Manila Tailor - Page 24

Gents, recently lost 15kg and have about 5 suits that need to be taken in.  Any suggestions?  Cornell won't touch any suit that he didn't make.  Much thanks!

-Xavier

Hi AON, that's the suit you had made by Secret Bespoke?

I organized a meetup to meet fellow menswear enthusiasts on Wed, Feb 27. You can register here http://menswearsyndicate.eventbrite.com

Not sure if this is equivalent to a thread, but I'd like to ask, what's missing with philippine tailors? What would be that one (or two/three) thing that you'd like to improve?

Price?

Fit?

Quality?

Price for quality? Is this even possible if we want something really nice?

Goodmorning,

I'd like to ask your recommendations for tailors that accept alterations in the manila/sta mesa area? lost weight and most of my pants dont fit right anymore. I tried the tailors in the malls but they didnt do a proper job (like it was rushed).

This tailor will be for the long term, he will be my go to guy in case I need alterations or for custom fit clothes.

I'll be starting at a new job that doesn't neccessarily require good clothes, but I'd like to start dressing properly for my age (don't want to look like the highschool/college kid anymore) and I don't know where to start.

Thanks!

You can get suits taken in at Bergamo in Rustans, Makati. I've had a few done there. Not that cheap. But reliable.

Most fabric stores here sell fabric for men's shirts but you will definitely find differences in quality as well as price. Fabric in Divisoria is much cheaper but usually the quality is also a lot worse! So it depends on your expectations and your budget! I recently bought a nice 100% cotton stripe in the new Glorietta (top floor I think) in a small fabric store called Projections. They said it was japanese cotton, but who really knows? I don't remember how much it was though. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by govner 

Not sure if this is equivalent to a thread, but I'd like to ask, what's missing with philippine tailors? What would be that one (or two/three) thing that you'd like to improve?

 

Price?

Fit?

Quality?

 

Price for quality? Is this even possible if we want something really nice?

I'm not really answering your question here, but I've been wanting to say this for a long time, so am just using your questions as an opportunity to do so!

In my opinion 50% of the problem with tailors in the Philippines lies with what they put into their garments. Very few fabrics are made in the Philippines so 100% of the fabric suitable for men’s wear is imported. Importing is a huge pain here and the market for higher quality bespoke men’s wear is not that big. This means that fabrics are only imported in small quantities ensuring a high mark-up up to start with. It sometimes takes literally years  (take a look at the dust collecting on the folded edges of some rolls of fabrics!) for someone to buy a certain fabric adding to the cost.

On top of this, the quality of interfacings (the stuff tailors put into collars, lapels, shoulder to give it more stiffness, body, or to stop it from stretching) whether it’s non-woven or canvas, fusible or sewn in, is horrible. Even what is available for women’s wear, which is a much bigger market is terrible. The collars on bespoke shirts and suits usually come out feeling much too stiff and rarely have the hand feel that even half-way decent ready to wear has. If someone started importing good quality interfacings suitable for men’s wear in quantities big enough to keep the price down, you would see the quality of bespoke tailoring in the Philippines go up immensely. That said, customer would have to be willing to pay the extra couple of hundred pesos that this would cost, as left to their own devices, many tailors would just use whatever is the cheapest!

Another factor is the bad habit many tailors (as well as women’s wear dressmakers ) have is to nearly complete a garment before letting the client fit it. Once you get to this stage of constructing a garment, there are many fit adjustments you just will not be able to do anymore. Ripping out seams, can and does damage fabrics especially densely woven shirt fabrics. It would be much easier to get good fit if you let the client try on the garment much earlier in the construction process.

Bigger tailors, like Bergamo for instance have front of the store staff fitting, whereas the cutters and sewers are in a workshop somewhere and never see their products on an actual body.  A good cutter/ pattern maker, needs to see the body he is making a pattern for to be able to do this properly. A set of measurements says a lot, but posture also has so much to do with the fit of a garment. My husband is currently on his second fitting for a suit at Bergamo’s and if I would have not been with him, the fitters would have let him walk out of there in a suit that fitted really badly from the back.  If he ever has a suit made again, I would rather take him to a small workshop where the fitter is also the pattern maker!

And let’s also blame the customers! After all, if there were enough customers willing to pay for and expecting decent fit and quality, the tailoring industry would grow to that level. At that moment, this is just not the case in the Philippines…. After all men here still have the option of wearing a Barong! Cheaper and definitely more comfortable in the tropical heat!