Can Pleats Be Taken Out Of Pants?

Glad the blog has been able to help, thank you for reading.  Yes, pleats can be removed, however, it can be costly; especially in NYC (I wouldn’t be surprised if it costs more than $60).  It is also a rather difficult operation, from what I’ve been told (admittedly, I have never had it done on any of my pants).  So the neighborhood dry cleaner would probably be less than ideal to have do this.

Do I recommend doing it?  That depends.  If you love the suits and see yourself getting a lot more use out of them by doing the alteration than I think it is worth it.  Or you could always live with the pleats (especially if they are forward pleats, which are much more elegant than reverse pleats) and spend the money you were going to spend on alterations on a new suit or shoes.  I would also keep in mind that the pants, after taking the pleats out, will likely not look as good as pants that did not have pleats to start.  There is also the chance the tailor will say they have to do some other work to the pants to make them fit, sit and look right; which would bring your cost up even higher.

But if you are doing it and don’t expect to get much more use out of them then it may not be worth it.  However, if you do decide to do it, I would only do it with one pair of pants to start.  There is always the chance the tailor messes up or the end result doesn’t look good.  It may take you more time to do it this way, but it will greatly reduce your risk.

In terms of places to go, I was happy with the service and work done at Wilfred’s Tailor (NoMad area).  Manny, Roberto and Wilfred are easy to communicate with which I find very important.  There is also a custom suit guy, Kamaal Kadri, who works out of there who knows his shit with this type of stuff so if he is there you can also consult with him.  I also had good fortunes at Ignacio’s Tailor (Midtown East) and would trust them to do something like this as well.