Alton Lane - Page 2

Anyone else? At a 500 dollar price point for basically a bespoke suit its hard to say no.

I got one. Good, not great. You can probably do better off the rack, though I'm a SW&D guy and thus my suit experience is pretty limited. Their construction's done in Thailand, jackets are partially canvassed (to my recollection), and their cut's relatively conservative given the demo to which they're marketing. Not a terrible suit by any stretch, but my mind wasn't blown.

The thing that burned me was their tailoring policy. You go in and get measured in their laser booth and then they do a couple hand measurements and send these off to their tailors, along with your preferences for fabric, lapel, etc. (Make no mistake: this is not a bespoke suit, just MTM with a couple binary choices thrown in.) When the thing comes back, if anything's wrong with the fit they take you to their NYC tailor (a guy in a dry cleaners on 23rd St) and he'll help you correct it. Thing is, you pay for that part of it on top of the price you've already paid for the suit up front. They'll "refund" 110% of that cost to you in store credit on a followup purchase. There's a cap on what they'll refund, too; something like $100. I had to go through this and didn't feel like it was a policy that was communicated real well up front so it left a bad taste in my mouth and I don't think I'll be a repeat customer, regardless of what credit I might have with them.

Ah thanks mate. Can you provide some pictures? Im a fairly slim guy so I was hoping for a place I could buy a slim suit

I'm afraid not. I've only worn it once and didn't get any illustrative shots. I'm sure you could get it tailored to be as slim as you like, but it'd take some work and wouldn't really follow their house cut.

Sounds like their suits are pretty conservative cut. Sigh, the search continues.

So I went to that appointment, got measured, ordered a few pieces and picked them up. Without further ado, my impressions: Shirts The shirts are a bit weird. They seem to use the same fabrics everyone else does, but I was not aware that they construct their shirts double ply when I placed my order. They said that this is is done because their customers complained of having to wear undershirts, and with double ply shirts it's (apparently) not necessary. That said, the shirts look stiff and of much heavier cloth than I am used to. I guess this might be popular with the preppy crowd, but I am in a profession with a bunch of old dudes at the top, and lighter shirts still seem equated with quality. Also, the cuff openings are too wide. Big, gaping chasms of cuffs. Not so it looks weird, but again, more preppy than white collar. The shirts were cut well, however. I went with the slim fit and they did a good job. I'm a bit conflicted because they cost about half as much as they do at my usual tailor, but I'm not entirely satisfied for the aforementioned reasons. I will probably stick with my old guy. Slacks The pants were cut and constructed well. I had asked for a high waist because I got the impression that they were trying for a trendy crowd. I'm glad I did, because the waist sits about where it does on an old H&M suit I've got, which is to say as low as you can really go in a professional environment. They have buttons for suspenders but I don't know what the hell you'd do with them, since you'd look kind of silly wearing suspenders with low rise pants. The staff was amenable to changes though, and I imagine that if you specified that you intended to wear slacks with suspenders, they'd be able to put the waist in the right place. That said, the fit is good, the lines are good and the construction seems sound. And again, because I had asked for a higher waist, they do sit at the right place w/o suspenders. Jacket Looks good, cut well. I had opted for the slimmer cut and they obliged. One of the better-fitting pieces I own. Has an abnormally high number of pockets in the lining, but I don't see that as a problem. They don't add any bulk. Otherwise, construction is solid. Compares with other MTM/bespoke items I have, but substantially less expensive. Conclusion I echo the above poster (dougie) who said, "good, not great." The shirts were not what I had hoped for, but the suit and slacks fit well (I can never get OTR suits to fit quite right even with tailoring), and construction and materials seem all-around solid. I will probably go back for pants/jackets/suits, but not shirts.

and you, sunror, are a dick.

A friend of mine got a suit made up from AL, I went along to check it out. The fitting experience was pretty nice and went well. The fabric choices were varied. the entry level ones at $500 were what you'd expect, and then there were some from some quality mills, but the prices were not worth it for the suit you would get. Id also note that they do not have a functioning boutonniere hole on the lapel, which to me is a huge error, one that I hope they will fix. They simply stitch over the lapel in the shape of a button hole (but even a boutonniere hole should not be in that shape). However, my friend said the pants fit well and are comfortable to wear. The jacket from the factory fit pretty well for a first attempt, except for the sleeves, which were far too short and I believe Alton Lane said they will remake the jacket. Give the pic below a look.

My Alton Lane suit did not fit at all. You can search my other posts where I do go into a bit more detail. It was a very bad experience and complete waste of my time and money. 

you only have 2 posts and both are bashing Alton lane.

wish I had the ability to read some reviews about AL when I bought my suit, but alas there were almost no reviews anywhere at the time. I also posted to my account on Yelp, but I'm more active there. If you want to risk it, I say go ahead but it was a total disaster and was the worst retail experience I've had in a long time. I live in Manhattan and wear a suit to work every day and Alton Lane came highly recommended at my workplace. But this place is more sizzle than steak. That's for sure.