Things you wish you knew on first visit with Tailor

[zeitgeist]

As a general strategy, it's good to put yourself in a position where you want exactly what your tailor wants to give you. If the tailor has a distinct house style, make certain that it's the style that appeals most to you. Be honest with yourself. We're all aware of the new bride who is deeply in love with her husband but wants to change everything about him. This ends in tears.

The rest of this is good advice, but I would like to offer a somewhat tangential opinion on this.

I will split the sartorial world into 2 spheres for ease of discussion, a oversimplification, but a necessary one.

On one hand we have the 'Western' tailors who come from a strong sartorial tradition. They have house styles that have developed as part of these sartorial traditions, and these house styles are quite fixed. In many tailoring houses, the cutter is your 'style consultant', while in some your style consultant is a fellow who is completely separate from but totally sympathetic to the tailoring process (e.g. Mariano Rubinacci). In these situations the above advice holds true.

Where it begins to fall down is when you encounter an 'Eastern' tailor, as exemplified by most of the better HK tailors. They often pride themselves on their stylistic flexibility, and the person fitting you more often than not has zero to do with the actual cutting/tailoring, except to make your wishes crystal to the tradesmen who work the backrooms. Many of these establishments do not have long sartorial traditions, and their house styles are often the most inoffensive imaginable suits with little to no 'distinguishing' features.

In the former scenario, you are guaranteed a minimum (but still high) standard of satisfaction assuming you have chosen a house style congruent with your tastes. In the latter scenario, IMO you most often emerge advantaged by knowing precisely what you want, and more importantly - being able to articulate what you want in precise terms, while a house style suit would likely be an exercise in how to create a maximally 'safe'/inoffensive suit.

Just my 0.02.

[Simon A]

There are Eastern Tailors and Eastern Tailors.............

The better Hong Kong tailors are mostly from Shanghai, and many of their ancestors were from the British Treaty Port of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province. In some cases their families have been in this trade since not long after the First Opium War of the 1840's. So it would be reasonable to say they have followed more than a few trends over the centuries...

Given that Hong Kong is a fairly international jurisdiction, tailors have found that flexibility is more profitable than resolutely sticking to a house style (although of course they all have their own preferences to which they will veer unless instructed otherwise), in order to keep their customers happy. Given narrow margins and a small domestic market (only 7 million people, more than half of whom earn less than USD$1200 a month), they need to be accommodating to survive.

[Costi]

I agree with Simon in many ways except in one specific aspect. Whilst I do not disagree with the conclusion, I think one needs to get there on one's own after experimenting with whatever strikes one's fancy at any given moment. The process of discovery and evolution is, to me, a big part of the enjoyment.

s

That is very true, especially when someone tries to pass on unsolicited advice to "save" others from making "mistakes". However, when a person asks for guidance, I expect they don't want to hear "do as you please and learn from your mistakes" (although perhaps that is often the best advice, indeed).
But I do agree that, while early advice may save some money, it does not have the same value as one's own experience.

[old henry]

. Go with plain cloth. Your tailor will be dialing in your body, making all kinds of slight adjustments, don't make him deal with a complicated pattern on top of everything else (though a good tailor won't ever complain about this if you do).

I dont know who this Brown fella is , but everything he says is "Bang On" .
If your tailor is a Bench tailor , go t the ends of the earth to show him respect. You can never fully know what he does for you. Shattuck.

[shredder]

I agree with Simon in many ways except in one specific aspect. Whilst I do not disagree with the conclusion, I think one needs to get there on one's own after experimenting with whatever strikes one's fancy at any given moment. The process of discovery and evolution is, to me, a big part of the enjoyment.

s

That is very true, especially when someone tries to pass on unsolicited advice to "save" others from making "mistakes". However, when a person asks for guidance, I expect they don't want to hear "do as you please and learn from your mistakes" (although perhaps that is often the best advice, indeed).
But I do agree that, while early advice may save some money, it does not have the same value as one's own experience.

Yet, I never mentioned anything about mistakes.

[Costi]

Yet, I never mentioned anything about mistakes.

Indeed, fanciful experiments only become "mistakes" when you come to regret them....

[ismailalmurtadza]

Would it safe time and money to go straight to a very exprience(wellknown) tailor?

Murtadza

[Costi]

Would it safe time and money to go straight to a very exprience(wellknown) tailor?

Murtadza

Not necessarily, I think. It is not about the tailor's experience, but the customer's. A tailor will deliver what you ask for. He may also advise, but he needn't be famous to do that well and, if the customer doesn't listen, it is in vain anyway.
What MAY save time and money is a good imagination: the ability to "make" a few fanciful suits in your mind, "see" yourself wearing them and relegate them to the Red Cross bins of Dreamland before actually commissioning them. But most of us don't have that power or won't trust our intuition until we see the garments made... when it is too late, of course

[J.S. Groot]

I haven't had the pleasure of bespeaking a suit as of yet, but from my (relative limited) experience with bespoke shirt- and hat making, my best advice is: Ask! This forum is a great educational and inspirational source stacked with extremely knowledgeable members. The downside for inexperienced bespeakers is that the discussions can sometimes be lofty. Don't be intimidated by the fact that you don't know all the technical terms or that you can't spot a hand sewn buttonhole. All things in good time. You're still entitled to ask all the questions you can think of; just use your standard language. Chances are that your tailor heard similar ramblings before and that he might just be capable of identifying what "Can you make thingy shorter and raise that thingy a bit?" means.