• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • We would like to welcome House of Huntington as an official Affiliate Vendor. Shop past season Drake's, Nigel Cabourn, Private White V.C. and other menswear luxury brands at exceptional prices below retail. Please visit the Houise of Huntington thread and welcome them to the forum.

  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

First time MTM buyer: Black Lapel vs Proper Suit vs Thick-as-Thieves vs other?

VinnyMac

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2012
Messages
1,865
Reaction score
144
You live in LA, so you can set up a meeting with the guy from Thick as Thieves to chat with him yourself. I've never ordered from him, but I considered it. I guess that I asked too many questions because the guy just flat out stopped responding, haha. That was years ago, but it's not a good sign. Now, I'm glad that I didn't order from him because I probably would have regretted buying a suit with that cut.
 

K to Wall St

Active Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2013
Messages
42
Reaction score
1
I was recently in a similar situation to you, and decided to go with ProperSuit. Maybe other's will disagree, but I think there is a big advantage to having an expert fit you in person. I had a fitting with them a few weeks ago, and we discussed aspects of the fit that I had never even thought of before (though I have to admit I haven't spent much time thinking about this stuff until recently). My suit has not arrived yet, but I've seen good reviews of the product and the value given its full-canvas. Never tried Black Lapel or TasT.

One more thing to consider... if you're not confident in exactly what you want, the guy fitting you will be a fairly reliable style guide. For example, I was deciding between a basic fabric and a more expensive one, and when he found out I would be using the suit for a lot of business travel, he nearly demanded that I get the less expensive fabric (because it has a lower super number, meaning it will wrinkle less). He also didn't even bother to ask me about notch or peak lapels, because "for a business suit in your industry, and with your body, peak lapels would be rediculous". When I asked about ticket pockets and slanted pockets, he gave a great description of their history and what the traditional best times to wear them would be (and what they "say").

If you want cheaper, you could also do one of Indochino's traveling tailor events to be measured in person, but I've seen more complaints about fit consistancy with Indochino and you cant trust them to give you style advise. But for $300 it might be worth it.
 

VinnyMac

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2012
Messages
1,865
Reaction score
144
If you are fitting perfectly in a BB Madison cut suit, I would just buy one. Any attempt at MTM is unlikely to be better than perfect-fit OTR, and could turn out a lot worse. Since this will be your first suit (let's not count the tuxedo as a suit), it is unlikely you will require anything unusual, so you really won't be taking advantage of the customizable aspect of MTM.

+1 to this. My concern is that OP doesn't know what the hell he's talking about when he mentions "perfect fit."
 

Locke42

Active Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2013
Messages
40
Reaction score
1
+1 to this. My concern is that OP doesn't know what the hell he's talking about when he mentions "perfect fit."
Can you tell anything from the pics I posted above? Sorry, I know they're not ideal.

As far as what I know, the only things that stuck out for me in terms of fit:
a) There might be a bit of extra fabric at the top of the back of the jacket near the collar (the "scruff"), but that came and went depending on posture
b) The peaks of the lapels don't lay completely flat on my chest
 

Liquidus

Distinguished Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2009
Messages
1,672
Reaction score
68
It's easy to get any BB 1818 suit for around $700-$800. There's a 25% sale right now.

You don't know enough to do well with MTM.
 
Last edited:

Liquidus

Distinguished Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2009
Messages
1,672
Reaction score
68
It's easy to get any BB 1818 suit for around $700-$800. There's a 25% sale right now.
 

Locke42

Active Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2013
Messages
40
Reaction score
1
It's easy to get any BB 1818 suit for around $700-$800. There's a 25% sale right now.

You don't know enough to do well with MTM.
Oh, I know. Actually, I've pretty much given up on MTM because of comments like yours, and I'm probably going to go with two basic suits (navy + charcoal or grey) from BB. There's typically a 30-40% off sale after this sale, right? That's what I'm mainly holding out for.
 

Blown01NJ

Senior Member
Joined
May 2, 2009
Messages
101
Reaction score
6
I have only OTR suits, but want to give online MTM a shot. I only wear a suit maybe 10-20 times per year, but I am debating between Indochino and Black Lapel. I'm in the same boat.
 

msulinski

Distinguished Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2012
Messages
2,141
Reaction score
166
Oh, I know. Actually, I've pretty much given up on MTM because of comments like yours, and I'm probably going to go with two basic suits (navy + charcoal or grey) from BB. There's typically a 30-40% off sale after this sale, right? That's what I'm mainly holding out for.
I'm not sure when the 30% off sale starts, but I don't recall any 40% off sales, except maybe just after Christmas. Since you will be buying 2 suits, it isn't a bad idea to sign up for the BB credit card. You get 15% off on your first purchase. This is the only discount that stacks with the other discounts.
 

RogerP

Distinguished Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2012
Messages
9,906
Reaction score
10,116
Most of my suits are Samuelsohn and most of those are MTM. My preference for the latter has less to do with fit and more to do with having a full range of fabrics in varied weight, composition, texture etc. at my disposal, versus whatever half-dozen samples any individual vendor might have on offer. Not to mention being able to choose lining, number / placement / design of pockets etc. so that the final product is in all respects exactly what I want.

The suits invariably still need a bit of tweaking for fit on delivery, but not nearly so much as most OTR suits.

I order from a place that has periodic fabric sales - so I place my order then and generally get a MTM suit with a significantly upgraded fabric versus the OTR selections at barely more than an OTR price.
 

Master-Classter

Distinguished Member
Spamminator Moderator
Joined
Jul 18, 2007
Messages
8,366
Reaction score
1,236
OP, after reading all this, I'll +1 to the suggestion that you pickup a BB's suit on sale. MTM is a process that takes a few iterations to get it looking better than OTR and IMO it's often done either because of fit issues (nothing OTR works), or because the commissioner has specific ideas of what they want (which in your case doesn't sound like you do)...


as for your tux fit, looks pretty good. I noticed the same things as you, a bit of tightness across the upper back, and a bit of lapel gap and chest bowing out. There are relatively minor considering what most people look like in suits.


g'luck
 

Locke42

Active Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2013
Messages
40
Reaction score
1
I'm not sure when the 30% off sale starts, but I don't recall any 40% off sales, except maybe just after Christmas. Since you will be buying 2 suits, it isn't a bad idea to sign up for the BB credit card. You get 15% off on your first purchase. This is the only discount that stacks with the other discounts.
I already got the BB Mastercard; I used it to get a discount off my tuxedo, which, considering I had to get the pants, shirt, tie, and cummerbund as well, did bring down that price pretty considerably.

I would totally get the suits right now, because the current 25% off sale + the "2 for $1699" promo combine for about 40% off. BUT I want to see if they continue the "2 for $1699" promo with the 30% off sale. :)

as for your tux fit, looks pretty good. I noticed the same things as you, a bit of tightness across the upper back, and a bit of lapel gap and chest bowing out. There are relatively minor considering what most people look like in suits.
Yeah, it was a 40S, which is smaller than I usually wear (42S), but I opted for it in this case because a 42S Madison swam on me (I could fit a bowling ball into the jacket, and I know that's way too big). 42S Fitzgerald or Regent seem to fit better, but the Fitz tuxedo was a notch lapel, and the 40S Madison really wasn't that far off.

Are those things you mentioned pretty easily correctable by a tailor? I bought it on fairly short notice, so I didn't have time to take it to one before the wedding, but now I do.
 

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 45 40.5%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 44 39.6%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 5 4.5%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 18 16.2%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 25 22.5%

Forum statistics

Threads
504,477
Messages
10,574,097
Members
223,701
Latest member
jessicaw3344
Top