Row House Style For Er..Short / Rotund?

[Guest]

Sorry if this topic has been covered previously, but I am just about ready (financially, at least) for my first bespoke suit. I would like to try out a Savile Row tailor but there are so many to choose from! Can anyone kindly point me in the right direction as to which house style would be best 'suited' to the shorter, rounder man? Thanks in advance guys.

[Guest]

Choose the one the that cuts a coat that fits you the best.

A bespoke coat should fit you, not you the coat. You are still thinking about which coat YOU will fit. That is a bit of RTW mentality that should be thrown out the window.

Sator

[Guest]

Choose the one the that cuts a coat that fits you the best.

A bespoke coat should fit you, not you the coat. You are still thinking about which coat YOU will fit. That is a bit of RTW mentality that should be thrown out the window.

Sator

I am not sure that this is a particularly helpful response. Fit is important but surely there are very few men who would look great in a suit that fits like a glove. Is not silhouette important? I accept that a good cutter should be able to make a coat that both fits and flatters and that this process should transcend "house style".

[Guest]

Fit does not equate to tightness. In fact, excessive tightness is an example of poor fit.

The thing that flatters most is good fit. Concentrate on that first and foremost. For a stout waist that means the execution of a good corpulent cut. So if you are stout of waist, the best fit means the best executed corpulent cut. This internet forum nonsense about the cookie cutter "house cut" approach should be thrown out the window.

Sator

[Guest]

Let me elaborate a little more.

A corpulent cut involves a little more advanced pattern manipulation beyond the default cutting system that results in a "house style". Such pattern manipulation actually involves a significant deviation from the "house style". Corpulence is a deviation from the proportionate ideal that the default cut is based on. Here the cookie cutter fails.

Given that everyone has "deformities" that deviate from the proportionate man, means that the only producers of a plain "house style" are RTW factories. Bespoke is thus all about moving away from "house styles".

If you look at this thread:

http://thelondonlounge.net/gl/forum/vie ... php?t=8227

I think it beautifully shows how choosing a tailor based upon "house style" is a complete dead end. There seems to be endless internet forum chatter about which "house style will suit me best". However, what really matters infinitely more is finding a cutter and tailor able to make a coat that really does fit. That is hard enough as it is for someone who is quite proportionate and balanced. If there are significant disproportions/deviations from the proportionate build (such as corpulence) the challenge to the cutter is all the greater.

With that I would say: find the very best cutter you can and forget this "house style" nonsense.

[Guest]

If I had a vast fortune then by trial and error I could 'find' the best fitter..Surely the only thing that sets Huntsman apart from Gieves and Boateng et al is an individual style, otherwise I should just be able to walk into ANY tailorshop on the row and get an identical result. I could go to a good cutter and get a rubber gimp suit to fit me, but would that look good? I read that Anderson likes to make a longer coat for example, and this I'm sure wouldn't suit my short frame. Boateng's suits seem to look better on tall, athletic types; are you saying the cutter he employs isnt any good?

[Guest]

I could go to a good cutter and get a rubber gimp suit to fit me, but would that look good?

The answer to this must surely depend on: the time, the place, the company and the particular activities to be engaged in.
NJS

[Guest]

I could go to a good cutter and get a rubber gimp suit to fit me, but would that look good?

The answer to this must surely depend on: the time, the place, the company and the particular activities to be engaged in.
NJS

I can assure you my friend, that even as 'Sheila' on Wednesday nights at my local S+M club, the light is never right no matter who the cutter.

[Guest]

I could go to a good cutter and get a rubber gimp suit to fit me, but would that look good?

The answer to this must surely depend on: the time, the place, the company and the particular activities to be engaged in.
NJS

I can assure you my friend, that even as 'Sheila' on Wednesday nights at my local S+M club, the light is never right no matter who the cutter.

Maybe, you should opt for the moulding-on approach Seriously, though, I think that pattern selection is important here too. Thick, widely-spaced chalk stripes or big checks are probably going to accentuate avoirdupois whereas thin pinstripes on a dark ground might elongate and give the illusion of greater slenderness. Plain, dark colours will probably be better than plain light colours and so on.
NJS

[Guest]

1) The coat: In case you choose a fabric with a pattern like a pinstripe and there is a bit more cloth needed around the waist, make sure you get a coat where the pinstripes don't go inwards towards the neck, as that will stress the belly shape and you'll look like a barrel.

Rule for the coat length with arms in proportion, would to be able to grab the hem of the coat with the palm of your hands folded. Another rule is 1/2 of height minus 10 cm(4"), plus or minus the amount given by the posture( stooping or erect).
2) Trousers: Make sure the crotch is not hanging between your knees, as it may the coat look too short. A correct rise is essential for a clean appearance of the suit.
A good cutter will be able to give you a touch of tapered waist, even if there is none.
This in mind, and for other reasons, most of the traditional british patternsystems are no good for you, because they almost always have that (d)efect.
This is the already manipulated pattern for a belly size front part. As you can see, the pinstripe is absolutely vertical at the shoulders.

I doubt that A&S and alike will be able to change their style, but there must be more than one tailoring house on SR, where you can get that. You might have to spend a lot of time asking the cutters/ tailors before making a decision.
The cloth itself is of great importance. A heavier cloth (ca. 400 gr & more) with a good drape will suit you best, actually it will suit anybody best!
Avoid those flimsy 200 gr fabrics, they are difficult to work with and will most likely show any physical defect that might be present, unless you have it made into a body armour.

SG

[Guest]

John Hitchcock at A&S seems to have something of a knack for large guys' jackets. At the other extreme, you'll see a lot of rounder guys looking their best over at Kilgour. You could ask for John McCabe there, but some of the younger ones are also good. It really has more to do with how the tailor adapts with a quarter inch here and a dart there than any house style as such.

[Guest]

John Hitchcock at A&S seems to have something of a knack for large guys' jackets. At the other extreme, you'll see a lot of rounder guys looking their best over at Kilgour. You could ask for John McCabe there, but some of the younger ones are also good. It really has more to do with how the tailor adapts with a quarter inch here and a dart there than any house style as such.

--Concordia

[Guest]

It really has more to do with how the tailor adapts with a quarter inch here and a dart there than any house style as such.

SG has posted a typical corpulent cut. As you can see, there is a lot more to it than just 'a quarter inch here or a dart there'. It's quite a different cut. It is a lot harder to fit someone with any sort of anatomical deformity.

As for A&S, I am unsure if they are able to cut for a well proportioned client let alone anyone with disproportions:

http://thelondonlounge.net/gl/forum/vie ... php?t=8227

Sator

[Guest]

And yet I have seen and worn some excellent, flattering pieces that melt 15 pounds off every time I put them on. If your experience is different, then it is different. That is all.

[Guest]

If I had a vast fortune then by trial and error I could 'find' the best fitter..Surely the only thing that sets Huntsman apart from Gieves and Boateng et al is an individual style, otherwise I should just be able to walk into ANY tailorshop on the row and get an identical result.

Not true in the least bit, unless you are claiming that every bespoke tailor in the world uses the same cutting system. That is like saying that every architect in the world uses the same system for drafting, or that the apart from the outer cosmetic differences, a Mercedes and a BMW are identical.

The elements of tailoring that get discussed ad nauseam on internet fora deal mostly only with things that are to do with more cosmetic things such as coat length rather than more fundamental things such as how each system of cutting determines the basic structural balance of a coat.

When I say "find a good cutter" it means find one that will cut a coat with all the fundamentals of the structure there, and if still found lacking at the fitting, knows how to go about correcting them. After that you can alter minor fashion details such as length of coat.

Certainly there are cutters who specialise in cutting a sacky, draped coat. That basically involves a type of manipulation of the basic pattern. However, any such cutters are only so good in so far as they can cut you a basic balanced pattern.

Do not take it granted that the cutter will get the structural basics right, and that any cutter will do, as long his "house style" suits your taste. Getting the pattern right should not be the hit and miss affair exhibited by A&S, as it suggests that the fundamental balance of the coat is determined more by accident than by the excellence of their cutting system.

Sator