Button stance: The tailoring trick that adds inches to your height

Your jacket's button placement does more heavy lifting than your posture.

Button stance – where that single button sits on a two-button jacket – controls your visual proportions. Get it right, and you look taller. Get it wrong, and you're fighting an uphill battle no matter how well the rest fits.

The sweet spot sits just above your natural waist. Not at it, above it. This creates a longer leg line and shortens your torso in the best possible way. Your eye reads the button as the break point between upper and lower body. Higher button = longer legs.

Most off-the-rack jackets get this wrong. They place buttons too low, especially on shorter men. The manufacturer assumes average proportions, but your torso might be longer or shorter than their template. That's why a 5'8" guy in a standard jacket often looks stockier than he actually is.

Here's what we adjust in fittings: If you're under 5'10", we typically move the button up by half an inch to an inch from the standard position. If you're over 6'2", we might drop it slightly. The goal isn't following arbitrary rules – it's creating the most flattering silhouette for your specific build.

The three-button jacket plays by different rules. The middle button (the only one you fasten) should hit right at your natural waist. But honestly? Unless you're very tall with a long torso, skip three-button jackets entirely. They create a longer button stance that can make shorter men look compressed.

Double-breasted jackets work differently again. The button point sits higher by design, which is why they're naturally flattering on most builds. The peaked lapels draw the eye up, and the high button stance creates that coveted long-leg silhouette.

One more thing: button stance affects more than height. It changes how your shoulders look, how your chest appears, even how your tie knot sits. Everything connects.

Next time you try on a jacket, ignore everything else first. Look only at where that button hits. If it's wrong, the best fabric and perfect sleeve length won't save you.