Luxury Insider - The Online Luxury Magazine

True Bespoke
A true bespoke suit is completely custom made. When the suit is completed, it will fit only one body – yours. Several artisans are involved in the trade. Typically a cutter will deal with a customer, measure him and will also draw the pattern and cut the material. A tailor, who sews the cut material together, will sew in the canvas and horsehair (which are the innards of a suit) and coax it with hot steam from the iron to enable two-dimensional cloth to conform to our three-dimensional bodies. Some shops will have a specialized vestmaker who makes waistcoats and a trousermaker who makes trousers.

The cutter will take numerous measurements, and 20 to 30 measurements are not unusual. (Indeed some cutters will take up to 50.) Lengths for both arms are measured, usually to ¼ inch or &frac18 inch accuracy – you’d be surprised to see how many of us have arms which are unequal in length. The cutter notes the symmetry (or asymmetry) of your body, for example the drop of the left shoulder vs that of the right, the curve of the left shoulder blade vs that of the right, etc. A ready-to-wear or made-to-measure cutter will have no ability to do the same – the simple act of being able to observe his customer is denied of him and he will have to work from his image of the hypothetical everyman.

As mentioned earlier, everything can be specified in a bespoke suit. Length of coat, width of lapel, placement of notch, stance of buttons, how many pockets - both external and internal - and their positions. The material of the outer shell, canvas, horsehair, paddings, and linings or the absence thereof can be specified. The length of the crutch measurement, which affects how high or low on the waist you wear your trousers can be agreed on. The placement of buttons, pockets, brace buttons, or belt loops, or D-rings can be specified. In a ready-to-wear or made-to-measure suit, the designer has already made these decisions for you. We will cover the specifics on bespeaking a suit in a later article and discuss how to specify these important characteristics which give life to a bolt of cloth.

After the measurements are taken, the cutter cuts a specific pattern in brown paper (or sometimes directly on the cloth) in exact accordance to your measurements and specifications. The method which he uses to translate the measurements to the paper pattern is known as the tailoring system, and the cutter’s chosen system will usually depend on his training. The material selected is cut, and simply stitched into a basted suit for the first of typically three fittings.

The first fitting is also known as the skeleton fit. The materials are simply stitched together with white basting thread. This allows the cutter to see how the initial cut fits a customer’s body. At this point everything can be adjusted, and often this is the time to make the decisions on button stance, as well as external pocket positions.

The second fitting is known as the forward fitting. At this stage, most of the major construction is completed. The collar and sleeves will likely be similar to the first fitting, but the rest of the suit will be almost complete. This allows the cutter and customer to see the drape of the material. Adjustments can be made, and typically, the cutter will mark this using tailor’s chalk where he wants the tailor to take in, or let out, so the suit fits you well.

At this stage, the lay of the cloth and how it should be coaxed to fit three-dimensionally is observed and noted by the cutter. The suit is then taken apart, and where pattern adjustments are required, such adjustments are made to the paper pattern and then to the suit.

The final fitting is known as the finish fitting, or fin bar fin. At this stage, everything is finished except for the sleeve length. The cutter can then see how the suit fits you, and thus make minor adjustments and the final decisions on sleeve length. After these final adjustments are made, the suit is complete, and should fit you and only you perfectly.