Custom Mens Suit And Formal Dress Shirts

custom suits

CUSTOM - MADE CLOTHES

Wearing something created expressly for one's body and mind is an intoxicating luxury particularly for men accustomed to buying off the rack. After realizing what such personalized raiment can do for him both physically and psychologically, it is the rare man who doesn't become a convert for life. Even in today's culture of instant gratification, a large majority of the world's best dressed men still go to the effort and expense go having their clothes custom made. Bespoke fashion allows its wearer to act, in concert with whatever skilled craftsmen he has chosen, as the architect of his own look. This collaboration usually produces a dressing style that is individual and worldly.

Custom-made apparel is the product of exact measurements taken on a known individual. It's the difference between designing a garment on a real person and designing one for an imaginary figure. No ready-to-wear garment, no matter how well it is altered, can ever be as accurately fitted as one made by a skilled craftsman who constructs it right over the bones and bumps of his client. The maker must be an artist who can compensate for whatever nature has withheld. In cases where a considerable remolding of the client's form is required, the end result can become a glorified abstraction of subject's better self.

The advantages of well-designed custom-made wearable over off-the-peg are significant and self-evident. With proper rotation and care, handmade apparel will outlast any item produced in a factory. A custom-made suit will yield at least ten years of good service, while a handcrafted shoe can easily last over twenty years. Amortized over the life of the product, the cost per annum favors the custom-made quality.

However, value is not the primary reason many men prefer custom tailoring. In the bespoke world, everything revolves around the pampered customer - his build, posture, coloring, and personal taste dictate all. Buying custom clothes represents the sort of focused and efficient use of time that top executives try to cultivate throughout their business day. Additionally, the relationship forged over time between maker and client can provide pleasure above and beyond the work produced by this alliance. Given the privacy and intimate attention afforded each customer by this process, a man can relax during his fitting and then return to the rigors of daily life refreshed.

Having described the real upside to the bespoke experience, we must now consider its potential downside. One of the inherent disadvantages of custom making is that the finished product cannot be judged until it is too far along to be substantially changes. Therefore, much depends on the tasted and aesthetic sensibilities of the maker. If he adheres to the time-tested step of the custom-tailor tradition, the materials and workmanship that normally accompany such a process usually ensure the garment's superior quality. However, the quality of its design is another matter.

The highest-caliber workmanship or carriage trade service will not undo the unsightliness of a poorly designed peaked lapel, an unflatteringly shaped dress shirt collar, or an inelegantly formed toe box. Whereas most men operating as custom makers are terrific mechanics and skilled craftsmen, their tastes tend to reflect their own working-class backgrounds. Many well-established firms are now owned by an employee who stepped out of the workroom to take over the business after the founder retires or passed on. Years of laboring over his craft hardly give him the appropriate social frame of reference to act as arbiter of taste and style in this collaboration.

Examples of this can be found in most Hong Kong tailored clothes. Compared to the average ready-to-wear suit, the Hong Kong creation, which generally features better fabrics and workmanship, offers a good value. However, most are poorly designed, inexpensively finished, and, therefore, unsophisticated in appearance.

Choosing a custom maker is difficult for the man traveling in this rarefied world for the first time. Some protection is assumed if the choice is based on a friend's recommendation. However, you remove considerable risk from the selection process by employing an artisan who has a definable "house style." The finest bespoke firms are still thriving because their signature approach to design has transcended the vagaries of fashion as well as the tastes of their employees. Most of the top firms have their own long-considered ideas on what style shows off a man to his best advantage, and you should listen carefully to see if their beliefs reflect your own. Establishments that claim they will make "anything you want" are to be avoided, unless you yourself are a designer and are prepared to take responsibility for the garment's final form.

If you desire a look all your own, find a craftsman who already makes something recognizably close to what you want and is comfortable adapting it to your needs. I would not go to Bill Fioravanti in New York City for a soft-shouldered, drapey suit, just as I would not ask London's Anderson & Sheppard to make me a fitted, built-up, English-style hacking jacket. Such judgments are easier to reach, since these makers have a clear-cut point of view. While you cannot totally eliminate the risk factor from the custom-made product, choosing a craftsman with a "house look" minimize the margin of surprise. However, in the hands of a craftsman with a strong sense of style, the outcome's unpredictability becomes part of the experience's attraction.

Equally important is understanding just how customer-made the article actually is. Today, the term "customer-made" has come to represent a wide range of different manufacturing processes and qualities, so caveat emptor. Legitimately bespoke products involve a specific series of steps with commensurate degrees of quality and thus price. If a customer is going to order something represented as customer-made, and he is going to receive something made by a different process, he should know this beforehand.

CUSTOM TAILORING

With retailer cutting back their slower-turning stocks of tailored clothing to bolster their cash flow, more stores than ever before are offering made-to-order clothes. And given the reduced selections and available sizes, more men are testing these waters. Because the price of a better designer or European hand-tailored, off-the-peg suit has, in some instances, surpassed that of one custom-made, the interest in bespoke clothing has increased. However, the first thing you must establish is to what degree the clothing you are about to order is genuinely custom-made.

The term "Custom-made," when referring to tailored clothing is used so loosely today - particularly by those who have something to gain by its obfuscation - that it is now applied to almost any garment that has not been purchased off the rack. However, the criteria for judging whether a man's tailored garment is authentically custom-made have changed little since the early part of this century. There produces must be observed if the product is to earn such a designation.

First, the individual parts must be cut from a paper pattern that has been created specifically for the wearer. In the old days, the tailor who measured the suit would cut the pattern immediately upon the client's departure. This meant the wearer's unique carriage and manner, elements that inform the garment's character, were kept fresh in his mind's eye. Second, all the work required to create the suit was to be executed on the premises where the measurements were taken. This insured authenticity and aesthetic consistency, and acted as a quality control. Finally, except for the straight seams of the trouser, all work was to be executed completely by hand.

The terminology presupposes that the material is of the highest caliber, the sewing thread of silk, the linings of fine silk or rayon Bamberg, and the buttons of genuine horn or a vegetable derivative. The entire process required at least two or three fittings to take the garment from its first to final stage. Any suit that went through these rigors was recognized for the Savile Row tailors who invented and refined this production process. The long-term advantage of having a suit made in this manner revolves around its original paper template. Once created, it can be adjusted to further perfect the next garment. Nothing controls the consistency of each subsequent suit's fit and look more precisely than this finite individual pattern.

One step below custom-made is made-to-measure. Instead of a paper pattern being made expressly for the client, the manufacturer's stock pattern being becomes the starting point. Various adjustments for fit and posture are incorporated into it to individualize the final garment. The coat is delivered to the store without buttonholes, allowing the shop's fitter to position them correctly while the customer is wearing it. This technique for capturing a person's fit works well for most men unless their posture or bone formation requires something more particular. How well it replicates the custom-made suit's fit depends on the extent to which its base pattern can be manipulated to resemble an original pattern.

Since made-to-measure defines a process rather than the degree of craft, this product can vary widely in quality and cost. It can be made from a superior cloth or an inferior one, by hand or by machine. However, how closely it comes to matching the bespoke coat's quality will depend on its ingredients and workmanship.

Last on the scale of individually cut clothing is something called a stock single. Too many suits represented today as custom-made are usually from this group. Though it doesn't afford the same degree of customized fit as the made-to-measure, this creation in certainly a step up from ready-to-wear. Since a stock single is cut one at a time, it offers the wearer an opportunity to personalize a factory-produced suit. If you have an athletic build, say a forty-inch chest with a thirty-one-inch waist, the suit can be ordered with a smaller trouser and its jacket's waist will be tapered accordingly. Or if your measurements indicate your jacket should be longer than a regular but shorter than a long, and, additionally, your trouser requires a longer rise, these adjustments can be made. However, under no circumstance should this be mistaken for anything other than what it is, and it is clearly not a custom-made suit.

The differences between the made-to-measure and stock single vary according to the manufacturer. Some makers permit various fitting adjustments on a stock single while others permit none at all. Today, a computer generates individual cutting instructions and a customer's pattern is created and retained to record subsequent alterations. If the customer body reasonably approximates the stock pattern, the computer will provide a fit approximates the bespoke blueprint. However, if the customer requires significant adjustments, the computer-generated stock pattern will not measure up.

Most of the nuances that distinguish one top custom tailor from another are too esoteric to describe in mere words. Before engaging any tailor, you should ask to see a recent sample of his work, preferably something that is about to be collected by its owner. Unfortunately, inspecting the jacket's cut or fit when it is not being worn by the body it was designed for won't be of much benefit unless you are a tailor or bring a learned eye to such matters. Though its fabric, modeling, and detailing reflect the patron's wishes and most of its tailoring craft is concealed beneath its linings or shell fabric, you can learn much by examining the buttonholes. The sensibility and execution of the buttonholes reflect the creator's training and taste in a way that can be illuminating.

Examine the lapel buttonhole first. As the detail closest to the wearer's face, it offers the most visible evidence of the tailor's artistry. It is the last element of needlework to go into the garment before its final pressing. If its color, size, or placement is off, it can undo the forty or so hours of painstaking work invested in your garment. As founders of the woolen tailoring world, Savile Row tailors established the standards for high-class buttonhole decorum many years ago. Depending on where he apprenticed, each tailor on the Row may favor a different silhouette or style, but each jacket's buttonholes are a consistent part of this legendary culture's pedigree.

Creating a proper buttonhole is a dying art usually performed by trained women with excepting finger dexterity. The lapel buttonhole should be long enough (1"/ 1 1/8" ) to comfortably accommodate a flower, though you may never choose to wear one. There should be a keeper for the flower stem on the lapel's underside. The buttonhole should be precisely angled on the same line as the slope of the lapel's notch. If the coat has a peaked porting. If a flower were places in it, it would be framed by the lapel's outer edges.

The buttonhole on the lapels and sleeves should be hand-sewn so skillfully that their individual stitches become hard to discern. Although there are sewing machines that try to simulate the look of a handmade buttonhole, legitimately custom-made clothes require that they be hand-sewn. Many tailors choose a machine-made buttonhole because their own hand-sewn buttonholes end up looking ragged, as if a dog had gnawed on them. A handmade buttonhole is clean on the both sides. When finished, the buttonhole should be supple to the touch.

Quite important is its color, which should disappear into the cloth. For example, a buttonhole on a black-and-white glen plaid suit should have an inconspicuous, medium gray tint. If I saw a color such as charcoal gray or even black, contrasting upon such a cloth, as is found in most middlebrow custom-tailored clothes, I would note the tailor's lack of taste. The jacket sleeve's buttonholes should be aligned straight and close enough to one another so that the buttons appear to kiss. The distance from the edge of the jacket's cuff to the middle of the first button should not exceed 1 1/8". More than that, and they look as if they are floating on the sleeve and have abandoned their historical relationship to the cuff as its fastener.

If a tailor seems knowing about buttonholes, I would defer to his judgment in other matters. This is critical, since no matter how specifically you instruct any tailor, many aesthetic judgments concerning taste are going to be made by him in the course of his work with little input from you, and these are the ones that will ultimately infuse the clothing with a sense of class and character.

CUSTOM SHIRTING

Besides the individualization of its styling, the advantages of the custom-made dress shirt over one that is ready-to-wear can be found in its precise fit as well as the superior quality and taste of its fabrics. The most visible and important component of the dress shirt is its collar, and the bespoke process allows for one that is designed to best present the wearer's face. The fit of the dress shirt's cuff to the wearer's hand, its second most noticeable detail, is another area where the custom route is decidedly the higher of the two roads.

In choosing a shirt maker, you must inquire about what process he will use to produce your shirt. The maker should begin by creating an individual pattern from which he makes a sample shirt. having been worn and washed several times at home, the shirt should be examined on your body for final approval or further altering. After those washings, the collar should fit comfortably while still allowing for some shrinkage. The shirtsleeve should still be long enough to show ½" of cuff from under the jacket sleeve and also have enough length to offset further shrinkage.

If cut from a stock pattern rather than an individual pattern, the shirt is not custom-made. In some cases, if you are a standard fit, the shirt might require little adjustment, but it would be inaccurate to call it bespoke. Shirts deserving to be called custom-made cost $150 and up and should be made from thirty-six-inch-width, 100 percent cotton, two-ply cloth. This is easy enough to determine. Ask the salesman to show you a bolt of the fabric and ask him to measure its width. Since fabric woven in this old-world width is always two-ply, this is a fail-safe checkpoint. Thirty-six-inch narrow-width shirting fabrics are made on Europe's older, slower looms, which produce a luxurious cloth of richer colors and hand than the fabric will feel even silkier with wear. As long as the shirt's fabric is woven in either Switzerland or Italy, you are assured of a finished product of deluxe caliber.

To confirm a shirt's pedigree, you must establish the shirt's level of sewing artistry and manufacturing skill. The entire shirt, including its side seams, should be sewn with a single needle. This construction allows for the smallest stitches, the narrowest seam, and the most meticulous finishing. The shirt's side seam should be precisely narrow and the individual stitches on its collar so small as to be almost invisible. The collar so small as to be almost invisible. The collar and cuff lining should be cotton (not fused) and from Europe. Switzerland makes the best. The yoke on the back of a custom shirt should be made of two separate pieces joined in the center and the button should be genuine mother-of-pearl and attached by hand. If there is a monogram, it too should be hand-embroidered as opposed to machine-made.

If the answers to these areas of investigation are satisfactory, you can be assured of receiving a top-quality product and should be prepared to pay $150 to $300, depending on the country where it is bought and any extras and collars. Choose to have the shirt's excess fabric set aside rather than made into a finished collar. If you lost or put on weight, it's better to have fabric on hand. The costs can also vary according to the quality of two-ply cotton fabric used, which can range from 100s up to the very expensive, silk like 220s.

Of course, all thing being equal, the cost of the bespoke dress shirt ultimately rests on the genius of its pattern and the nuances of its fit. However, there are some aspects of shirt making that do separate the masters from the top makers. These details include special gussets to reinforce the shirt's side seams where they meet at the hem bottom, pattern matching on the back yoke to the sleeve, hand-sewn buttonholes (found only in Europe), horizontal sleeve placket buttonholes, and extra-thick mother-of-pearl buttons.

All of the above quality the product as custom-made. Below this, there are a variety of methods of individualized shirt making that are often called custom-made. Obviously, this term stands for a specific process of creating a particular shirt with an attendant quality of shirting fabric and shirt making. Make-to-order, individually cut, and made-to-measure are all terms that indicate something less than custom-made, and that is why they need to be understood if one is to compare apples with apples. If you pay less than $150 for a dress shirt and it is represented as being comparable to the top-of-the-heap bespoke ones, something is amiss. That is not to say that a custom-made shirt will always look better than a less expensive garment. A well-designed ready-to-wear shirt can look more flattering than a bespoke one with a poorly designed collar. As with all wearing apparel, design, not quality, is the ultimate arbiter of stylish longevity.

We invite you to check out some of our other useful custom tailoring related information:

Why a Bespoke Tailor-Made Suit is the best you can buy

The discovery process for deciding whether to buy tailor-made suits as opposed to continuing to buy suits off-the-rack from retail stores is not as complex as you might think. What you should be aiming for is not a tailor-made suit but a custom-made suit which technically is a hand made men suit. Men and women frequently reach a point of frustration in trying to find what they want from specialty clothing stores or branded retail stores. Certain brand name suits are high quality articles but are designed within trendy fashion parameters for mass distribution. No matter how good they look on the rack, when you put one on, it invariably needs lots of alterations to reach the point where it meets the “it fits you” definition, a very loose term meaning it has been altered to the point where you can wear it.

The tradition of buying suits from retail stores dies hard, even though what you buy often goes out of style, doesn’t wear well, and is not a good value. You find yourself right back in the same position again and again, spending more than you should for a suit that doesn’t come close to being what you want. When you review what you have in your closet, most of your suits have not withstood the test of time. Some things may be acceptable by worn-out standards; other things you just can’t stand looking at and don’t want to wear.

The option to buy a tailor made tuxedo suit is not something that most people logically consider because they think they can’t afford to buy clothes that are custom-made, another word for tailor-made. Custom-made suits are uniquely designed and handsomely fitting. If you do some research, you will find that seeking the services of a Master Tailor that will design and assemble a custom-made suit for you is no more expensive than buying off-the-rack, mass merchandized suits in a retail store. The quality is far superior and the fit is perfect; after all a custom-made suit is made to your specifications and measurements. Custom–made suits stand the test of time and can be worn for a variety of occasions, including formal events, business meetings, social outings, and much more.

If you want to make the transition to buying custom-made suits, you must find a Master Tailor that will understand precisely what you want and operate within fashion and budget standards that you mutually agree on. A Master Tailor is a Custom Tailor aka, Bespoke Tailor. These are all terms that define the finest clothing design and assembly artisans in the world. A true Bespoke Tailor is a fashion design expert, a fabric choice specialist, an accessories master, and a skilled measurements artist.

What is a Bespoke Tailor?

When we talk about the best Master Tailors in the world, those that originated from Europe and Asia, we are referring to the art of bespoke tailoring. The word "bespoke" from the verb bespeak, refers to the art of specializing an order to make something unique and of high quality. In the fashion world bespoke is reserved for labeling individually patterned and crafted men's clothing. For women's clothes the designated term is Haute Couture. This is diametrically opposed to the concept of mass-manufactured and mass distributed clothing lines.

A Bespoke suit is designed and cut from a pattern uniquely conceived from an idea and a template unique to an individual client. The measurements originate from a client profile compiled by the Bespoke Tailor. A Bespoke Suit is not only determined to be an original piece, it has been further defined as more expensive and of significantly higher quality. Modern Bespoke Tailors, that truly attain to that designation, maintain their commitment to quality but through their expertise and experience they also create great value in the works they create compared to suits that are mass-produced.

My Custom Tailor is a unique, third generation manufacturer of custom-made suits and shirts that serves men and women all over the world. They are true artisans with expertise and experience evolving from the clothing design firms and manufacturing factories centered in such major fashion centers as Singapore, Bangkok, and Milan to name just a few. My Custom Tailor maintains the lost art of making custom-made, handmade clothes. Our Master Tailors are classic Bespoke Tailors and are among the most experienced and talented in the world. They adhere to proven design and assembly standards that differentiate their creativity and workmanship from anything available from any other source. My Custom Tailor has evolved with a unique commitment to travel to major cities all over the world to serve their clientele. This allows new clients to experience the unique process of having a Master Tailor or Bespoke Tailor relationship.

Made-to-Measure is not Bespoke

A bespoke suit is made to order without the use of a pre-existing pattern. Made-to-measure alters an existing, standard-sized pattern to fit the customer. When a client orders a made-to-measure suit, he/she must often schedule multiple fittings to make sure the ongoing adjustments are on the right track. A bespoke pattern is an individually cut pattern which can be kept in a file for use in the future to make additional custom-made suits. Made-to-measure suit designs do incorporate hand-made work, but the work is coming off a standard, mass produced pattern not one unique to the client.

Not all made-to-measure companies apply the same amount of modification to the original pattern. This inconsistency results in made-to-measure suits that have minimal alterations, a process that can miss important elements of the client’s shape. A closure attention to detail and a willingness to make all the alterations necessary to justify the need for shoulder-padding, armhole size, waist accommodation, etc. These are not subtle design parameters. When all the details of a client’s physique are calibrated as part of the final suit design, you get not only a perfect fit but one that is comfortable and flattering.

Some tailors that earn the right to be called Bespoke Tailors, or just assume the associated accreditation, don’t have the natural instincts or expertise that old-school bespoke tailors possess. So, when they attempt a bespoke design, they require multiple fittings over multiple visits, dramatically increasing the cost to complete the final design. A bad bespoke design will look worse and cost a lot more than an off-the-rack suit from a retail store. It is important to make sure a designated bespoke tailor has the true talent and expertise to claim that distinction.

True Bespoke Tailors, like those that have evolved within My Custom Tailor, work diligently to ensure a precise fit. This is the ultimate test of a bespoke suit whether you are a perfectly shaped man/woman or are someone that has body features that need neutralization or accentuation in attaining a bespoke look. Beyond the inherent skills possessed by a My Custom Tailor Master Tailors, they establish a strong personal dialog regarding the needs and wants of their clients. They are able to conduct a comprehensive measurements profile and complete the custom-made design without having to engage multiple times with the client. This ensures a custom-fit that is desired at a much lower price.

Fabrics are the foundation

Fabrics come in many forms and the finest fabrics cost more than ordinary fabrics you typically see in suits from a retail outlet. The quality and workability of a particular fabric contribute to the distinct look and feel of a high-quality bespoke suit or shirt. There is no need to avoid pricier, premium fabrics as they not only look and fit better, but they also last longer, often three times longer that less expensive fabrics. The ideal fabric benefit/price point for you is a detail you will negotiate with your My Custom Tailor Master Tailor.

Fabrics are graded and the best grades are above 100 or 110. Suits are available from grade 80 all the way up to 180. My Custom Tailor Master Tailors has access to a wide range of suit and shirt fabrics, some of which are the best available for suit and shirt making in the world. These fabric evaluation specialists will help you pick a grade that fits your budget and will guide you to understand the benefits associated with specific fabrics. A Master Tailor is agnostic to the type of fabric you choose. He will just want to make sure you get the best possible quality and fit available at your chosen price point.

Visit the My Custom Tailor Website and review the Travelling Master Taylor Roadshow schedule to see when something is scheduled for your city. Make an appointment and start a dialogue with a true Bespoke Tailor. Give him a detailed description of what you want and a budget range you want to stay within. The budget standard should be consistent with what you have been spending on suits you have bought from retail outlets. Have your measurements taken and documented. Assuming the cost of a custom-made wardrobe is very close to your budget range; think about the advantages of having that same wardrobe made by a My Custom Tailor Bespoke Tailor:

The clothes will fit perfectly because they are made to your exact specifications

The fabrics will be the best you can buy for the type of clothes you have specified

Accessories in the form of linings, buttons, pleats, collars, waist details, cuffs, zippers, etc., will be much better than what you will get from mass merchandized clothes

The clothes will be designed and assembled by master tailors and cutters, all of which are true artisans with years of experience.

The quality standards will be the best available

A single source for all your wardrobe needs

Your measurements are on file as part of your My Custom Tailor Profile so you can order more custom-made clothes online any time you want to

When you visit a My Custom Tailor USA Roadshow, you will be meeting directly with the person designing and assembling your garment. The person who does the design, guides the fabric cutting, and conducts the needlework workmanship will be working directly for you and working off the measurement profile he creates from measuring you in person. He incorporates details he has confirmed with you that often include the number of jacket buttons, pocket style, vent options, zipper design, pant pleats, cuffs, interior lining, lapel width, button-stance, gorge height, etc.

Perhaps you own a suit that you consider to be the best quality and fit you have ever owned. Bring it with you to the roadshow event and show it to the tailor as an indication of what you want made or replicated in your next design. He will give you feedback on how he can make the same thing for what you paid for it while adding quality and wear features that will give you greater value. That is also a good way to let the tailor see the kind of fit you desire; again, he can give you what you have or suggest areas of improvement that will give you an even better fit.

Before you attend a roadshow event, visit the My Custom Tailor Website to review the various clothing collectibles that distinguish our portfolio. Also, take a look at the quality standards we adhere to in anything we do. My Custom Tailor is out there and available to help you understand all the advantages of buying custom-made clothing that offer the ultimate in quality and value.

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