The Most Stylish Guys You Know Are Getting Everything Tailored (Even T-shirts)

SOMETIMES WHEN Evan Glick, who’s cursed with a “fairly short torso,” tries on T-shirts in stores, “it just looks like I’m wearing a summer dress.” But if you spotted the 32-year-old Brooklyn data engineer in the street, you’d never mistake his top for a frock. Last summer, he began taking his tees and shorts to get tailored at his local wash and fold, for $15 a pop. Now everything fits snugly. “I don’t have to be disappointed with a too-big shirt,” he said.

A tailored T-shirt? Many men reserve tailoring for pricey, special-occasion suits. But in-the-know guys are turning to local, low-key tailors—with no hint of stuffy Savile Row—to tweak casual items from jeans to swim trunks. The move neatly solves an oft-ignored problem: Most off-the-rack clothes fit guys imperfectly. Men can easily look disheveled in too-long jeans or toothpick-armed in polos with gaping sleeves.

It’s Not Just for the Rich

For less money and effort than you’d think, a smarter-looking wardrobe awaits. Getting casual items tailored is “like a cheat code,” said Jermaine Crawford, 30, a Los Angeles actor who has all his jeans nipped at the waist because he finds belts bothersome.

But even men less hostile to belts are seeking help. Over the past two years, Yamil Vaca, founder of Manhattan’s Flatiron Tailor Shop, has noticed more guys bringing in casual items. Most commonly submitted for surgery: tees that billow, jeans that puddle on the floor and running shirts that run too roomy. Men with ill-fitting pajama sets also want his services. Vaca’s prices start at around $20 for abbreviating a pair of pants, and often just one, 5-minute fitting is required. Usually the tweaked item can be picked up in 24 hours if needed (the industry standard is about 3-7 days).

Less? Yep. More? Sure.

In many cases, said Vaca, guys with newly rigorous workout regimens want more-fitted clothes to better flaunt their physiques. But a good tailor can magically make items bigger too. A client of New York personal stylist Turner Allen recently lamented the too-short sleeves on a chore jacket. So a clever tailor stole fabric from its back to lengthen them. Allen doubts most men “would know you could do that, but it made all the difference.”

One particularly egregious issue any good tailor can easily fix? Overly roomy shirt sleeves that make men’s arms look spindly. L.A. style consultant Andrew Weitz said he’s always having clients’ sleeves narrowed. Recently, one guy’s knit polo with short but cavernous sleeves got the treatment and suddenly he looked like he’d been eating his spinach. “Now it hugs his biceps and gives him that [defined] arm shape,” said Weitz.

Weitz also finds swim shorts often disappoint off-the-rack. “A lot of guys feel they’re a little too long,” he said, so they’ll get an inch or so snipped off. Flashing more thigh gives the illusion of longer, leaner legs, he said. Swim shorts should hit at about mid-quad, he added.

L.A. stylist Ugo Mozie seeks out tailoring to alter garments more dramatically. He once tasked his tailor with transforming a women’s trench-coat dress into a men’s jacket. For less statuesque clients, he has shirts, T-shirts and tank tops all hewed to right below the waist. That length works on shorter guys, said Mozie—it suggests “a longer frame.”

How to Ease In Gradually

Whether you’re after a startling chop or a subtle tweak, you’ll need a trustworthy tailor. Beyond checking reviews, experts suggest first testing a new tailor with an easy alteration, like hemming some pants. “If you’re happy with that, you can take a shirt to be slimmed, and then a blazer to be altered,” said Allen. “Start small and go from there.” Snip by snip, let the style upgrade begin.

They Got What Tailored?

Insiders report on some of the unlikely items that men have been getting tweaked

1. Sportswear

Billowing running tops and Lycra cycling tights in need of extra tightening are a common sight at Manhattan’s Flatiron Tailor Shop, said Vaca.

2. Swimwear

Lots of guys find swim trunks a little too long off-the-rack, said Weitz. He’ll ask a tailor to slice about an inch off. Result: Guys’ legs look longer (and they can sun their thighs).

3. Casual slacks

Mozie’s hot tip to achieve a louche pant cut? Buy a wide-leg pair in a slightly too-big size and get the waist and upper thigh taken in. This, he said, achieves the ideal relaxed shape.

4. Pajamas

Vaca has been seeing more sleepwear drift into his shop—especially pajama sets that men want either lengthened or trimmed. “I guess guys want to feel stylish right before they go to bed.”

5. Workwear

Allen recently had the sleeves of a chore jacket lengthened for a long-limbed client whose wrists were awkwardly sticking out.

6. Knitwear

When a knit polo or a sweater is too voluminous, Weitz will have a tailor “take in the body.” Even if it’s meant to be an oversize design, too many guys end up swimming in their sweaters, he said. It shouldn’t wear you, he added.

As European hot spots become overcrowded , travellers are digging deeper to find those less-populated but still brag-worthy locations. Greenland, moving up the list, is bracing for its new popularity.

Aria Varasteh has been to 69 countries, including almost all of Europe. He now wants to visit more remote places and avoid spots swarmed by tourists—starting with Greenland.

“I want a taste of something different,” said the 34-year-old founder of a consulting firm serving clients in the Washington, D.C., area.

He originally planned to go to Nuuk, the island’s capital, this fall via out-of-the-way connections, given there wasn’t a nonstop flight from the U.S. But this month United Airlines announced a nonstop, four-hour flight from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey to Nuuk. The route, beginning next summer, is a first for a U.S. airline, according to Greenland tourism officials.

It marks a significant milestone in the territory’s push for more international visitors. Airlines ran flights with a combined 55,000 seats to Greenland from April to August of this year, says Jens Lauridsen, chief executive officer of Greenland Airports. That figure will nearly double next year in the same period, he says, to about 105,000 seats.

The possible coming surge of travellers also presents a challenge for a vast island of 56,000 people as nearby destinations from Iceland to Spain grapple with the consequences of over tourism.

Greenlandic officials say they have watched closely and made deliberate efforts to slowly scale up their plans for visitors. An investment north of $700 million will yield three new airports, the first of which will open next month in Nuuk.

“It’s the rumbling before the herd is coming,” says Mads Mitchell, general manager of Hotel Nordbo, a 67-room property in Nuuk. The owner of his property is considering adding 50 more rooms to meet demand in the coming years.

Mitchell has recently met with travel agents from Brooklyn, N.Y., South Korea and China. He says he welcomes new tourists, but fears tourism will grow too quickly.

“Like in Barcelona, you get tired of tourists, because it’s too much and it pushes out the locals, that is my concern,” he says. “So it’s finding this balance of like showing the love for Greenland and showing the amazing possibilities, but not getting too much too fast.”

Greenland’s buildup

Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark more than three times the size of Texas. Tourists travel by boat or small aircraft when venturing to different regions—virtually no roads connect towns or settlements.

Greenland decided to invest in airport infrastructure in 2018 as part of an effort to expand tourism and its role in the economy, which is largely dependent on fishing and subsidies from Denmark. In the coming years, airports in Ilulissat and Qaqortoq, areas known for their scenic fjords, will open.

One narrow-body flight, like what United plans, will generate $200,000 in spending, including hotels, tours and other purchases, Lauridsen says. He calls it a “very significant economic impact.”

In 2023, foreign tourism brought a total of over $270 million to Greenland’s economy, according to Visit Greenland, the tourism and marketing arm owned by the government. Expedition cruises visit the territory, as well as adventure tours.

United will fly twice weekly to Nuuk on its 737 MAX 8, which will seat 166 passengers, starting in June .

“We look for new destinations, we look for hot destinations and destinations, most importantly, we can make money in,” Andrew Nocella , United’s chief commercial officer, said in the company’s earnings call earlier in October.

On the runway

Greenland has looked to nearby Iceland to learn from its experiences with tourism, says Air Greenland Group CEO Jacob Nitter Sørensen. Tiny Iceland still has about seven times the population of its western neighbour.

Nuuk’s new airport will become the new trans-Atlantic hub for Air Greenland, the national carrier. It flies to 14 airports and 46 heliports across the territory.

“Of course, there are discussions about avoiding mass tourism. But right now, I think there is a natural limit in terms of the receiving capacity,” Nitter says.

Air Greenland doesn’t fly nonstop from the U.S. because there isn’t currently enough space to accommodate all travellers in hotels, Nitter says. Air Greenland is building a new hotel in Ilulissat to increase capacity when the airport opens.

Nuuk has just over 550 hotel rooms, according to government documents. A tourism analysis published by Visit Greenland predicts there could be a shortage in rooms beginning in 2027. Most U.S. visitors will stay four to 10 nights, according to traveler sentiment data from Visit Greenland.

As travel picks up, visitors should expect more changes. Officials expect to pass new legislation that would further regulate tourism in time for the 2025 season. Rules on zoning would give local communities the power to limit tourism when needed, says Naaja H. Nathanielsen, minister for business, trade, raw materials, justice and gender equality.

Areas in a so-called red zone would ban tour operators. In northern Greenland, traditional hunting takes place at certain times of year and requires silence, which doesn’t work with cruise ships coming in, Nathanielsen says.

Part of the proposal would require tour operators to be locally based to ensure they pay taxes in Greenland and so that tourists receive local knowledge of the culture. Nathanielsen also plans to introduce a proposal to govern cruise tourism to ensure more travelers stay and eat locally, rather than just walk around for a few hours and grab a cup of coffee, she says.

Public sentiment has remained in favour of tourism as visitor arrivals have increased, Nathanielsen says.

—Roshan Fernandez contributed to this article.