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How to Choose a Tuxedo for a Wedding

How a Tuxedo Should Fit

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  • Ted Poulos

    Director of Retail, Sarno and Son Tuxedos

    www.sarnoandson.com  
    570-504-2300

    Almost 90 years ago, Ralph Sarno, a native of Italy, arrived in Philadelphia and began his career as a custom suit maker. He had planned to settle in California upon arriving in the states, but the great depression forced him to change his plans. He moved to Scranton, where coal-mining was king, to find work in his trade. In 1940, he founded Sarno’s as a custom tailor shop.Soon the business expanded to include alterations, dry cleaning, custom suit making and tuxedo rentals. Years later, Ralph handed the reins of the business over to his son Larry, eager to grow and take the business into a new direction. In the late 1950s, tuxedo sales and rentals became Sarno and Sons’ main business, and by the late 1960’s Larry had built a chain of 11 stores extending from Williamsport to Syracuse.In 1970, Larry moved the company’s operations to a 12,000 square foot production facility in Dunmore, outside of Scranton. During the 1970’s, high interest rates and inflation challenged businesses throughout the country. Larry chose to redirect his business strategy by shifting Sarno & Son from a retail chain to a wholesale supplier of tuxedos. It all started with a big red binder catalog and a single local truck run into the Berwick/Mt. Carmel area. In 1978, Larry’s son Mark, joined the company full time, managing several stores in the chain. He had an integral role in modernizing the warehouse, delivery systems and computer inventory control systems. In 1986, Larry’s daughter Nancy, joined the team upon completing her studies at Penn State. Her focus within the company has been in marketing and customer relations. Sarno & Son strives to be the innovator in customer support materials including catalogs, brochures and most recently the S.O.S. manual and custom poster program. Nancy continues to work by the philosophies handed down from Ralph Sarno, focusing on customer satisfaction: Don’t worry so much about the competition down the street, worry about the customer walking in the door.In 1996, following years of steady growth, Sarno & Son moved the business to blocks down the street from where Ralph first opened his custom tailor shop. The new facility offered the opportunity to increase dry cleaning capacity and improve production. In 1997, Sarno & Son expanded further, adding a sub-warehouse for distribution to Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. Through this location, Sarno & Son has provided rentals for former Vice President Al Gore, Senator Edward Kennedy, Alan Greenspan and Luciano Pavarotti. One of our distributors in Harrisburg provided tuxedos for Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, while he was Governor of Pennsylvania.After 5 years of occupation in the new facility, Sarno & Son needed to expand again, and work began on a 23,000 square foot expansion to the warehouse. Sarno & Son’s growth as a company can be attributed to the ability of its workers and of the company as a whole to adapt to changing times and customer’s needs. In 2004, Sarno & Son expanded once again, with the opening of a new retail store in Dickson City. Located on the Scranton-Carbondale Highway this new addition is a welcome to the Sarno family. Now Sarno & Son has two locations to serve its customers better.Based on the business philosophies of the company’s founder, Ralph Sarno, the company forges ahead with a commitment to continue to provide quality tuxedos backed by outstanding service that has become nationally recognized.

  • How a Tuxedo Should Fit

    In this video, formalwear expert Ted Poulos discusses the essentials of how to choose a tuxedo for your wedding day or special event. This video is a must see for all engaged couples. As you watch the video you will gain an understanding of: When the right time is to start shopping for your wedding tuxedos, knowing how to select the right tuxedo company, why your fiancé is an important decision maker in helping you select the right tuxedo styles, how to determine that you are receiving the right tuxedo fit. This video will also answer commonly asked questions such as: What do I do if my groomsmen are scattered throughout the United States, how soon will my tuxedos be ready for pick up prior to my wedding day, as well as other questions. You will also view models featuring tuxedos ranging from ultra formal to traditional to fashion formal.

    This series: 12,225 views

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  • Transcripts

    Ted Poulus: I am Ted Poulus with Sarno & Son Tuxedo and today we are going to show you how to choose the right tuxedo for your wedding or special event. Dominic, my model is going to demonstrate the proper fit of a tuxedo. Dominic is wearing the traditional black pleated trousers and the wing collared shirt. The shirt collar should fit snug but not too tight around the neck where you have about an inch play with your finger. This way the collars going to hug nicely, the shoulder line is correct. The front placket of the shirt is going to lay straight. The bow tie should fit comfortably around the neck and should be right tension where it's not pulling the collar too taut. This is the correct tension for a bow tie, if it was any tighter you would see the collar would buckle up on the side. How does that feel?

    Dominic: Feels good.

    Ted Poulus: Okay. The trousers have an adjustable waist as do all tuxedo rental trousers. There is a clasp on each side of the trouser where you could open the waist. The adjustment should be made equal on both sides. This way the front pleat of the trouser is going to hang real straight. You don't want to pull them too tight but you also want to height the trousers up where the waistline of the trouser is right near the bellybutton. This way the front pleat is going to hang right on top of the shoe. As you see in the bottom of the trousers this would be an incorrect length for a proper trouser. The trousers should have a little bit of break in the front so when you are walking you are showing a lot of your socks.

    In the back of the trousers you can see at the shoe line the trouser should come right between the bottom of the shoe and the heel and this is the correct length for the trousers. The tuxedo waist, this is an important accoutrement for the ensemble and it should be adjusted properly. In this particular vest before we adjust it, you could see that there is a lot of play in the mid section. Most formal vest have an adjustment either in the back or on the inside. This particular vest has an inside adjustment called the tunnel adjuster. By pulling the strap you can button the vest on the inside button of the adjuster and it cinches the vest properly through the mid section. The vest should just be tight enough where it has a nice drape or the lines are perfectly straight in the front. All buttons of the vest should be buttoned.

    Now we are going to add the tuxedo jacket. The first coat, coat that I am going to add is one that's an ill-fitting jacket. I want to show you how a tuxedo should not fit. In this particular jacket, you can see that the sleeves are too long, that the coat is too big in the mid section and if we turned around the back the shoulder line is too excessive. Turn back around. A proper fitting jacket which I will show you how it should hang on the sleeves and also on the body.

    When putting the tuxedo jacket on you want to lift it up in the back of the collar so it hugs the top collar of the shirt nicely, adjust it in the front so we have a nice drape in the jacket and when we button the top button on a two button jacket you should have one or two inches of play in the mid section. If it was too tight, the jacket would buckle on the sides of the jacket and this is the proper length of the jacket. Turn around on the back Dominic, you can see that the back of the coat just covers the customer seat. If it was too short in the body, this is how it would appear, and if it was too long it you drag you down in height and in the front the sleeves are hitting at the wrist bone which shows about a half inch or an inch of French cuff and this is a perfect fit for a tuxedo jacket and this is how a tuxedo jacket and trouser should properly fit.

    Now we are going to show you ultra formal day time attire.

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