The Tailored jacket

[Guest]

Dear The London Lounge,
I am currently studying for a MA in the techniques of the tailored jacket. It is a requirement of this course to write a paper for my contextual studies module and I have decided to investigate how we value the tailored jacket. My working title for this is currently ‘is it fair to compare the Savile Row jacket to the ready made.’ It would be interesting to hear anyone’s thoughts on this subject?

Regards
Tim

[Guest]

Certainly it is fair to compare SOME RTW jackets to those of Savile Row, for they are, at least in theory, competing for the same money -- you will find written on LL and elsewhere the relative merits of Bespoke vs. RTW and its variant, Made to Measure. There are jackets made by the likes of Kiton, Brioni, Oxxford, and a few others that may be as or more expensive at full retail price than a comparable jacket from many or most bespoke purveyors. Of course, these RTW manufacturers represent a small percentage of the revenues generated by the entire RTW industry, and a far smaller percentage of the unit production.

So, what 'comparisons' are you interested in making? Fit, quality, purchase process, customer set, and reasons for purchase are a few I can think of off the top of my head.