Hazel Park High School opened in 1929, in the building that later became the junior high, and moved to where it stands now at the start of the sixties. Its teams are the Vikings and its graduates have been buying a first suit for close to a hundred years. The thing that has changed least in all that time is the mistake families make when they buy it.
The mistake
Buying a size up so he grows into it. Every generation does this and every generation gets the same result: a boy photographed at his own graduation inside a jacket that belongs to a larger man.
Why it can’t work
Because the one measurement a tailor cannot chase is the shoulder, and a jacket bought big is wrong there first. Sleeves shorten, waists move, hems come up. A shoulder stays where it was cut, which means the size that fits him this June is the only size worth buying this June.
What to spend
An Everyday Classic, $139 to $159, precisely because he is still moving. Buy the fit, keep the money, and replace it when he has stopped. Roman, master tailor at Lincoln Tailor, on site in our store, sets the length to the shoes he’ll cross the stage in.
Also for Hazel Park: John R, and the Man Who Owns the Business. More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
