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Noble House Tailor - Custom Tailor Review (Decent clothes, hastle to get the order right, wouldn't o

drewcifer

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Hey guys,
This is my first post (long time lurker), and I'm sorry to say it's a poor review of a custom tailor, Noble House Tailor ( www.noblehouse.us/ ) and their head tailor, Vijay Wadhwani.

Background:
I work in a very conservative white-collar industry where I have to wear suits regularly. I'm 31 with a medium athletic build. I typically buy most of my clothes from Brooks Brothers, but I need to have everything tailored or brought in. I saved up some money for some custom shirts (possibly a suit, if all went well with the shirts) and began looking for a tailor.

My experience started with my grandfather suggesting this Hong Kong based company ("... when I was in the Navy, we'd get the best suits from HK while on ship. Absolutely fantastic.") So I bought in, emailed Noble House for an appointment and described what I was looking for: A few custom shirts and 2 pairs of slacks. I was given a meeting time with Vijay Wadhwani at a local hotel.


May 2014:
When I first met with the tailor, he took all my measurements and photos. He had appx. 20 fabric books sitting out on his counter and told me to sift through the books to find fabrics that I liked. (I honestly had no idea where to begin, and at this point I felt like I was annoying him because I wasn't ordering $10,000 worth of suits). After selecting a few fabrics for my shirts and slacks, we sat down to discuss how I wanted them to fit (I also brought in a pair of BB Milano cut slacks and tailored dress shirt that fit me perfectly to show how I wanted them). I described my typical ordeal with BB and I was assured everything would be the best clothing I ever bought.

July 2014
It took about 2 months to receive my first order. This first issue was they sent it USPS and I had to pay a customs tax ($68). Once I brought it up with Noble House, they gave me a 1 shirt credit to make up for it.

Noble House sent me 1 shirt and both slacks. The 1st shirt was to test fit and dial in my sizes. Thankfully they did this because the shirt was huge on me. I had to have them remove 2 inches on the sides. The shirt had permanent collar stays in them (I'll never get them again in a shirt...). Other than these issues, the shirt was of good quality.

Both slacks were way too big for me and very baggy. Other than the fitment, the slacks were also of good quality.

The 6 remaining shirts were received in August, they were well made and fit great. Overall, I was happy with them with one caveat: Looking at a 7in x 7in square of fabric does not give you a good idea of what it'll look like as a shirt. 2 of my shirts that I picked simply are too "complicated" (can I use that to describe a shirt pattern? Maybe "busy"?) and I never wear them.

September 2014
I met with Vijay again to get the 1 shirt credit and re-tailor the slacks (again, I brought in my Milano cut slacks as an example). I bought 4 shirts (total 5 ordered). During this meeting, I felt rushed through the process. Again, Vijay seemed annoyed that I was taking up his time (ie, not ordering a lot). Vijay made the comment, "Are you going to order anything else? Maybe a suit?" I told him I wouldn't order a suit until he could get my slacks and shirts right.

During this meeting, he never wrote a single thing down.
I ordered: 1 black dress shirt, 1 navy, 1 white OCBD with polo collars, 1 blue gingham dress shirt, 1 blue shirt w/ thin pink stripes.

November 2014
I received: 2 black dress shirts, a white dress shirt with collar stays, blue gingham dress shirt.

I wrote to NH about the mistakes, and they said they'd send me the missing shirt, the navy shirt, and a new collar for the white dress shirt right away.

May 2015
After back and forth emails about my order not being mailed, I finally received the shipment from Noble House. They had sent me a light blue (not Navy shirt) and a blue shirt with brown stripes.

In summary, Noble House is probably just too busy for their own good (or maybe I didn't order enough / spend enough to have Vijay's full attention). The shirts are good quality, but with all the mistakes the company made didn't make the $70 - 100 shirts worth it. I appreciate that they allowed me to keep the shirts that were mistakes, I do wear them. But with all the hassle, I'm going to stick with Brooks Brothers and other off the rack stores for now.

I'd be happy to answer questions about my experience. But I just wanted to put this review where it could help someone in the future.


Drew
 

TOstyle

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Good review, thanks for posting. I haven't bought from Noble House so I can't speak from experience, but it is representative of my experience with the traveling tailors sorts.
 

JLibourel

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Don't prejudge all "traveling tailors" by these experiences. W.W. Chan and Gordon Yao have excellent reputations, for example, and Hemrajani/MyTailor has a following here as well.

Of course, some of the leading Savile Row houses also travel to the States on a limited basis.
 

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