Suiting Essentials vs BrooksEase

[thrain]

I placed an order on X-mas day for 2 Suiting Essentials (1 grey suit & pant, 1 navy suit & pant). The order has been delayed 3 times and now the estimated ship date is Feb 26th. Grrr...

When I called customer service, I received a "Lead" order specialist who informed me that the Suiting Essentials are sold out across the US in all stores. In addition, although the "estimated" shipping date is Feb 26th, she informed me that there is no guarantee it will ship.

She said that they would substitute my Suiting Essentials order with the BrooksEase line instead. Any opinions/thoughts on this idea?

My build is a slim/muscular 44L & 34 waist. I REALLY wanted a slim fitting, contemporary suit.

Is it worthwhile to order the BrooksEase and just get them tailored? If so, would you get them tailored at a Brooks store or a private tailor (note: I don't really know any great tailors -- but I'm sure I could find one in Stamford, CT).

I'm really at a loss.. Oh..I almost forgot. Before getting a "lead" specialist, the front-line customer service rep told me that 3 of the 4 pieces of my suit are on reserve, but they CANNOT ship anything until all 4 pieces are ready. Yippie!!!!

-Mike

 

[otc]

Don't do it

A couple of my friends got suiting essentials (with deals it ended up being 2 suits for around 500) and I was quite impressed. We didn't realize that it is essentially a half-MTM program (on the website they are just sold in normal sizes) and they turned out great.

I have only seen one friend's suits (his came in first and he probably has more opportunities to wear them) and he has a build that sounds a lot like yours....something like a 41-42 with a 32 waist. He had to get them taken in a little more after they were made and showed up at the store (and they charge for alterations on suiting essentials) but they look better than anything else at anywhere near the price.

Compared to brooksease it isn't even funny. I have a brooksease jacket and the fabric is meh. The suiting essentials fabric starts to get close to the fabric on my 1818 saxxon suit (although I think it has some tiny bit of synthetic stretch fiber in it).

 

[thrain]

ugh! Thank you for the candid response. Very helpful.

Anyone else?

 

[Wes Bourne]

How about cancelling the suit that's only half available so they can at least ship the one suit (jacket + pants) that is available immediately? That way, you can see if you like it enough to get a second one instead of changing your order to 2 BrooksEase suits.

 

[xudisco07]

The Suiting Essentials are the regent fit, so they will be much slimmer than the brooksease. I have a brooksease and a regent fit suit, the brooksease looks like I'm almost swimming in it even after alterations. I would wait if I were you. In all honesty, if you get the brooksease you may not wear it as much because you will be unhappy with the fit.

 

[david432598]

im going to go do the suiting essentials soon.

how many measurements do they take?

 

[otc]

When I went with my friend, they had him test fit a bunch of jackets to get the shoulders and general length right (since these jackets are semi-MTM, they start from a standard size)

From there they made some arm length measurements. They then did some sort of waist/drop measurment to see how much to bring the sides in and they may have looked at how square his shoulders were in case they might need to lower the collar a bit.

Pants..I don't remember. They may have had him do a few test fits to pick a standard size and then figure out how much hem....or they may have waited until the pants came in to hem.

He ended up having to pay for a few alterations when the suits came in (I guess BB does not include them below 1818 but they are dirt cheap compared to a private tailor). These were mostly because he is pretty muscular and needed the sides taken in even further and maybe the collar lowered on both jackets.

If you do, definitely go for the side vents over single vent and I would suggest adding buttons for bracers just in case you ever want them (since the suits are the same price no matter what options you get)