Bespoke Trousers in NYC?

Can anyone recommend a good maker of bespoke trousers in the NY area for around $500 - $700 / pair (other than Ercole)? The traveling SR folks do a good job, but they're now upto 1K GBP for trousers!

I think true bespoke in Nyc is tough at that price point. Have you talked to Ed at Panta about his MTM program? His rtw fits me well enough but that is my non-bespoke pants source and I think they are great.

I can't think of anyone either at that price range. Maybe give Corvato a call to see what he charges. Out of curiosity, have you tried Ercole? Or why have you decided against him?

I'm trying to sort out a bad order with NSM, but years ago -- when I was able to get good pants from them -- their price-to-quality ratio was very good. I think $600-700. Don't know what their prices are like now, but I imagine it's about the same.

Paul over at Chipp2/ Winston Clothiers is currently running a MTM/ MTO pants special. I think it's something like $280 for a pair of seersucker trousers. He told me he could copy any pair of existing pants, so I imagine if you provided your own cloth (or order from one of his custom trouser books), you could probably have him do the same in a different material. I don't know what his MTM tailoring is like, but having him copy an existing pair of pants could take the guesswork out of things.

I imagine NMWA is selling pants at less than $1,500/ pair through Formosa, but I don't know.

Really, I wish the market for bespoke trousers was better. It's hard to get something that genuinely fits well and doesn't cost an arm-and-a-leg.

Thanks, guys.


dw: I've tried Chipp - his trousers were awful.

I had trousers made a few years ago from Mina that turned out quite well - sad to hear that their quality / fit has fallen away as well.



bry2000 said:

I can't think of anyone either at that price range. Maybe give Corvato a call to see what he charges. Out of curiosity, have you tried Ercole? Or why have you decided against him?

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I have tried Ercole and was happy for awhile. His service appears to have deteriorated significantly over the past year, and I have no desire to stick w/ him.

I ordered six pairs of pants and a suit from them two years ago. Received the pants, but not the suit (I guess my deposit on that went to pay the balance on the trousers? I don't know). Anyway, they made the pants straight to finish without my permission, dropped San Francisco from their schedule, and just sent me the order. Pants fit terribly -- or basically the same as RTW -- and now I'm trying to figure out how to sort this out with them.

I imagine if they gave me a fitting, I could have gotten something better. I think @Manton received some chinos from them last year that he liked.

Do NSM still make regular trips to NYC?

Trousers are just expensive to make if you are using good cloths and I think this is the main rub. A basic cloth for me like H Lesser, Dormeuil Amadeus or Loro Piana Tasmanian costs about 160 a yard, you need usually 2 yards of cloth (as much as a jacket nearly) so you are already up to $320 (cost) then you have to add trimmings, then you have to pay for the labor (U.S), add time for fittings etc and it becomes $1500 if you want to make anything worthwhile on them, especially if you add a basted try on. I don't mind telling you with a try on the real cost for me to make a pair of trousers is $1000 and that margin of $500 is if everything goes smooth, it's quite dangerous with deposits as well.



bry2000 said:

Do NSM still make regular trips to NYC?

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As far as I know, yes. Last visit was just a couple of weeks ago.

David Reeves said:

Trousers are just expensive to make if you are using good cloths and I think this is the main rub. A basic cloth for me like H Lesser, Dormeuil Amadeus or Loro Piana Tasmanian costs about 160 a yard, you need usually 2 yards of cloth (as much as a jacket nearly) so you are already up to $320 (cost) then you have to add trimmings, then you have to pay for the labor (U.S), add time for fittings etc and it becomes $1500 if you want to make anything worthwhile on them, especially if you add a basted try on. I don't mind telling you with a try on the real cost for me to make a pair of trousers is $1000 and that margin of $500 is if everything goes smooth, it's quite dangerous with deposits as well.

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It's not uncommon to find bespoke trousers in Southern Italy for $300-600. Even for really nice fabrics. Problem is always getting one of them to come to the US (and having reliable trips/ delivery).



dieworkwear said:

As far as I know, yes. Last visit was just a couple of weeks ago.
It's not uncommon to find bespoke trousers in Southern Italy for $300-600. Even for really nice fabrics. Problem is always getting one of them to come to the US (and having reliable trips/ delivery).

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Well that's the real trick isn't it? being reliable with delivery surely counts for something?

There's other factors at play though,

Buying direct from a maker will mean higher margins for him and possibly a lower price point which is one of the reasons you will see lower prices.

Cloths are much less expensive in Europe. if you buy the same cloths from Europe and ship to the U.S you have serious duties to pay, plus shipping and then on top of that sometimes a mark up from the agent here.

I don't have any solid data to back this up but there are clearly far few tailors over here so demand puts the costs of labor up. They are also concentrated in NYC which of course again drives up wages.

$500 bespoke trouser is probably hard to find, how bad does RTW fit you? $500 gives you a lot choice in RTW, are you difficult to fit, otherwise I would stick with RTW...