Whitcomb & Shaftesbury

[Scot]

I had never heard of this firm until it was mentioned in a thread on LL. The information on the website suggests they produce genuine bespoke (as well as MTM) and the head cutter, Mr McCabe, seems to be the real deal. Does anyone have any expereince of their service and product?

[Concordia]

Not that firm, but with John McCabe. He was my first really good SR cutter back when he was at Dege, and I had him do a few things after he moved to Kilgour. If you like that very traditional SR style (which works equally well on either side of the Atlantic), then I would suppose that he's worth calling. Don't know exactly why he left Kilgour, but there were a bunch of other good guys who decamped at the same time.

In addition, if their non-London bespoke is anything like Kilgour's defunct Shanghai program, that could also be worth a try. If I read it correctly, they do all the cutting and trimming in London, and instead of sending it to Soho for the many hours of tailoring, they ship it to their factory in India. Measuring and fitting is done in London, so except for potential communication glitches you're getting much the same product.

[Badden]

It's worth noting that they use the very same Indian tailors promoted by Thomas Mahon for his upcoming MTM line.