I think that the sleeves seem to be the correct length because they were stuck on the dress shirt sleeves. There is a new photo. My mother took the picture on an angle so I don't know how helpful it will be. Unfortunately I cannot get a photographer with better skills.

 

At 6'2" with a 15.5 - 16 collar size I find it hard to find shirts with a long enough sleeve, short of going custom (which I haven't yet). Therefore most of my shirt sleeves are just long enough to be acceptable, but sub-optimal (as some say here on AAAC). So in my case, in order for a jacket to show some of the shirt sleeve, a jacket sleeve would probably have to be slightly shorter than the average man would wear. However, if I were to alter all my jackets this was and then eventually found shirts with a better sleeve length, the jacket sleeves would probably be too short then.

This may also be part of your problem. If you will always be wearing that length of shirt sleeve, because that's what fits you best, then I do believe you can get the jacket altered relative to your shirt sleeve length, if showing some more cuff is of interest to you.

 

^ in the case of the proportions you describe I would still recommend getting a properly fitted shirt.

The jacket sleeve to shirt sleeve differential does no exist in a vacuum. It's relative to your arms length I'm afraid altering the sleeve of the coat in order to accommodate the length of the shirt's sleeve will make look like pee wee Herman.

Just look at the grossly exaggerated models on the brooks bros. website under the black fleece section. They're showing cuff too but look how high up the jacket sleeves are!

 

Momsdoc, Once again you are confused. When wersing a jacket a man's shirt cuff should end at his wrist and show about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. There is no magic formula as to how it ends up this way, it depends pon the cut of the jacket.

 

Actually the sleeve should be kissing the 1st MCP (metacarpal phalangeal) joint; the base of one's thumb. That's a bit more exact than wrist and could mean the difference between 1/4 and 1/2 inch depending on how someone interprets "wrist".

 

I like to show shirt cuff and, in my experience, it is easy for the shirt cuff to get "sucked up" under the jacket and disappear as you move around. To consistently show cuff, I need to get my jacket sleeves tailored on the short side of what is considered correct...basically, the shortest they can possibly be before they would start to strike the eye as looking short (I apply the same philosophy to pants break). The few tailors I've used don't want to go that short....they will get the shirt cuff to show 1/4" or so when I'm standing at rest and everything is perfectly adjusted in place, but I've found that doesn't work for me in real life when I'm actually moving around.

I now use a dry cleaner that does good basic alteration work for my jacket sleeves where I can just tell them how much to shorten, instead of a real tailor who will want to make that decision themself.

 

Even after shooting the cuffs I noticed that my left arm shows more cuff than my right arm. So for a third time I took a 2 hour (back and forth) trip to the tailor and got the sleeves shortened to show half an inch of shirt sleeve. I specifically stated that I want to show half an inch of shirt sleeve and not just shorten the jacket sleeve by half an inch. It took a bit of arguing but they will be doing a re-alteration free of charge.

Judging by the albeit crappy photos I have provided, do you feel that I have made the right call?

 

Momsdoc, Once again you are confused. When wersing a jacket a man's shirt cuff should end at his wrist and show about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. There is no magic formula as to how it ends up this way, it depends pon the cut of the jacket.

Actually, Joe, I think he's good on this one. No one is arguing that a man's shirt cuff shouldn't end at his wrist when the button is fastened. We are also all in agreement that 1/4 to 1/2 inch of shirt sleeve should peek beyond the length of jacket sleeves.

Where there seems to be confusion is the fact that for a shirt cuff to stay at your wrist with even the slightest movement, it's length unbuttoned must be longer than your wrist. That way, you will have a small amount of excess fabric on your sleeve that can spread as you move your arm, and reaching out to shake hands doesn't cause the end of your sleeve to jump back to your elbow.
Though I hadn't heard a specific length target for an unfastened sleeve before, the top of the thumb doesn't seem unreasonable at all.

 

Getting the length right can be very frustrating. I've taken some jackets back two times to have them done correctly. I think the best way to determine is to try a jacket on with the same shirt several days in a row, to get a feel for how it interacts with the shirt. That way when you go to the tailor's shop you already have a sense for how much the cuffs need to be lengthened/shortened.

 

So I recently got my suit altered and asked the tailor to show at least 1/4 - 1/2 an inch of shirt sleeve. Although the tailor had nicely shortened the jacket sleeves, the shirt sleeves were still hidden. I had already gone back a second time but he only shortened it slightly and there is still barely any visible cuff.

My question is, should I be worried about this minor detail given the fact that the jacket sleeves are the correct length? My jacket sleeves basically look identical to the picture of Andy in the top left corner of this web page.

Cheers.

Just saw the photo of Andy himself in his latest jacket, and his sleeves are a little longer than most here would go for.