I always call my tailor first, just to be polite. Sometimes he's really stretched thin. If you're in SF, Taraval Tailor is a really good shop.

Seconding the above, I want to say I paid $60 in a pretty average city.

The store I went to is called Jos-a-bank, feel free to look them up but any higher end men's fine clothing store should have a tailor on site at all times.

There are also dedicated tailor shops you can try looking for one of those.

I don't think places like dillards or Macy's will do alterations but I could be wrong.

Worst case the place you go may tell you something like "he only works Tuesdays and Saturdays" or something like that, so you may want to keep trying to get them on the phone, but I've not been told that before.

When you're at the tailor, have him take your measurements. You can use those to order your next suit from indochino. They do nice, made-to-measure suits on a budget.

I like Uniqlo for basics, but I wouldn’t trust them for suiting tbh. They do some basic alterations free in store though. I’d check that out before a tailor, just to save a few bucks

TBF, the shoes and the belt are simpler than you might assume, though there are aspects that you do not want to skimp on with the shoes. For the belt, just be sure to match black or brown to the tone of the suit (and the same with the shoes; belt and shoes should be the same color, traditionally).

The shoes, and this is clutch, should be comfortable and insoles are your friend there, so dropping $20+ on a pair of supportive insoles will save you hours of discomfort if you're planning on wearing those shoes during the whole workday. Lastly, you can generally find understated-yet-fashionable formal footwear on Alibaba for super cheap — as a stop-gap until you can afford to shop around.

Feel free to reply or DM, I'm happy to help any way I can, neighbor. 🤓🤘🏽

Everyone's gotta start somewhere. I do know that it's not easy for trans men to get a well-fitting suit. I'm familiar with one case where the tailor sent the suit back without any alterations, because they thought the body proportions given by the shop were a mistake. That was rather infuriating to see, but it worked out in the end. I guess what I'm saying is that you should give yourself plenty of time in advance to get your next suit. It may not be the "come back in a week for pickup" that most men are used to.

Hell, I know a cis guy who had to visit 8 different places to find a suit that fit him. He's a normal looking guy, but the proportions between his hips and waist was somehow an outlier for 99% of the pants he tried on.

Are you buying short sized jackets? And did you keep in mind vanity sizing means the chest size might not 100% match your measurement?

A good tailor can do amazing things, but there are limits.

When it comes to tailoring, putting aside the quality of the suit (fused/glued canvas or not, among other things), the key thing you want as close to right from the start is the shoulders. Sleeve and jacket lengths are simple, neck and chest less so, but if the shoulder width is all wrong it's a major undertaking to alter if it can even be done.

Yeah, that's in the difficult range from what I've been told. The good thing is that most suits in that size range should be alterable as long as it fits right through the shoulders and the arms are long enough. Even the cheap suits in that range tend to be fairly easy to work with as long as the person isn't a lifter or very overweight, and that doesn't seem to be an issue here.

At least that's what my tailor said back when I had to wear a damn monkey suit for work sometimes. I'm a big guy, so I was curious about what he was doing, which led to a nice little mini ted talk about it. He did a lot of work for the really huge lifters, including the ones that were shorter than average. Managed to make folks look good even in meh to bad suits.