The London Lounge

Hello everyone. This is an exercise thread.

I want you experts on bespoke to help me. Imagine you see someone (in the street, for example) who you don’t know at all and given the circumstances you are not going to talk with that person. You notice whiles looking at that person that he is wearing quite a peculiar jacket or suit, one that looks really good. Really good as in the level of bespoke. But as you don’t know that person you can’t ask him whether it is bespoke. Ok, the question is: How do you prove to yourself that it is bespoke just by pure observation? What are the visual aspects that distinguish a bespoke garment from a non-bespoke (either MTM or RTW)?

Please, limit yourself to the visual aspects of the jacket and the specific details that may lead you into proving it is bespoke just by pure observation. Also please, don’t use the kind of phrases such as “it fits better”, “it is of better quality” or “it is made by floating canvass”, just explain why those things happen to be true, proven by observation (i.e. the kind of thing I’m looking for is “look at the number of buttons on the sleeve, if it’s a very uncommon number, it probably indicates bespoke”, and by the way is this one actually a good reliable method?).

I believe there is only one way to tell: fit. Unusual materials, handwork, buttonholes, style details, and cut are all available from MTM or OTR suits.

It is easier to tell if the wearer is not of average build, yet the suit fits perfectly. So for a portly, tall, short, or muscular person, a suit built to fit them exactly will always be identifiable by the way it fits them closely in every spot yet is tight in none, the way it hides imperfections but accents attributes.

For a man of average build and stature, it would be hard for me to tell a high quality MTM or even expertly tailored OTR suit from a bespoke. And yet I know my tailor can spot a custom suit a mile away, so I suppose it just takes an attuned eye. I usually look at the collar and shoulders of the jacket to judge the fit.

Bespoke is quite easy to spot, in my opinion.

The shoulders, angle and height of the lapels, long lapel hole, the out breast welt pocket normally stands a little 'thicker' at the ends from being turned in, because of the machine finishing, or hand finishing to the welt in my case!

The jetts on the pockets are also smooth, as opposed to being 'ribbed', hand button holes can be spotted at 20 paces, and if you have good eyes, the inlays at shoulder and front scye can just be seen as a slight impression under the cloth.

I could go on, but these are easy to see pointers.

www.desmerrionbespoketailor.com

And of course a lot of people mistake Bespoken with Made to measure..

Sir Royston wrote:And of course a lot of people mistake Bespoken with Made to measure..

To the delight of MTM-wearing gents such as myself!

I look first at the breast pocket. I look for the location on the chest, the shape and the way it is sewn and finished. If you observe enough jackets you will see many differences among tailors and RTW. The breast pocket is a distinctive signature and tells much about how thoughtful the maker is. I then look how the sleeves are set into the jacket and look at how clean or the back of the jacket lies. I then look for hand finishing details in less obvious places such as bar tacks on the sleeve vent or on the corners of besom pockets, half moons at the end of pocket pipes, hand picking on the edge of vents etc..