I can only speak of my own relationship over several years (so far) with Henry Poole. One three-piece suit, one suit jacket, and two tweed odd jackets. I came there introduced by former member Collarmelton, having too recently paid the price for falling for the internet rep of a "Savile Row master tailor" whose name rhymes with barren demon. The MD and head cutter Philip Parker treated me very well, and made it clear he was out to restore my faith in the integrity of the Row. The resulting first suit (two of the three pieces) is visible in
this thread along with comments on the several small things I asked to have adjusted in subsequent jackets. A successful first suit, I still think, especially given the limited guidance I was able to provide.
As I became more knowledgeable and better able to articulate my preferences, these have always been observed. There have been a couple of inexplicable slip-ups (odd sleeve length, etc.) that had to be corrected, but these were clearly the result of communications hitches among the different workers that didn't get caught in the quality control process rather than any resistance to my requests--and the slips were clearly as aggravating to the cutter as to me, and they were corrected without question or fuss. I made it a point to be respectful and to become friendly with everyone in the process that I could--guv'nor Simon Cundey, my cutters (Mr. Parker and subsequently Alex Cooke), various strikers, and the coatmaker, who was out for a while with a knee replacement. At the same time, thanks to knowledge gained here and from my more experienced friends, I was able to become quite specific in my requests and evaluations of fittings. Alex once said that he really enjoyed cutting for a customer who noticed details of fit, both to express sincere appreciation of things well executed and to give them a chance to adjust things if necessary through several fittings to achieve their best work. He said too many of their customers just wanted the suits quickly and didn't really know or care how they looked. "They might as well go down the street to Syms and save themselves a lot of money," he said (this was at a New York fitting rather than one of my London trips). It's true I never asked them to depart
drastically from their basic style, but slightly more open quarters, slightly shorter skirt, hip pocket type and placement, button point, degree of rear drape, sleeve head treatment, lapel width and roll, trouser pleat depth, and other details were all varied at my request without any fuss. Of course, I discussed all these things with the cutter and explained my reasoning, and often benefited from his comments and suggestions as we arrived at a conclusion. The first suit also had really beautiful and quite finely stitched buttonholes, which I praised--and from that moment they always specified the specific finisher whose buttonhole stitching was the best available to them for subsequent orders. And on one occasion Alex ripped down and resewed the shoulder and neck seams on a finished jacket at his own insistence to improve the lay and height of the collar on my figuration after a "final" fit check in the hotel, re-pressed the jacket himself and let me return to the city two days later to collect it.
I should say that I made it clear very early on that while I valued and admired the requisite skill, workmanship, and fit of SR bespoke clothes (having had my first, a beautiful blazer, cut in the early '80s by John Kent at the old Hawes & Curtis), my means would never allow me to be a high-volume customer. As far as I can tell, that has never yet had a negative effect on how I've been treated. And now that I think of it, that first blazer that John cut for me, which served me for over twenty years until I couldn't fit in the shoulders any more, was another example of the kind of treatment one would want as a novice--I didn't know enough to say much more than that I wanted three buttons and a definite springy roll to the lapel. And he gave me a beautifully proportioned, classic, perfectly fitted garment (also with lovely sewing) with two fittings after the measuring-up appointment, all during a twelve-day stay in London (scheduled in advance).
I also should point out that a few years back, a friend of mine's finished suit was being shipped from Poole and ended up on a plane that happened to be at Heathrow during the transatlantic flight bomb scare. The airport was essentially turned upside down and the parcel never found. Poole simply remade the suit at their own expense, even though the loss was no fault of theirs. Granted, my friend was a regular customer--but still, that was handsomely done. It would be a much bigger loss for an independent tailor to swallow.
I'll conclude by saying that my intention in these comments is not to promote a particular firm or be a SR chauvinist, but simply to illustrate that it is still possible, at least in my experience, to develop a good working relationship in the larger firms. It's probably true that with several people working in the process (even when a customer is assigned the same cutter and coatmaker each time, as I've been) there's more room for slip-ups, but I've had both a quality-control issue and a misunderstood specification at Steed too (both were well and amicably corrected) so it can happen anywhere. After all, these are humans, not computers. No customer should be treated badly, or be intimidated out of standing up for his due. But I've found that offering praise when good work is done under difficult circumstances, inquiring after health and family, and buying the odd drink after a long day--along with the kind of knowledgeable interest so ably advocated by Michael--helps things go better for all parties concerned.
What a story that was. I remember trying to warn a boatload of people who got taken for a boatload of $$$$. 