Coat Lengths for Tall Men: Back Length, Measured at 6′8″

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Most menswear trends are a tax on being tall. Cropped jackets, boxy tees, short-rise trousers, anything described as a “shrunken fit” — you pay for them in exposed wrists and a hem that will not stay put. This season is the exception.

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Where a coat actually lands on you — the short answer

A listing sells you a flat back length, usually somewhere between 30 and 46 inches, and leaves you to work out where that falls on your body. The obvious arithmetic is to subtract it from the height of the base of your neck. Mine is 68 inches off the floor, so a 35-inch coat ought to finish at 33.

It finished at 36. Every short coat I have measured lands higher than the arithmetic says — and the amount it loses is not a constant.

Coat	Back length, flat	Where the arithmetic says	Where it actually landed	Inches lost
BGOWATU quilted bomber, XXL	30	38	belt line, 44	6.0
Wantdo puffer, 2XLT	31	37	mid-seat, 40	3.0
Legendary Whitetails waxed, 2XT	33.25	34.75	mid-seat, 40	5.25
Legendary Whitetails casual waxed, 3XLT	34	34	bottom of the seat, 36	2.0
Legendary Whitetails barn chore, 3XT	34	34	bottom of the seat, 36	2.0
Amazon Essentials mid-length puffer	35	33	bottom of the seat, 36	3.0
London Fog wool-blend topcoat, 50 Tall	43.5	24.5	at the knee, 24	−0.5
SOMTHRON trench, 3XL	45.75	22.25	below the knee, 21.5	−0.75

The inches a coat loses are a fit signal, not a property of the fabric. A short coat’s hem sits across the widest part of you, at the seat, and gets pushed up. A long coat’s hem hangs past your body with nothing to catch on, which is why the London Fog and the SOMTHRON lose nothing at all. The BGOWATU lost six inches and it was too small everywhere — a tight coat rides up, and the tape said so before I did.

So the check is not a formula, it is a diagnosis. If a coat you already own finishes several inches higher than its back length says it should, that is the coat telling you it is too small for you. And if you are shopping: assume a short coat will land three to six inches above the arithmetic, and a coat long enough to reach your knee will land close to where it says. I have nothing measured between 35 and 43.5 inches, so I cannot tell you where the change happens — only that it does.

The long overcoat is the lead outerwear silhouette going into fall, and it is one of the very few trends that actually needs the frame you already have. A coat that finishes at or below the knee requires an uninterrupted vertical line to carry it. On an average frame it swamps the wearer and reads as borrowed. On a long frame it just reads as deliberate.

There is one catch, and it is a sizing catch rather than a styling one. I measured my own body and nine coats to put a number on it. The first seven said the number was hopeless. The last two, the first true overcoats I have put a tape on, said it was not.

Why the long coat favours a long frame

A knee-length coat is a single unbroken block of colour running from shoulder to knee. That is exactly the kind of line that flatters height and exactly the kind of line that overwhelms someone who does not have much of it. The garment does not shorten a tall man the way a cropped jacket does; it uses the length instead of fighting it.

It also solves a problem tall men have every autumn. A standard jacket that stops at the hip on an average frame stops closer to the waist on a long torso, which is how a perfectly good coat ends up looking outgrown. Going longer removes that failure mode entirely, because the hem is nowhere near the danger zone.

The trap: “Long” is not the same as “Tall”

Tailored outerwear is usually sold as a chest measurement plus a length letter — 42R, 42L, and so on. The natural assumption is that the L is the tall size. It is not, or at least not in the way a tall shirt is.

Across most tailoring lines, moving from Regular to Long adds roughly one to one and a half inches of body length and a comparable amount of sleeve. One published overcoat chart specifies the difference as about two centimetres, which is under an inch. That is the entire upgrade.

Now look at who that single length is sold to. On that same chart, a 42L is specified for men from six feet to six foot three. A 46L covers six foot one to six foot four. A 48L covers six foot two to six foot four. One length is being asked to serve a spread of three or four inches of height, and an inch of extra body does not cover it. The men at the top of each range are wearing a coat drafted for the men at the bottom.

This is the same trap as sizing up a shirt, in a different costume. Standard grading adds about two inches of chest per size but only around half an inch of body length, which is why going up a size never buys you the length you were actually after.

There is an exception worth knowing. Some tailored coats are sold in a true Tall, written as the chest size plus the word. The London Fog came as a 50 Tall, and it is the only tailored coat I have measured that reached my knee.

The number that matters is back length — here is what each one actually does

Stop shopping the letter and start shopping the measurement. Nearly every size chart worth trusting publishes a centre-back or body length in inches, measured from the base of the collar seam straight down to the hem. That number, not the R or the L, tells you where the coat will finish.

The problem with every guide that says this, including the earlier version of this one, is that it then tells you a coat should land two to three inches below the knee and leaves you there. That is a relative instruction. Nobody knows where his knee falls on a coat he has not bought yet.

So I measured myself. At 6′8″, standing barefoot: the base of my neck at the back is 68 inches off the floor, my belt line is 44, the bottom of my seat is 36, and the top of my knee is 24. Which makes two to three inches below the knee a spot roughly 21 to 22 inches off the floor — a real place, with a number on it.

Then I wore the coats and wrote down where each one finished. There are nine of them now; the last five arrived in October, and the last two are the first that reach my knee.

Coat	Back length	Where the hem landed
BGOWATU quilted bomber, XXL	30	belt line
Wantdo puffer, 2XLT	31	mid-seat
Legendary Whitetails wool, sherpa lined, 3XT	31	above the belt line
Legendary Whitetails waxed, 2XT	33.25 (net of a 3.25 in collar)	mid-seat
Legendary Whitetails casual coat, waxed, 3XLT	34	bottom of the seat
Legendary Whitetails barn chore, 3XT	34 (net of a 3 in collar)	bottom of the seat
Amazon Essentials mid-length puffer, XXL Big & Tall	35	bottom of the seat
London Fog wool-blend topcoat, 50 Tall	43.5	at the knee, 24 off the floor
SOMTHRON trench, 3XL	45.75	below the knee, 21.5 off the floor

Five inches of extra back length moved the hem eight inches down my body, broadly in order. Three coats later there is one exception, and it is the useful kind.

The Legendary Whitetails wool coat measures 31 inches down the back — the same as the Wantdo puffer. The Wantdo lands at mid-seat. The wool coat lands above my belt line, higher than a coat an inch shorter than either of them. The difference is not length, it is room. At 56 inches around the chest with a full sherpa lining it was the tightest coat I have worn, and a coat that cannot close comfortably rides up. Back length tells you where a hem can reach. The chest decides whether it gets there — which is why the second half of this page matters as much as the first.

Then the two overcoats arrived, and the pattern broke the other way. London Fog lists its topcoat at 42 inches long. My tape says 43.5, an inch and a half more than promised, and it finished exactly at my knee. It still went back — a long topcoat is not what I reach for — but the number is the number. The SOMTHRON, which is not sold in a tall size at all, is longer still at 45.75 and landed below it.

A flat measurement is not a distance on your body

Here is the part no size chart mentions, and it is the reason careful arithmetic still ends in a coat that is too short.

A garment measured flat follows its own surface. Worn, some of that length is spent travelling over your shoulder blades and the curve of your back before the hem starts descending at all. Across those four coats, the flat back length overstated the actual drop by three to six inches, averaging about four. A coat listed at 35 inches down the back gave me about 31 inches of reach.

That loss is real on a coat that stops at the hip or the seat. On a knee-length coat it disappeared. Both overcoats dropped as far down my body as their back length measured flat, give or take half an inch. I do not know why yet. My working guess is that a short hem catches on the seat and rides up, and a long one hangs clear of it. Treat that as a guess until more long coats are on the table.

I checked that against a completely different garment and got the same answer. Working from front rise on five pairs of jeans — different part of the body, different measurement, different category — the gap came out at four inches almost exactly. Every flat figure you read quietly overstates its reach, and it is worth about four inches.

What an overcoat length actually does on a 6′8″ frame

The earlier version of this page projected the full published range from four short coats and concluded that nothing on a normal chart reaches my knee. Two real overcoats say that was wrong.

Back length, flat	Off the floor	On me
35 (longest short coat)	36	bottom of the seat
43.5 (London Fog, sold as 42)	24	at the knee
45.75 (SOMTHRON)	21.5	below the knee

Measured, every row. For a coat that reaches past the seat, take the back length straight off your neck height: 68 minus 43.5 is 24.5, and it landed at 24. A coat listed at 42 should finish around 26, a couple of inches above my knee. For the knee itself, look for 43 or more. I have since taped a 36 — a Dockers walking coat — and it finished just below my seat, losing an inch or two rather than the full four. Between 37 and 42 I still have not taped anything, so that narrower range is a gap, not a finding.

The earlier version of this page said a forty-inch back length puts the hem at the knee. On me it lands about four inches above it — close, but still short, and that was the whole problem with guessing from the short coats. If you are six foot five or more, the tall end of a normal chart is where the coat comes close and stops. For the knee you want 43 or more, and in a tailored coat that usually means a true Tall.

Will it close over a sweater? Use your chest, plus ten

Length is what this page is about, but it is not what sends a coat back. The question that actually decides a winter coat is whether it shuts over a jumper in February, and no guide puts a number on that either.

My bare chest is 52.5 inches. Here is what happened.

Coat chest, around	Room over my chest	Closed over a sweater?
56	3.5 in	no
57	4.5 in	no
60	7.5 in	no
62	9.5 in	only just
70	17.5 in	yes, and it was bulky with it
58 (London Fog, wool shell)	5.5 in	yes, easily, and baggy without one

On a padded or quilted coat, nine and a half inches of room over my bare chest is the floor, and at nine and a half it only just closes. A thin wool topcoat broke that rule outright: 5.5 inches of room, and it buttons over a sweater easily. So measure your chest and add ten for anything insulated. For an unlined or lightly lined wool coat, my one example says about six is enough. That is one coat, not a rule yet.

I will be honest about the top of that range, because I have not measured it. The only coat that closed easily had seventeen and a half inches of room and was bulky with it. Somewhere between ten and seventeen there is a coat that closes comfortably without swamping you, and I have not found it yet. When I do, it goes on this page.

The catch in that rule: a chest figure measures the shell, not the room

Two coats arrived from the same brand in October and I kept both. The barn chore is 60 inches around the chest. The casual waxed coat is 57. Three inches apart on the tape — and on me they fit about the same.

The barn chore is the warmer of the two, and it spends those three inches on insulation. Its lining is a heavy quilted plaid; the casual coat’s is lighter. The tape goes round the outside. The lining sits inside it, and takes some of the number back.

The same thing explains something on the table above that otherwise looks like a contradiction. Two of my coats measure 62. One of them closes over a sweater comfortably; the other only just. Identical number, different amount of filling behind it.

So add your ten inches — but add them to a shell figure, and then look at what the coat is lined with. A thin shell at 60 will have more usable room than a heavily insulated one at the same number. Nobody publishes how much space a lining eats, which is exactly why it is worth saying out loud: on a winter coat, the chest measurement is an outside dimension. The London Fog proves it from the other side: almost no lining, so nearly all of its 58 inches is usable.

One caveat that matters more than it looks. My chest is wider than my midsection, so for me the chest figure is the binding one. If your waist is bigger than your chest — common enough — apply the same ten inches to that measurement instead. A coat that closes across the chest and not across the stomach is still a coat that does not close.

Sleeves, shoulders and hoods — the three checks after length

Sleeve. A coat sleeve is worn over other sleeves, so it should cover the wrist bone completely with your arms down. Measured from the base of my neck, over the shoulder and down the outside of a relaxed arm, I am 35 inches. The four coats ran 37.5 to 41 inches centre-back to cuff, and all of them covered the wrist. Roughly three to six inches more than your own neck-to-wrist figure is what a coat sleeve needs. A coat sleeve that ends where a shirt sleeve would is short.

Shoulder. This is the one nobody can fix afterwards. Two Nautica coats I owned had identical 58-inch chests and opposite problems: the sailing jacket had a 20-inch shoulder and was far too small, the pea coat had 25 and was far too big. Length sorted neither of them. All four of the new coats measured 22 to 24 and all four cleared that problem, which is why they went back for other reasons. The full working-out is in five layers measured at 6′8″, two kept.

Hood. Nobody publishes hood openings, so I measured them: 12, 13 and 17 inches across three hooded coats. My head is 23.25 inches around. All three went over it easily, and all three stayed up with the zip closed — including the 12. I expected the small one to fail and it did not. That is one fewer thing to worry about.

How to check before you buy

1. Measure your own two numbers once. Floor to the base of your neck at the back, and floor to the top of your knee. They take a minute, they never change, and they turn every size chart into a prediction instead of a guess.
2. If the coat stops above the seat, subtract about four inches from its back length. If it is long enough to clear the seat, subtract nothing.
3. Do the subtraction from your neck height. Neck height minus (back length minus four) is roughly where the hem finishes, in inches off the floor. Compare that to your knee.
4. Measure your chest and add ten. Do not order a coat below that figure if you plan to wear anything under it.
5. Check the sleeve separately — centre-back to cuff, three to six inches more than your own neck-to-wrist.
6. Check the shoulder last, and treat it as a hard limit. It is the only measurement a tailor cannot rescue.
7. If the listing publishes no back length at all, treat that as information about the listing rather than an obstacle to overcome.

This does not have to be expensive

None of the above is a budget problem. It is a specification problem. A fifty-inch back length costs exactly what a thirty-seven-inch back length costs. What you are paying for is a pattern drafted for your proportions, and that is a choice the brand made before the coat was ever priced.

Every figure on this page came off a tape in my own hands, and every garment was one I bought and wore. If you want the raw numbers for the coats, sweaters and everything else I have measured, they are in the tall sizing database.

The trend is genuinely on your side this season. Just do not let a letter on a label decide how long your coat is — and do not trust a chart’s length until you have checked it against your own knee.

What to actually buy

Fifteen coats measured now, and four kept. The one I actually reach for goes first. Second is the only coat that solved the length problem this page is about — I sent that one back, and what sent it back was taste rather than tape, so it is still the one to buy if length is what you came for. Then the rest of what I kept, and the catch on each one.

• Coat shoulder width: the one measurement that sorted twelve coats
• Coats and sweaters for tall men: ten measured, two kept

Everything I currently think is worth buying, plus what I bought and sent back, is on Tall Deals.