Where to Buy Affordable Custom-Tailored Clothing?
15 Comments Published by Joel September 27th, 2006 in Clothes. Share This
I have a dark secret: I’ve never had a piece of clothing custom-tailored in my life. Sure, I’ve had a few pants cuffed here and there, but when I was younger and dressing up almost daily between church and work I didn’t have the scratch to afford it; Now that I could (possibly) afford it, I don’t really have a pressing need. (That said, I do often dress up for parties and meetings.)
What I’m saying is that several of you have asked me for advice on getting custom-cut clothing, but beyond recommending a few basic things like “Find and fawn over your local tailoring alterations shop,” I’m pretty much useless on this one.
What little I do know about bespoke suits and shirts comes from reading English Cut, the fantastic blog of Savile Row tailor Thomas Mahon [pictured], whose suits have been an object of lust for many, myself included. His post about the differences between non-bespoke suits is a great place to start.
Until I have four grand burning a hole in my (shabbily-cut) pocket, I don’t think I’ll be getting a bespoke suit from Mahon. But I might be able to afford a nice shirt or two. Any suggestions? Can a decent shirt be ordered online or is an in-person consultation a must?
15 Responses to “Where to Buy Affordable Custom-Tailored Clothing?”
- 1 Trackback on Sep 28th, 2006 at 2:43 am
I’ve got one piece of made-to-measure clothing…a shirt I got a few years ago from The Custom Shop. I don’t know if that’s the sort of thing you’re thinking about, but I suspect it’s close. For me, getting measured and fitted for the shirt was part of the experience, and for that reason alone the visit to the shop was worth it.
I’ve got three custom suits made by an obese polish family outside of warsaw. They’re incredible – i brought in a picture of sean connery as bond wearing a vest ensemble and they copied it exactly – and they charge about $300. If you’re in Europe – aren’t we all? – drop me a line at crunchgear burp gmail dot com and I can help you out. otherwise, new york’s chinatown has about 500 little tailors that can make you bespoke for considerably more.
In Michigan we have a chain called “Men’s Warehouse” that’ll customize your $300 suit to you. (Side note: I will *never* get used to that inseam measurement – ick!) But if you scope out a men’s suit store, you can get a recommendation for a good tailor. Some of them will make you whatever you want out of what they have there.
As a person who does computer support for many well-to-do executives, I can relay that most of them do not like custom-sized clothing. Even as guys, our bodies change sizes throughout the month. Anything made “just so” on the 8th may be too snug on the 23rd. And reverse. The most important element is that it be comfortable.
My friend spent the summer in Vietnam. She found that custom suits are amazingly cheap there. My best man and I went into a hugely expensive suit shop in downtown San Francisco and had them take all of our measurements (for free). We then converted them to metric and emailed the measurements to said friend in Vietnam. For $80 each, we got custom tailored wool tuxedos, with two pairs of pants (one with a stripe, one without), two french cuffed shirts (one with ruffles, one without), a vest, and a jacket. Mind you, she splurged for the higher quality more expensive wool, we could have gotten them for even cheaper. All that for $80!! I couldn’t believe it. Everything fit relatively nicely, and for the price of renting a tux, I now own one. I don’t know how useful this is for folks that aren’t traveling to South East Asia, but if you are, this was a huge find!
You can get your measurements taken and email them to Thailand and shoose a style from the web and get a suit for about $250.
Custom fitted and tailored clothing is awesome. Granted I have a job where I can actually show up to work in a t-shirt from my huge t-shirt collection and jeans and sneakers (being an IT Manager means casual Friday everyday), I still have a few suits that I picked up while I was traveling in Asia. They are leaps and bounds better than the ones you buy from a store or even Men’s Warehouse, who just custom fit pre-fab suits. Try the closest Chinatown to your area and chances are you’ll be able to find a decent tailor who can make any suit for ya, just remember to bring pictures of what you want from multiple angles. If the tailor asks you to cough while he’s measuring your inseam, however, run the fuck out the door lol.
Okay, so where are these cheap Thailand- and Vietnam-based shops? I want to give them some business!
Getting your measurements taken in the USA, like the gentleman did in San Francisco is the best thing to do, then my recommendation is to contect tailors in Hong Kong and send them your measurements.
Last time I was in Hong Kong – March 2006, I saw ads that said the following:
Buy a custom tailored 3 pc all silk suit, and the tailor will throw in 2 custom shirts, and 2 silk ties, all will be complete in 8 hours and delivered to your hotel for $99 US. They would also mail these suits to you if you were not going to be there for 8 hours..and I trust this price would have been quite affordable. I saw most of the tailors in the Kowloon area, the English speaking area, near Tsim Tsa Tsui.
I got 2 suits, 4 silk shirts, 4 silk ties, and a pair of leather shoes for less than $400 US. And, again, they are 100% silk and quite beautiful, actually.
When I think of “custom tailoring” I think more along the lines of what Scott mentions… basically, starting with complete measurements for shirts, slacks, suit coats, etc., choosing fabrics and specific designs for collars, cuffs, and fit styles. In the US, custom tailoring often means “buy something off the rack and we’ll fit it to you… assuming you don’t have a shape like Snuffalupagus.
For a lot of people, custom tailoring means going to a place like Brooks Brothers or Nordstroms or other big retailer, I’m not really a big fan of those places.
For several years now, I’ve been a customer at Judd Frost Clothiers (http://www.juddfrost.com) in Wayzata (pronounced: Wye-zetta), Minnesota. While they don’t give you the $99. treatment Scott mentions, the fit and finish of their custom clothes is fantastic. Of course you can buy stuff off the rack, too, but the custom-made stuff is worth the money.
I recently bought 5 custom dress shirts, several ties, and a couple casual shirts (off the rack). I spend a few hundred bucks on the lot. I’ve purchased several pairs of slacks, a few suits, and various other things (like brass collar stays and their cool springy cufflinks) there to compliment the wardrobe.
Yes, I *prefer* to save money and buy clothes off the rack. But if I had to decide which clothes I am MOST comfortable in, I’d bypass the jeans and teeshirt and go straight for the tailored suits and shirts.
Judd Frost Clothiers: http://www.juddfrost.com
Tailoring costs range between $3 (for shirts) to $50 (for a full suit). It may actually be cheaper in smaller towns. Material cost is yours. So the next time you make a trip ot India. You know what to carry with you…
I bought about six suits when I was last in Vietnam. My lesson is to ask to see the best fabrics as the stuff in the front of the store pilled very quickly for me. The other thing to make sure that you get is the stiffening material in the jacket. If you don’t, the lapels never stay folded over and it looks plain crap.
Also be prepared for your buttons to fall of after a few washes (for shirts) and check for iron burns in good light before you pay.
Overall, the quality is reasonable, but I think that once you find a master tailor in Vietnam, remember to look after him and make sure that he can send new suiting to you if you send new details.
I’ve been meaning to send over an older suit of mine that I really like to get a replica made, but I didn’t find the master tailor…
Dan
I miss the days with Connery as James Bond. So what is Sean up to these days?
I too just got about 5 suits and 12 shirts done up in Thailand. Still lasting till now and fitting great! To answer your question, the shop that I used was a Crown Tailors in Sukhumvit soi 8. Got their website here if needbe, http://www.crowntailor.com. Nice folks and nice choice of material. Whenever in LOS again I will get more clothes from them.
Old topic, I know, but if you are getting measurements taken to send out of country, should they be taken in metric?