If you’re like many men, the idea of having a tailor strikes you as some hoity-toity fantasy where you’re a movie star or a high-priced lawyer. After all, why do you need a custom-tailored suit if you’re just a regular guy? And how can you possibly hope to afford it?
Well, it turns out that there are quite a few myths out there when it comes to custom-made suits, and there are some truly good practical reasons why you should think about getting one – or several!
Myth: It’s really inconvenient to go to a tailor.
Truth: What’s inconvenient is going to 20 different stores.
Going to a tailor, getting measured, and waiting for them to make your suit sounds like the height of inconvenience, but think about what you’d do otherwise. Off-the-rack suits are all in generic sizes, so chances are good that you’d end up trying on a lot of them and probably even driving around to different stores before you find something that seems acceptable – not even great; just acceptable. That kind of shopping takes a lot of time and gas, and all it really gives you in return is frustration. Having a tailor make you a suit may not allow you to walk out of the store with it that day, but the actual time you spend shopping is often much less.
Myth: The level of quality is about the same.
Truth: Custom-made clothing really is made better.
It’s not that off-the-rack suits are the equivalent of plastic bags and custom-made suits are recyclable canvas, but there is definitely a difference in the level of quality between the two. Part of that comes from the fact that off-the-rack suits are put together by machines on an assembly line, whereas each custom-made suit will be overseen by a real live person. There’s just an attention-to-detail there that can’t be matched. Also, when you’re having something custom-made, you can choose the fabric that’s going to be used. Even lower-end fabric offered by tailors tends to be better than what’s offered in off-the-rack clothes, and you can pick material that’s truly amazing.
And then there are things like canvas. What’s canvas? Typically made from cotton and horsehair, it’s a separate material that runs throughout the interior of every custom-made suit. Essentially, the canvas serves as the “bones” of your suit, and it serves to give it both shape and solidity, as well as helping mold it to your body. Canvas can even prevent bubbles from forming in the fabric and help to keep your suit wrinkle-free! In contrast, many off-the-rack models simply hang limp.
Myth: Off-the-rack fits just fine.
Truth: That’s because you’ve never tried a custom-fit suit.
For a tailor, “just fine” is a failure. When you get a custom-fit suit, you’re buying a piece of clothing that will feel like a second skin – only better. Tailored suits not only fit perfectly to the particular contours of your body, they also accentuate your best features while masking the ones that you’d prefer to keep hidden. They can do this because someone designed the suit specifically for your body. You’ll never be able to get that with an off-the-rack suit, and anyone who says otherwise is just flat-out lying.
Myth: Tailor-made suits cost an arm and a leg.
Truth: Many people go to tailors to spend less.
Let’s be completely blunt: no tailor is going to be able to provide you a custom-made suit that’s less than the lowest off-the-rack prices you can find. There’s a reason big businesses use assembly lines, and someone who’s personalizing every suit can’t match that. At the same time, tailors are quite affordable when you start to look at the big picture. First off, it comes back to convenience. Your time is valuable, and if you can go to one tailor with your measurements and get a great suit out of it, chances are good that you’ll save a lot of time over trying to find an off-the-rack suit that works. Additionally, tailored suits tend to last longer and take more wear and tear, which means you should have to replace them less. And sometimes, tailors can replicate looks on popular (read: expensive) brands for far less than what you’d pay just to get a particular name on the label.
Myth: Tailors just charge more for the same thing.
Truth: Custom-made suits can be personalized in any number of ways.
Try to buy an off-the-rack suit and you’re going to be limited to a few specific styles that are currently popular. Tailor-made suits offer unlimited personalization. All you have to do is tell your tailor what you’d like to do and they’ll let you know the cost and time involved.
If you don’t want to believe what I’ve written above, simply find a man who owns a custom suit and ask him what he thinks. You’ll find out that one you go custom, it’s hard to return back to the rack.
Read Next: 8 Ways To Look Great In A Suit
I dont agree with this at all. Tailors are like government employees. They have a vested interest in keep their worthless jobs alive. Most tailors do crappy work anyway. The best suits are Lanvin and Hickey-Freeman.
Not true dude. Got a Michael Andrews bespoke suit–beats my Hickey-Freeman’s six ways to Sunday.
Cary Grant says he always bought suits off the rack – i suppose you need to just buy good ones like Crombie.co.uk.
People like Cary and me can do that because we’re built about the same and have excellent natural bodies.
I used to wear their coats back when the Beatles did
If you look like Cary Grant……
Depends on your tastes I guess. For me, I like the Hickey-Freeman soft shoulders. Everything else just looks cheesey and gay to me.
The only real benefit is number 3: tailor-made suits really do make you look awesome, and no matter what body type you have, a good tailor can raise your presentation quality by orders of magnitude. But as for expense, I disagree with you. You do look better with a custom-made suit but it would be silly to say that you’re saving money, even considering the better quality.
My job requires me to wear suits most days. I’m looking to update my wardrobe and have a few questions for someone more knowledgeable than me:
1) How hard is it to find a decent tailor? Where do you look?
2) Does anyone have any experience with on-line custom made suits like Knot Standard where you send in your measurements? How does that compare to a suit from an actual tailor?
3) How does a custom suit compare to an off-the-rack suit that you get tailored?
1) If you are in a big city, there should be some. Also, the big Saville Row houses, as well as their smaller spinoffs, tend to come stateside at least a couple of times a year. New York
2) I bough some pants from an outfit like that once. They sucked, seams were off, pressing was crooked, and noone answered the phone when I called back…….
3) Unless you’re buying Brioni, Oxxford, RL Purple Label or the like, construction of bespoke garments are almost always “better”, in the sense of fewer shortcuts taken to bring down costs. Simply because the kind of shortcuts that are feasible for a production run, does not make sense in a one-off garment. And the Brionis of the world won’t really save you anything over bespoke. If you do fit perfectly in a Brioni, or Oxxford, you may well get even better workmanship and fancier material for the same price, but few guys are built like Cary Grant.
In general, there are three “classes” of suits; off the rack, Made to Measure (MTM), and Bespoke.
Off the rack is just that. You buy the suit as is, and may have some alterations done to the finished garment. These are the cheapest (duh!).
Then there is MTM, in which the suitmaker has a finite (in case of the better shops like Oxxford, huge but still finite) patterns (shoulder pieces, front lapels……) that they can pick and put together to match your body, but that they have already set up their production to efficiently manufacture a suit from. I wouldn’t be surprised if the best of these, like Oxxford and Brioni, end up being the most “perfect” suits you can buy, since the processes are very much ironed out, and they can make use of expensive machinery not available to smaller tailoring shops.
Then bespoke, in which the tailor (actually cutter in the parlance) measures you, and cuts individual patterns just for you, that he then tweaks throughout increasingly more complete fittings. Three fittings is some kind of standard, but some pride themselves on more, while others pride themselves on being able to do it in less. Once the patterns are finally settled on, the cutter will either enlist help of a coat maker and trouser maker to put the garment together, or possibly do it all himself. Some of the biggest ones (notably Huntsman in London) at least used to have specialized people doing specialized tasks, but the decline of bespoke has probably left that kind of scale impractical. If the tailors are good, the production quality will be good, but I seriously doubt even the most exalted houses can meaningfully improve on the the quality and consistency of the best MTM shops. Where bespoke shines, is that in addition to cutting cloth and sewing it together just for your shape, the individual pieces, subassemblies and the entire garment can be “worked” with a press iron, to mold to you in a way unavailable to any kind of pre cut pattern maker. Which matters more, the further from norm you are built. As an example, professional football players almost inevitably look like walking caricatures of a box in anything other than a bespoke garment, while a good tailor with a good eye can make even the widest guys look quite svelte and elegant. And ditto for any kind of abnormality.
What about having the measurements done here, and getting the suit from Hong Kong, or where ever is good in the Orient? I know Hong Kong suits used to be talked up as premium.
I urge you playas to check out Combatant Gent. Great fitting suits at $160. Half canvass-super 140’s; however I’m sure they took some shortcuts at that price point. It fits like a glove for me OTR (and I have a huge drop). Might be an option for those of you just getting into the suit game.
http://www.indochino.com
You’re welcome
If you like coats that come down to your crotch or even higher! it’s great lol
If you happen to be in SE Asia on vaca, you can get a tailor made suit say in Thailand for under $200. I bought 2 tailor made suits and 4 tailor made shirts for about $400. They keep your measurements there as well if you want to order more after you get back home… Of course its better to be there in person to come back to the store the few times for fittings to have it be perfect. But, If you are ever in that part of the world, I would for sure pick up some T-M suits while there..
At that price point the fabric is crap, sorry. If you’re in Hong Kong, say, all the good fabric comes from Italy or England. You need to pay for it or the suit will not drape properly. Tailoring is important, but so is high-quality Italian or English wool! No suit under $1000 is going to make you look like James Bond, sorry.
Adele is fucking fat. Shirley Manson sang a better tune and she looked fucking hot doing so.
I have both Italian and Thai custom tailored suits and while I agree that the Italian material is better quality, they are not 10X better as their price might suggest. My Thai suits are nice and very reasonably priced.
http://www.georgeandking.com.au
Not a big fan of tailored suits for two reasons:
1. It’s really hard even for the best tailor in the world to know exactly what you want and how to make it perfect. Most of the time you get a suit that’s way too tailored and restricting, making you look gay or ridiculous or both. An aggressive tailored suit might work for “Whilte Collar” show but in real life, very few guys can pull it off, and so often it looks like it’s just too much.
2. It’s so much easier to go to a major department store or to one of the higher end brand stores (Nordstrom, Burburry, etc), find the suit that already fits you pretty well in the shoulders and waist and then take it to alterations or even to a tailor to make it perfect. You already know what you are buying, as opposed to a tailored suit, that you have no idea how it’s going to feel once you put it on.
I guess if you have money to burn and don’t care you could go to some place like Huntsman and buy suits for $5k but as far as these mail order MTM places it’s better just to buy something off the peg.Find a brand or a specify line or cut they make they fits you and doesn’t require any alterations to fit fairly well. Wear it for awhile so it conforms to your body and then if you think you need the sleeve shortened or something have it done.Personally I can wear everything right off the peg and it will fit well with no alterations and I can’t imagine a bespoke suit fitting any better. The only difference would be details that you could add if that’s important to you.
I think you completely missed the OTR suit with a good tailor option…I harp on people when they have poor fitting clothing, and many people do just fine getting a decent piece of fabric tucked and stitched where they need it.
The problem with this is as soon as I go to a tailor, he’ll ask, “what do you want?” and I’ll be totally stumped. Something that looks cool? No, he needs to know what kind of fabric, what kind of cut, lapels, buttons…etc. A million details that I had not the slightest idea how to answer. Oh, he’s got a book with photos? Big deal, I still don’t know what’s good.
I think a lot of men already know this and simply assume that everyone else does, too. I tried going on menswear forums and asking questions, but holy cow you get the worst sort of Eastern Establishment snobs there.
“Getting a suit made” is just a small subset of “men’s fashion” which is a huge topic just as complex and difficult as “convincing women to have sex with you”. I hate these articles that fail to address this and look down on anyone who buys off the rack.
but holy cow you get the worst sort of Eastern Establishment snobs there.
That’s not true. What you get are a bunch of kids and poor amateurs who know nothing.
Way to simultaneously attempt to disprove and then confirm my exact idea.
Seems like you have a thin skin there sonny. I merely stated that these “style” forums are generally full of kids and poor guys who know nothing about dressing which is something you just know from growing up in a certain milieu. They can’t give you any advice because they know nothing and their taste is common and proletarian. It’s like the blind leading the blind. If you want some advice then ask an expert. Go over to BB on Madison and talk to a salesmen in the suit dept. (they also have a custom dept)
Dude, you’re a snob. You don’t even see it, it’s that bad. “On Madison”? Where? You forgot to tell us which city, Bub. No wonder you got offended, you’ve got a thin skin and are projecting it on me. Let me guess, whichever city you live in is the right one and the entire world should know it, amirite? Laughably provincial and limited in vision. There’s an entire world out here, and we don’t really give a shit about McKinley or Maddison or whatever your local crap is. Educated, worldly people are aware of the state of reality in 2013.
Brooks Brothers on Madison ave. you dweeb. Do I have to spell it out? Of course there’s a whole world, I just gave you a place near you in the US.
What you’re describing is a total unwillingness to learn. There’s plenty of resources out there to help you find a masculine style that works for you.
http://masculine-style.com/ is one. Though I never see it on manosphere aggregators anymore. Maybe they sold out? Either way, you can learn there.
This one is pretty good too: http://www.fashiongame.tv/blog/
Yes, this is hard when you get the first suit. However, as with every decision a man makes:
– Take your time
– Decide what YOU want, not what others will say
– When in doubt, keep it simple
Don’t go and buy 5 suits all at once. Get 1 suit made with cheaper material, but that you would still wear. See if you like all of the choices you made. Have it altered to your liking. Then order the next suit with better fabric, keeping in mind all the changes. If that comes out perfect, order the rest.
Give institchu a try
I like man in well trimmed suit
Russians. Great in bed but hard on the head.
You must be oddly shaped if you can’t find something off the rack with the $25-50 alteration fee. Admittedly anybody that is fit in the US is oddly shaped. For example, the chest to waist is a 6″ drop standard in the US. You can take the pants in another 2″ no problem, but if your drop from chest to waist exceeds 8″ you will have trouble buying suits and getting the pants to fit right.
The problem with buying a tailor made suit is much like buying a car or house. Its expensive, and you don’t do it often so its a bit awkward Just ask questions. And if you don’t know what you want make sure you see a finished product in that cut first, you can’t get any sense from a picture.
Hey balani, I don’t know where you are writing from but I used to work across the street from the Chicago flagship store. I always looked in and admired those suits. Now knowing you write for ROK I’ll be heading there soon, I’ve wanted a custom made suit to match a 1920s Stetson hat that was passed down to me.
What’s up with the fluff piece? “In his free time he enjoys shopping with his girlfriend and spending time at home with his two cats.”
Really? This site had earned a lot of trust by not publishing faux-advertising “articles” like this one, ghostwritten from a suit store. I hope Roosh at least made some coin for the site on this.
yeah, i guess next week… it will be 5 reasons to shave your balls
I have been seriously considering this. I have other financial goals at the moment, but I did start the preliminary process of finding a local tailor to stich me up some nice suits/jackets.
A lot of writers sure marketing an agenda on this site now. Even if this article was informative it would be difficult to take seriously.
true BUT no tailor is advertised here thus I think the piece is genuine
I walked in to a tailor near my workplace. He knew my measurements off the bat and then we had a conversation for thirty minutes including a demonstration of fabric quality.
Sold for life on custom.
Could try http://www.institchu.co.uk
If you are a man that fits into standard manufacturing sizing tables and patterns you can probably find a decent suit off the rack. This means that when you click on that button on a website that says “sizing guide” your measurements, within an inch, appear within one of the sizes provided such as “small” or “38” in each of the size categories (arm length, chest, etc.). This probably means that you are either a skinny shorter man, a man of average height who is of a normal BMI, or a tall man that is slightly overweight. If you do not fit into these prefab categories you are going to have a difficult time find an OTR suit and will have to pay to have just able every seam altered.
If you are buying OTR suits remember that you should not let in or take at any seam more then 1-1.25 inches (most OTR suits won’t have enough extra fabric to let it out anyhow). If you need to move a seam more then this then you are probably wearing the wrong size or the wrong cut of suit. Most men wear suits that are at least one size too big and most OTR suits are cut to be shaped like a box.
The only difference between a “short” and “long” suit is that the jacket is either one inch shorter or longer then the regular. The rise in the crotch on the pants might also be a bit shorter or longer but this is not always the case.
A “slim cut” suit these days usually means a very tight fitting suit with tight fitting pants that are popular among some men. I don’t think that men look good in this cut and that it is too trendy, but if you are have the right style in live in the right area it might be a look for you.
People all argue about what makes the best suit – price, the fabric, the details, the thread cut, and many more. I think the number one thing above all other factors that makes a defines a good suit is fit above all else. You could be wearing a $200 suit from Macy’s that fits you like a glove and look better then a guy who is wearing a $2000 custom suit that is ill tailored. Every other aspect of a suit is secondary to its fit.
There are a ton of guides out there on how a suit should fit so I will just put it into a nutshell. The jacket length should hit around the first knuckle of your arm when it is extended while you are standard. The jacket should also fit flush against your back, leave about an inch of your collar showing in the back, and it should fit throughout your chest leaving no more room then about you fist closed press against where the suit buttons. The suit sleeve should show between half an inch and one inch of cuff. The pants should have a natural fit. The seat should look fitted throughout with no loose fabric. The pants should not look like they are pulling in the front and the waist should have enough room that you can at least slip two fingers between in the waist band. (It’s far better to have a waist that is slightly loser then too tight). Your trousers should fall straight from the end of the jacket and have a hem you desire (no hem or a modest break). The width of the trousers should look proportional to your jacket and top half (no hard and fast rule you have to just eye it correctly).
I do not think there is a hard and fast rule where a man should source his suits. It will vary as designers change patterns, lapel sizes, cuts, and quality of fabric over the years. For several years I would buy DKNY suits from Macys because the fit and quality were superb. Then suddenly one year the quality of fabric dropped and the cut became to slim. Some of the best suits I have worn over the years I have purchased from places such as the Burlington Coat Factory for $100. Similarly, I have also enjoyed higher end purchases, spending around $2000 on a high end Hickey Freeman or custom suit. Most men will have a hard and fast rule such as “you must always get your suits from (supplier X)”. I think the best rule is you should develop an eye for detail and quality, know what fits you, and buy your suits accordingly, not by designer or supplier.
A decent lower end suit (under $500 from stores such as Macys) will probably last your around three to five years depending on how hard you wear them. Mid-range suits such as Brooks Brothers or lower end Hickey Freemans (around $1000) will last you anywhere from seven to fifteen. A high end suit ($2000+) will last you a very long time as long as you stay the same weight. If you are buying a very high end suit invest in a second pair of pants. The pants will wear out long before the jacket and you will never be able to find fabric that will match you jacket exactly to have another pair of pants made years later. (If you do purchase two pairs of pants alternate wearing them on occasion and always send them both to the dry cleaner the same time as the jacket so they fade evenly with the jacket.)
The number of suits a man owns largely depends on the frequency he wears a suit. Your average man who works in a white collar office can probably make due with 5-6 suits, rotating 1-2 out every five years or so. Again, I don’t think there is any hard and fast rule on suit colors or styling a man needs to own. Definitely invest in a quality navy and charcoal suit as these will be the most frequently worn colors. I would also suggest you get one striped suit and one more fashionable suit (flip through the latest Esquire or GQ if you need ideas). A lot of men knock the idea of owning a black suit, but I think it is a worthwhile investment. A black suit generally works better then a tux in a “black tie optional” environment. Also it is a great suit to wear out (usually without a tie) to higher end clubs, restaurants, or other night spots. ( I don’t count a tuxedo as a “suit”, it is a completely different piece of men’s clothing and I also think every man should own at least one tuxedo).
If you work in a “business casual” office that does not allow for jeans and every office drone wears khakis with a button down shirt and a tie, for the sake of all things good “suit up”. I would double that for younger workers. You will stand out and catch the eye of management quicker then the slightly overweight co-worker whose pants are one size too small and shirt two sizes too big.
This is already way too long for a blog comment so I am going to stop here. But, “suit up” men and enjoy building an maintaining your suit wardrobe.
Enzo Custom Clothiers – I got a great custom suit for under $500 bones. Wont ever go back.
I tried the custom suit option after reading up on it on the Forums. Totally exploded the second and third myths for me. With the custom suit hung next to my previous off-rack suits, you can see the difference in quality from across the room. It’s incredible.
As for fit…pfft. The rack store had to start with a 38″ waist and tailor the pants down to 33″ (or try, since it can’t really be done), to get me into a 44L jacket. And regardless, the rise was 2″ too long to start with, meaning I ended up with Hammer Pants.
The tailor was brilliant and patient in explaining to me point-by-point what was wrong with the favorite rack suit I brought along. Hate the damned thing now and will never wear it again.
Now trying tailored shirts.
Highly recommend.
This article on bespoke suits is a bit premature. You first have to teach these boys how to walk (like a man) before they can run.I would have began with sportswear (casual wear in Newspeak) which would include things like sportscoats,shirts, shoes etc. since this is what most would be wearing in everyday social life and of course you can usually tell a lot more about a person by their sportswear than a suit which is basically a work uniform most of the time.What a person wears off the job or when not in a suit is generally a better indication of class because this is something most will neglect and show themselves as they really are. Females sort of have an intuition about this as well and can spot any “tells”. The problem is that most of them dress like little boys just like their friends and this is going to be impossible to change because people associate with people like themselves.You can pretty much tell what a person is by their friends and the females they know. It’s also very hard to change someone at 20 and teach them things they should have been learning from kindergarten onwards.
Men of substance have style but the style is just a reflection of what they are. The problem with this “game” nonsense is that it’s all style with nothing behind it and a female will quickly pick up on any incongruity whether it’s in clothes or manner.
I have never in my life seen a suit that actually fits.
I have seen suits that cost over five thousand pounds. Yet they don’t actually fit the person they were made for.
For a piece of clothing to be genuinely regarded as “a fit” you must be able to undergo the full range of motion for the human body in it (as available to your sex) without serious obstruction.
This is impossible in a suit.
You will always find your range of movement limited by the suit.
For the office worker this isn’t a problem and it suits their owners that their workers feel constricted and bound by their clothing. It reinforces a slave mentality as every time they try to stretch their arms or move beyond a brisk walk they will feel their suits biting into them and preventing them from moving. Reminds them of their place. Keeps them docile.
But for someone like myself who is physically active. This is completely unacceptable.
I’ll take my ten pound loose fitting old fashioned cotton shirts and twenty pound loose fitting trousers over a five grand suit any day.
You have no choice
Ever seen a beauty in a nice dress, with ultra high heels, make-up and nice, long hair?
It looks great but it is by no means even a tiny bit “comfortable”.
What you wrote about the slave-mentality is spot on. Nevertheless looking the best you can and “comfortable” do not go hand-in-hand well.
I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH THIS.
I have only bought and worn tailored suits for the bast 10 years. Each suit is made specifically for me. I pick out exactly the fabric I want.
There is no way I can ever wear a store bought suit again.
There is a point about customer made suits that you are missing: They are sewn differently from a factory suit. Yes, the little chinese lady making it is using a machine for substantial parts of the suit. But she is also hand sewing other parts. Substantial parts. Believe it or not, that is BETTER.
The key is how a suit “hangs.” Because a tailor made suit has just the right about of tension in the stitching, it hangs more naturally. That is more comfortable (the most important thing). And it looks better – a lot better.
I have been getting custom made suits and shirts for several years. (including a couple of leather jackets) I highly recommend it. I am not sure what I did before but I never want to go back to “off the rack” clothes.
Its very interesting and informative and I enjoyed reading it. Thank you for sharing such informative post.
http://celebritysuits.com/business-suits-for-men/
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The problem with tailored suits is that it is like finding a good doctor that nails your particular issue. You need to find someone good, experienced and acquainted with current trends. Also, you need to have some knowledge on subjects like fabrics. You may need to do a bit of trial and error. My uncle used to have a very good tailor and the suits he made for him were of such quality that he passed them down to me when younger. Those suits were used like for 10+ years until I had to give them away for being so old fashioned.