How to Spot a High-Quality Suit: 10 Signs to Check

A suit's price tells you what the seller wants for it, not how it was made. Two jackets at the same price can differ enormously in construction, fabric and finishing, and an expensive label can sit on an ordinary suit. You can tell a quality suit yourself, in a shop or a fitting room, with ten checks that need nothing more than your hands, your eyes and a mirror.

How can you tell a quality suit? The 10 signs

You can tell a quality suit by its construction, its fabric and the care taken over details that are slow to do well. The table lists the ten signs in the order you would check them, with what good and poor look like.

Sign 1: Is the jacket canvassed?

A quality jacket is canvassed, at least in the chest and lapels. A canvas is a springy interlining of wool and horsehair that floats between the outer fabric and the lining, held by stitches rather than glue. It gives the chest its shape and the lapel its soft roll, and it does not bubble. Cheaper jackets are fused: the interlining is glued to the fabric, which makes the front stiffer and flatter.

To check, pinch the front about 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) below the lowest buttonhole and gently separate the layers. A third, loose layer means full canvas. If the loose layer appears only in the chest and lapel, the jacket is half canvas, which is a sensible middle ground. Our guide to how to tell if a suit is canvassed walks through the pinch test, and fused vs canvas explains the trade-offs.

Sign 2: Is the fabric good?

Good suit fabric is a natural fiber, usually wool, that feels lively in the hand and recovers from creasing. Start with the composition label: 100% wool, or wool with a little silk, linen, mohair or cashmere, is what you want for most suits. Polyester blends cost less and resist creasing, but they breathe poorly and develop a shine over time; see polyester vs wool suits.

Then do the crush test. Take a handful of fabric from the trouser leg or the jacket's lower front, squeeze it firmly for five seconds and let go. Good worsted wool springs back with few creases, and those that remain soon drop out. Fabric that stays crumpled will look tired by lunchtime.

Signs 3 to 5: Pattern matching, collar, shoulders and sleeves

Sign 3: Do the stripes and checks match?

On a striped or checked suit, the pattern should continue across the places where the eye expects it to. Matching takes extra fabric and extra time at the cutting stage, so it is one of the first things cut from a cheap suit's budget.

Perfect matching everywhere is impossible because a jacket curves around the body, so even good makers prioritize the places above. A plain navy or charcoal suit hides this sign completely, which is why it is worth checking a patterned suit from the same brand if you can.

Sign 4: Does the collar sit cleanly?

The jacket collar should sit against your shirt collar all the way around, with no gap at the back of the neck and about ½ inch (1.3 cm) of shirt collar showing above it. Lift the collar and look underneath: good jackets use a dense felt called melton for the under collar, and on hand-made jackets you may see small pad stitches in it. A collar that stands away from the neck or ripples along its length is either badly made or badly fitted. Our guide to how a suit jacket should fit covers the fit checks.

Sign 5: Are the shoulders and sleeves clean?

Look at where the sleeve joins the shoulder, the sleeve head. It should be smooth and full, without dents, divots or random puckers. The sleeves should hang straight down from the shoulder and fall slightly forward with your arms relaxed, without twisting or folding at the back of the arm, which shows the sleeves are set at the right angle. Seams along the sleeve and body should lie flat, with no puckering along the stitching.

Signs 6 and 7: Buttonholes and buttons

Sign 6: How are the buttonholes made?

A good buttonhole has dense, even stitching over a firm edge, a clean keyhole shape and no loose threads. Hand-sewn buttonholes, worked in silk twist over a cord, have a slightly raised, rounded edge and small irregularities that show a person made them. Turn the front over: a hand-sewn buttonhole is usually less tidy on the back than on the front, while a machine buttonhole often looks much the same on both sides. Good machine buttonholes are perfectly acceptable; flat, sparse or fraying ones are a warning sign.

Working sleeve buttonholes, sometimes called surgeon's cuffs, were once a reliable sign of a good suit. Today many mid-priced suits have them, and they make it much harder to shorten the sleeves. On a ready-made suit, non-working sleeve buttons are often the more practical choice; see what a tailor can alter.

Sign 7: What are the buttons made of?

Quality suits use horn or corozo buttons. Horn feels cool and heavy for its size and shows natural streaks, so no two buttons are quite alike. Corozo, made from the tagua nut, takes dye well and has a fine, matte surface. Plastic buttons are light, warm to the touch, identical to one another and often show a faint molding line around the edge. Good buttons are sewn on with a thread shank, a short wrapped stem that lifts the button so it sits neatly over the overlapping fabric when fastened.

Signs 8 to 10: Inside the jacket

Sign 8: What is the lining like?

Open the jacket and read the label. A cupro (Bemberg) or viscose lining breathes and resists static; a polyester lining is cheaper, does not breathe and often goes with other cost-cutting. The lining should have room to move: a vertical pleat down the center back and a fold of extra length at the hem, so it does not pull on the outer fabric when you reach forward. Our guide to suit linings compares the materials.

Sign 9: How is the inside finished?

The inside of a jacket shows how much time went into the parts nobody sees. Look for straight, even stitching, no loose threads, well-made inside pockets and, on a half-lined jacket, seams bound neatly in strips of lining or tape rather than left as raw overlocked edges. Check the seam allowances where you can see or feel them: generous allowances at the side and back seams, called inlays, mean the suit can be let out later. Narrow ones mean it cannot.

Sign 10: Is there hand work where it matters?

Hand work matters where it shapes the garment: pad stitching the lapels and collar, attaching the collar, setting the sleeves, felling the lining and working the buttonholes. Where the lining meets the facing inside the jacket, look for tiny, close, slightly irregular stitches, a sign of hand felling. Be careful with visible decorative stitching along the lapel edges, called pick stitching: a machine can imitate it convincingly, so on its own it proves nothing.

What about the trousers?

Trousers get less attention than jackets, but a few details separate good ones from ordinary ones quickly. Turn them inside out if the shop allows it.

How can you tell if a suit is cheap?

A cheap suit usually shows several of these signs at once. One on its own may be a compromise you can live with; four or five together tell you where the savings came from.

• A glassy or slightly plastic sheen on the fabric, often from polyester.
• A flat, stiff front with a lapel that lies flat or carries a hard crease.
• Bubbles or ripples on the chest or lapels.
• Puckered seams, especially down the sleeves and along the front edges.
• Stripes or checks that jump at the pocket flaps and back seam.
• Light plastic buttons sewn flat to the fabric.
• A polyester lining that clings and crackles.
• A collar that stands away from the neck.
• Narrow seam allowances that leave nothing to let out.

Extra checks for a second-hand or vintage suit

A well-made second-hand suit can be excellent value, because canvassed construction and good fabric outlast their first owner. The ten signs still apply, but wear and old alterations add a few more things to check before you pay.

Budget for alterations when you compare prices. A used suit that needs only a hem and a waist adjustment is a bargain; one that needs the shoulders, the length and a new lining is not. Our suit alteration cost guide gives typical prices.

What makes a suit expensive?

A suit is expensive mostly because of labor, fabric and construction. Canvassing and hand work take skilled hours; good fabric from a respected mill costs more per yard, and patterns that must be matched use more of it; and a well-cut pattern with fittings costs more than a standard block. Some of the price is always brand, and at the top of the market brand can be a large share of it.

For how bespoke pricing breaks down, see why bespoke suits are expensive.

The tailor's view: what to look for when buying a suit

Any tailor will tell you the same thing first: buy for the shoulders. A jacket's waist, sleeves and trouser length can be altered cheaply; shoulders cannot be altered well at any price. Check the fit, then check the quality, in that order.

A suit that passes most of these checks and fits your shoulders is worth taking to a tailor for the finishing touches. If you want to go further, our ranking of the best tailors in London shows what the top of the craft looks like.

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