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Cost of tailoring a suit at a top tailor? $300?

post #1 of 11
11/9/12 at 6:03pm
Thread Starter 
I have been bringing all of my SF purchases to Centofani tailors (I know, Joe is gone, Luigi takes care of me). I have brought them lots of high dollar stuff such as Tom Ford and Kiton but I had not been there in a year or so. They do a pretty good job and understand pickiness and will keep working at it in order to get is right if that means deconstructing the jacket and re-constructing it.

I recently bought two NWT Borrelli suits and brought them to Centofani for tailoring. Just hem the pant and adjust the sleeves as well as even the shoulders, tuck the body, and put in working button cuffs (machine not hand--hand would have cost more).

I went to pick them up today and the bill come to over six bills! I remember Centofani being pricy, but not $300+ to perform some minor adjustments on a suit.

Is this pricing out of line or is this on par with a top tailor who usually makes bespoke suits? If this is a good price for top tier work--I'm happy to pay for it. However, it seems marked up 100%.

Should I look for a new tailor in the future (these are already sunk cost) or am out of line?
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post #2 of 11
11/9/12 at 7:49pm
Did you get a breakdown? Hard to judge otherwise.
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post #3 of 11
11/9/12 at 8:13pm

I used them years ago to alter a series of suits I inherited. They did very good work, but I don't recall the price. Since the suits were otherwise free, I got some very nice outfits for the cost of tailoring. I remember the person who recommended them said it would be a lot more than taking the work to others.

 

More recently reading the posts here, I realize that alterations that seem similar to me could have involved much more drastic work, taking jackets apart, in effect rebuilding the suits. You can always ask the cost once they are  done deciding what they need to do. Since these guys make suits, to a very high level of craftmanship, they might very well do alterations that others would not attempt. And charge accordingly.

 

Remember, you are paying for the same skills that would make a bespoke suit for you, and at the same labor costs. For routine alterations, it may not be worth it. But if you are as picky as your post implies, then where else are you going to go?

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post #4 of 11
11/9/12 at 10:18pm
The price sounds about right for top tier work. I would guess this is the breakdown.

Sleeves - $20-30
Pants Hem - $20
Buttonholes - $10 per =$80 (handmade is $20)
Shoulders - $80-100
Body - $80-100

Shoulders and body work cost a lot from my experience.
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post #5 of 11
11/9/12 at 10:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fraiche View Post

The price sounds about right for top tier work. I would guess this is the breakdown.
Sleeves - $20-30
Pants Hem - $20
Buttonholes - $10 per =$80 (handmade is $20)
Shoulders - $80-100
Body - $80-100
Shoulders and body work cost a lot from my experience.

this seems right. Body work cost a lot more, and 10 per functional buttonhole looks right to me.

My tailor tole me some shoulder work require them to uninstall the sleeves and to put it back. This single process probably cost 50 itself.

Btw, it cost more to alter a high end men's suit than a cheap suit even for the same job. Because the tailors need to spend extra time to match the original handwork (for example, center vent).

300 is price, i'd say in other places it would cost 150-200
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post #6 of 11
11/9/12 at 10:47pm
my idea of avoiding high tailoring cost

find a suit require less work around the shoulder and back. To make a jacket slim is not expensive.

Functional button cost about 50-80 machinemade, i sometimes just let them to sew the button even without buttonhole.

I'm so lucky I have a tailor does functional handmade buttonhole 10$ a pop. icon_gu_b_slayer[1].gificon_gu_b_slayer[1].gif
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post #7 of 11
11/13/12 at 9:13am
Thread Starter 
Here is the ticket. Sorry it is rather hard to read.

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post #8 of 11
11/13/12 at 9:53am
^

If the work is good, that's about market price. I get raped for about the same.

I look at it as hourly wage for a skilled worker to ease my pain.
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post #9 of 11
11/13/12 at 10:42am
That's about right.
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post #10 of 11
11/13/12 at 1:20pm
Thread Starter 
Cool. Just needed a sanity check.
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post #11 of 11
11/14/12 at 5:30am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jones12 View Post

From what I've seen, a really good tailor can set you back about $500 to $1000 for a tailored suit.

Huh? A good tailor will set you back $3-$10k for a bespoke suit. Centofani is a bespoke suit maker but we are not talking about that. We are talking about tailoring OTR suits.
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