Ask a tailor what makes clothing look good and you'll rarely hear about logos or price tags. You'll hear about fit. The same shirt can look forgettable or genuinely sharp depending on how it sits on the body. The good news: a few simple checkpoints cover most of what matters.

Shoulders set the tone

The shoulder seam should sit right where your shoulder ends — not drooping onto your arm, not pinching upward. This is the hardest thing to alter after the fact, so for jackets and shirts, fit the shoulders first and adjust everything else around them.

Sleeves and length

Shirt sleeves should end around the base of your thumb, leaving a little cuff visible under a jacket. Shirt hems want to land low enough to stay tucked but not so long they swamp you untucked. For trousers, aim for a slight break — a small fold where the fabric meets your shoes — rather than a puddle of excess length.

Room to move, not room to spare

Clothes should skim, not cling or balloon. A quick test: you should be able to pinch an inch or two of fabric at the side of a shirt — enough to move comfortably, not so much that it billows. Trousers should sit on your waist without a belt straining to hold them up.

When to tailor

A short trip to a tailor is the best money in menswear. Taking in a shirt's sides, shortening sleeves, or hemming trousers costs little and transforms how an outfit reads. Buy for the shoulders and waist, then let a tailor handle the rest.

A quick fit checklist

• Shoulder seams sit at the edge of your shoulders
• Sleeves end near the wrist bone
• You can pinch an inch of fabric at the sides — no more
• Trousers break slightly at the shoe

Nail those four and almost anything in your wardrobe will look better the moment you put it on.