spoon tailor -hong kong bespoke operation in San Francisco - Page 10

Hey otheme.. love the double breasted.. looks very sleek.. I live in the central valley after relocating from the east coast and have been looking for a decent made to measure close enough where Walnut Creek is only 2 hours away. My question is do they expect full payment up front or is it half upfront and the rest at the end? Is there a contact number where I can ask more specific questions as well?

Hey Ultramantaro,

I apologize if my post offended you. I was trying to make a point that getting a tailored suit is very different from purchasing a RTW suit, in terms of the underlying business model. When one buys a RTW suit, he's buying a product, the price of which largely depends on the material and labor cost. When one gets a tailored suit, he's buying a service, and the price would depend on the service quality. What difference does that make, you may ask. Well, the difference is in the way I pay for them. If I'm buying a product, I want absolutely the cheapest price for the same quality. But when I'm buying a service that I like, I will not nickle and dime, and sometimes even pay more than the typical customers -- this way, they give me their attention, and that little extra $$ goes a long, long way. (Esquire has a great story on this: http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0303-MAR_20DOLLARS)

And as many of us already know, the quality of needle work coming out of Asia is not necessarily worse than that out of Europe or US, while its cost is much lower. So, yes, when a tailor uses the cheap labor from China, he has a higher profit margin. But that is a good thing -- the tailor would have more profit head room to spend time fitting me and do more rounds of alterations without having to worry losing money on me. So, for guys like you and me, the cheaper the labor they can find (assuming the same quality), the better service we will get.

You pay half when you place the order, and other half when you take it home. Their number is (415) 398-0788

Does anyone have prices? Do they do alterations on OTR suits and so forth? I'd like to know how much they charge without asking them b/c most tailors always say, "it depends on the fabric...cut..etc etc


Cheers

Prices have been covered earlier in the thread, and of course it depends on the fabric. They do not perform alterations on OTR suits.

Just got my first test shirt done. Here's some photos post wash and ironing:











At the waistline, it could've used maybe a narrower taper to avoid the bunching you see going on. Along the upper chest beneath the neck between the shoulders, there's some pulling, creating a bit of a crescent in the fabric that could be addressed. Overall, not a bad job for a first shirt and I've ordered some more with Spoon, this time with linen fabric. Took about three weeks to turnaround. Cost is $103.08/shirt for their basic fabrics. There's a 10-percent discount if you order 5 or more.

Thanks to everyone in this thread for posting about their experiences that encouraged me to give them a try.

^ switching to a grey undershirt might be wise.

Pretty good for a first order. You can use a pin to reduce the waist and lower back by 1.5-2 inches and see how it looks/feels. Also, looks like you could use a higher arm hole and smaller upper-arm girth.

In addition to the comments above, I'm not sure they really nailed your shoulder pitch. I'd ask Andrew what he would suggest to reduce the wrinkling across your upper chest.

 

 

One of the things that annoyed me about my shirt that I see in yours is that the collar is just too wide. Unless you tell them otherwise, the default length is 3 inches, which looks really awkward in my opinion. 

 

Nah. That width looks fine to my eye, although it would help to see it while he's wearing a jacket.

Did you specify the collar length?

 

 

No, it didn't occur to me, so I'm not totally blaming them. I don't remember it being brought up when I was picking out collars though. It just surprised me when I got it because the collars on all my other shirts range from 1.75" to 2.5".

ThomasPaine, you want the chest area to look as clean as this.

You can bring it back and have everything fix for no extra charge. Spoon Tailor wants to make a great first dress shirt for you.

I have a hard enough time finding white undershirts that I like which are long enough to stay tucked in for me, let alone grey ones. I only wear white dress shirts with a suit though, so I'm not overly concerned about this. I'm sure it bugs others much more than me.

I'm actually going back to Spoon on Saturday to make adjustments. Agreed on the lower back, waist and upper-arm girth. Not totally sure I want to make the armhole smaller though -- I worry about going too aggressive there.

Yup, that's on the topics to discuss this weekend with them. I'd be interested to see if anything can be done on this shirt itself or if that would require a remake.

I see your point about collar width, but as another poster pointed out, when I put on my jacket it looks fine. I'd rather err on the side of having longer collar points than shorter. Still though, I can see the benefit of perhaps a narrower spread.

If this shirt is adjusted/remade, then I'll post some follow-up shots. Thanks for the constructive feedback everyone. Much appreciated.