# Whats difference between English cuit, American cut, and Italian cut suits?



## miamimike (Oct 18, 2007)

I hear people talking about American cut, english cut, and italian cut suits and I have not idea whats the difference between them. Can u pls help explain and give any examples of suit designers that make each? Any ideas what works best for my shape? THanks


Iam 5.11 170 athletic shape wide shoulders slim waist. I like my suits to fit snug around the sides of my waist and ribs along with close to my stomach. Not into having excess fabric floating around my stomach. So basically V shape. Im only interested in fully canvassed and/or half canvassed suits. :icon_smile:


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## okdc (Aug 23, 2007)

Here is a link that gives some good examples, though these are top of the line.

https://men.style.com/details/features/landing?id=content_5971

If you are relatively new to "style", I think the biggest difficulty is that the devil is in the details. When reading about style and menswear, it seems that differences would be glaring, when if reality it is in the details that take a somewhat practiced, educated eye to notice.


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## dfloyd (May 7, 2006)

*Suit differences.*

Read "The suit" written by a member of this forum. These questions cannot be answered online. You have to put some effort yourself into knowing what style is for you. Book is available at Amazon. com. I've read it twice and all the nuances of selecting the right suit are just starting to sink in.


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## DocHolliday (Apr 11, 2005)

There's no one true "cut" for each of these countries. In Italy, for example, the Roman cut is much more built up and defined than that associated with Naples. And not every Roman tailor works in what is considered the Roman style. But in general, when folks refer to the "American," "Italian," and "English," they mean:

American: America is the traditional home of the sack suit. It's not seen so often today, but its effects linger. The "American" style generally has a single vent in the back, minimal shoulder padding and a full cut. Cuffs are/were common on trousers. Think Brooks Brothers. But even Brooks has begun to offer leaner suits with double vents, so it goes to show how difficult it is to generalize about this type of thing.

English: Double vents and more shaped than its traditional American counterpart. For suits, most folks think of hourglass figures and the Dege-style military cut. John Steed from "The Avengers" is a caricature of classic English style. But London also gave us the sweater-like drape cut, which is at the other end of the spectrum from Dege. And the Row has houses that offer an array of cuts in between. Cuffs are much less common than in the U.S.

Italian: A leaner look. Most Americans still associate Italian with the "Continental style" that took off in the late 1950s. It was slim and simple. No vents used to be common, but today double vents are usually seen on Italian RTW sold in the U.S. Painting very, very broadly, Roman style is more built up, a la Brioni, while Naples is associated with a very soft cut. Milanese is more middle of the road, sort of a compromise between the two.


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## PJC in NoVa (Jan 23, 2005)

I posted some comments about a year ago that might be helpful:

https://askandyaboutclothes.com/community/showthread.php?t=60590&highlight=american+cut+flusser


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## PJC in NoVa (Jan 23, 2005)

DocHolliday said:


> American: America is the traditional home of the sack suit. It's not seen so often today, but its effects linger. The "American" style generally has a single vent in the back, minimal shoulder padding and a full cut. Cuffs are/were common on trousers. Think Brooks Brothers. But even Brooks has begun to offer leaner suits with double vents, so it goes to show how difficult it is to generalize about this type of thing.


The 3btn, dartless sack is American, yes, but there's also what Flusser calls "the updated American cut," a good example of which would be a 2btn, darted Hickey-Freeman Madison (center-vented) coat with double reverse-pleat trousers.

Other instances would be the BB 1818s in their traditional "Madison" style, and the 2btn, darted, center-vented, and double-reverse pleated Samuelsohn (actually a Canadian maker) and Southwick suits that STP regularly carries:

https://www.brooksbrothers.com/IWCa...t_Id=1074334&Parent_Id=216&default_color=Grey

These do share with the sack a lightly padded (i.e., more or less "natural") shoulder and a fuller cut compared to the European styles.


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## DocHolliday (Apr 11, 2005)

PJC in NoVa said:


> The 3btn, dartless sack is American, yes, but there's also what Flusser calls "the updated American cut," a good example of which would be a 2btn, darted Hickey-Freeman Madison (center-vented) coat with double reverse-pleat trousers.
> 
> Other instances would be the BB 1818s in their traditional "Madison" style, and the 2btn, darted, center-vented, and double-reverse pleated Samuelsohn (actually a Canadian maker) and Southwick suits that STP regularly carries:


I think we're saying the same thing, but to clarify, I didn't mean to suggest that an undarted sack is still the default American option. Instead, many of its hallmarks are still seen in the darted American suits more commonly seen today. (I was trying to avoid getting into darted v. undarted/3 roll 2/etc. -- the distinctions get a bit technical.)


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## alebrady (Oct 14, 2004)

in the past i often was intested in trying to understand various 'schools' of suit shapes, details, etc. As others have noted, however, this is close to a lost cause - at least when trying to use a national dimension. There is so much variation within a given country's various offerings that it becomes quite confusing. I have found the best thing to do is think in terms of representative offerings within a particular brand. Even this though isnt absolute as each maker can have a variety of cuts.

My recommendation would be to think generally in terms of what you are after (i.e. natural sloping shoulder vs more padded square shoulder, minimal waist supression vs gradual supression vs sharp supression, etc.) and then there are a number of makers that may have that type of sillhoutte - though the brands will probably be literally spread all over the map. for example, there are both italian and english brands that can satisfy the same charactersitics you may be after.

I do think there is some amount of merit, if one wishes, to think of 'signature' or quintessential house shapes - for example, when i think of a brioni, or a corneliani, or an isaia, or an armani for that matter - a representative association comes to my mind for each of those (though they may make other cuts that are different than what comes to my mind also)

The book mentioned above does have a summary description of sillhouttes that arose historically across the different regions.


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## DunninLA (Aug 17, 2007)

So to the posters implied question, which of the styles, or which style elements are likely to make a slim person with wide shoulders look good?

I suppose it is critical to know the shape of OP's shoulders -- straight across, in between or drooping.


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