Jacket Measurements

[mackillian]

I wonder if manufacturers should also include shoulder measurements in jacket and lame sizing.

In contacting LP about getting a jacket tailored, I ended up measuring my shoulders on the back, just below the neck, seam to seam. Then I measured the two jackets that I use (my good Duellist jacket and my stretch Blade jacket).

My shoulders: 16 inches
My Blade jacekt: 15 inches
My Duellist jacket: 14 inches

That REALLY explains the hunched over posture when fencing with either of my jackets--they're literally pulling on my shoulders and creating a ton of pain when I try and maintain good posture.

I just got my Leon Paul lame yesterday (after an exchange) and it measures 17 inches, seam to seam.

It's made to fit comfortably over your jacket. So I'm trying to find out what the shoulders measure on a LP jacket of the same size in womens (40). If they're 16 or 17, I can get a jacket without tailoring. This would be AWESOME, because it means not waiting six weeks for a jacket with a proper fit.

Posture is very important in fencing, which is why I wonder why shoulder measurements aren't included. I guess if you have overly large shoulders, you'd generally have to get them tailored. But there really is a huge difference between manufacturers and their shoulder measurements.

What do others think about this?

[prototoast]

I don't really know or understand women's sizing all that well, but it seems as though it would be more of an issue for women than men. For a typical man, it seems as though the chest size gives a fairly good indication of shoulder size, so it's much less of an issue. As women can have a greater variation of chest size for a given overall body size, adding shoulder measurements probably would be a good idea.