full-price purchases. Suitsupply keeps tailors in its stores and sells entry suits from about $500, and Indochino folds alterations into made-to-measure orders.
What to take away
- A dropped hem, pilling and creases cost nothing but ten minutes and a wide hanger. Fix those first, because a room notices them before it notices anything else.
- Letting out is bounded by the seam allowance the maker left inside. Turn the garment inside out and look at the side seam before you buy, because a raw overlocked edge with no spare cloth means the garment can only ever get smaller.
- Shoulder work is the expensive one. A jacket whose shoulder seam falls off the point of your shoulder can be reset, but the sleeve comes out and goes back in, and the labor runs $80 to $200.
- Antiperspirant residue and some cosmetics react with dye and protein fiber. The mark is chemical, not dirt, and no cleaning returns it.
- The care label is a specification. Read it in the store and decide whether you will actually follow it.
Free to fix, and usually ignored
Creases come from a hanger too narrow for the shoulder, and a padded or wide hanger ends them. Wood and padded hangers cost about $2 to $10 each at a home store.
Pilling at the sleeve and the seat is friction, not wear. A fabric comb, the tool sold by Gleener and others for $10 to $25, takes the pills off in a few minutes. You can repeat the pass for years.
Lint and hair on dark cloth photograph far worse than they look in a mirror. Keep a brush where you dress, not in a drawer. A garment brush costs $10 to $25.
A hem that has dropped on one side because a thread broke takes six stitches at home and disappears. The same repair at a dry cleaner's counter runs $10 to $20.
None of these is urgent on any particular morning, which is why they persist. Put them on a fixed day of the month instead of a mood.
Cheap to fix: what a tailor can actually do
These are routine jobs, and the quotes sit in a narrow band. Knowing the band tells you when a $30 repair rescues a $300 garment.
| The problem | What is done | Typical range | What it depends on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleeves too long | Shortened from the cuff, or from the shoulder | $20 to $35 at the cuff, $60 to $120 at the shoulder | Working cuff buttons force the shoulder route |
| Waist too loose | Taken in at the side or center back seams | $20 to $40 | Enough seam allowance to take without distorting the pockets |
| Skirt or dress too long | Hem raised | $15 to $30 straight, $40 to $75 flared or lined | The shape of the hem, and whether there is a lining |
| Bust darts sitting wrong | Repositioned | $25 to $50 | Whether the cloth shows old needle marks when the stitching comes out |
| Trouser too wide through the leg | Tapered from the knee down | $20 to $35 | Little; this is the easiest job on the list |
| Trouser hem | Raised or lowered | $10 to $20 | Whether the original hem is kept; a blind stitch costs more than a straight one |
| Buttons | Moved, or a spare sewn on | $5 to $15 per button | Whether the button has a shank or is a flat plastic disc |
Two rules follow. Buy to your largest measurement and have the rest taken in, because letting out is limited by what the maker left inside.
Check that allowance by turning the garment inside out. A finger's width of spare cloth at the side seam is generous. A raw overlocked edge with nothing behind it is a garment with one direction only.
Alterations are quoted separately at most suit chains, including Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank. A dry cleaner's tailor is usually the cheapest route for a hem and the wrong route for a shoulder.
Expensive to fix: shoulder resets, linings and zippers
A jacket or dress with a shoulder seam that falls off the point of your shoulder can be reset, but the sleeve has to come out and go back in. Expect $80 to $200.
That labor is most of a new jacket at the lower end of the market and a fraction of one at the higher end. A chain suit in the $200 to $300 range and a Suitsupply suit near $500 take the same $200 reset.
It is worth doing on cloth you love and almost never worth doing otherwise. That is why the shoulder is the fit point to judge first, and the same order of decisions runs through women's professional wear.
A lining split at the armhole can be replaced. The labor is most of the cost, roughly $60 to $150 on a jacket and $50 to $120 on a dress. Replacement cloth adds typically $40 to $100 to a full reline.
On a dress that is often cheaper than replacing the dress, one of the quiet arguments for the dress as a garment, laid out in the guide to work dresses.
A separating or invisible zipper in a fitted dress is a real repair, because the seam has to be opened and closed again. Budget $25 to $60, with a metal jeans zipper at the bottom of that range and a lined invisible zip at the top.
Check the zipper before you buy by running it up and down twice. One that catches in the store will fail within the year.
Impossible to fix: three mistakes no alteration reaches
Cloth that was chosen wrong. A fabric that creases across the lap after twenty minutes of sitting will do that forever. Test it in the store by gripping a handful for a slow count of ten and opening your hand. What you see is what a meeting will see.
Color that has gone. Sunlight on the shoulders of a garment stored on an open rail near a window fades one line across both shoulders, and no cleaning returns it. Store dark cloth away from light.
Damage from an ingredient rather than from wear. Antiperspirant residue and some cosmetics react with dyes and with protein fibers, and the mark that results is chemical, not dirt. Dress after those products have dried, and use a shield on anything you intend to keep.
The fiber content on the label tells you what you are dealing with. The Federal Trade Commission's guidance on textile and wool labeling explains what that statement has to disclose and why the generic fiber names on it are the reliable part.
The mistake behind the others
Almost every item above comes from one habit: deciding at the register, not before it. Two minutes of handling settles most of it.
Read the care label, which under the FTC's rule must give a full regular care procedure, and decide whether you will actually follow it.
Crush the cloth, check the seam allowance, work the closures, then decide. That order, run in the aisle, catches a dropped shoulder or a tight seam allowance before the receipt does.
Shoes and bags fail differently, on construction rather than on cloth, and the checks are their own: the sole attachment is covered in the guide to work shoes and the strap anchor in the guide to accessories and bags.
Common questions
Is a garment that needs alteration a mistake?
No. Almost everything worth wearing needs some. The mistake is buying a garment that cannot be altered in the direction you need, which is nearly always the direction of letting out.
How do I tell a tailor what I want without knowing the words?
Wear the garment, stand still, and point. Say what bothers you and let them name it. A tailor who tells you an alteration is not worth doing is giving you the most valuable answer in the conversation.
Should I stop buying garments that crease?
Not entirely. A creasing cloth is a problem for a day of sitting and a non-problem for a day of standing and moving. Match the cloth to the day rather than banning it, and keep the worst offenders out of travel.
Which fix costs the most?
The shoulder reset, at $80 to $200. Next come jacket and dress linings at $60 to $150 and $50 to $120, then zippers at $25 to $60. A hem sits at $10 to $30.
What about the mistake of wearing the same thing repeatedly?
That is not a mistake. Repetition is what a working wardrobe is for, and the question of how much variety a week actually needs is answered in the guide to business casual for women.
