Ongoing Bespoke Projects

[ericgereghty]

Not my aesthetic, but both pieces look really nice. I used to regularly walk past Centofanti, and it's refreshing to see his legacy carry on.

+1. I'm quite glad I didn't have the discretionary income (mine or my parents lol) to fund my habit when I first got into menswear. I'd have had a closet full of too short one button, peak lapels with slanted pockets. Not to say the look is bad, of course, but 100% not for me.

 

[Encathol Epistemia]

Not my aesthetic, but both pieces look really nice. I used to regularly walk past Centofanti, and it's refreshing to see his legacy carry on.

Mr. Genuardi's Pennsylvanian lineage is part of why I chose him. I think that he has an apprentice, although I'm not sure of that. The last two times that I've visited there's been a Korean woman there who assists him and observed each of my fittings closely while Mr. Genuardi seemed to be giving instruction. (This made the fittings more interesting for me as I heard him explain why he was making various changes or how certain things worked)

Both those look really nice. I prefer the silhouette on the softer brown jacket, but they both look really well done. Surprisingly good prices for bespoke too.

I went into this accepting that I would pay whatever he charged and was still a little taken aback by the cost at first, even though it only slightly overran my guesses. After having seen some of the prices quoted in Simon Crompton's series on tailors' styles, I think that I'm getting a uncommonly good value. (I worry that it won't last; Mr. Genuardi seems to have considerable, probably growing list of clients, which will probably drive his prices up sooner or later)

Seems like you enjoyed the process as well which is a bonus. After all it is a significant amount of dosh for most people.

I've found Mr. Genuardi, a fellow southeastern Pennsylvanian, pleasant to work with and I have always loved deciding the unique details of things. He's pretty humble and not the least overbearing, so I've found him easy to work with, which has helped make easier to override instinctive propensity to agree with people which ultimately would work against our mutual interest by leading me to suppress opinions as to the feel of the suit, which we both want corrected for the best.

It does cost an awful bloody lot and all I can do is confess that I've been the victim of outrageous, unjustifiable good fortune. If these last as long as they're supposed to, I might almost break even!

...Don't think this man has a small frame but Joe has created a flattering silhouette. Also to note; a new client with one fitting and then to finish. The hang of the sleeves of the blue jacket on the mannequin is exactly what you want; how they lay close to the body. Don't see this often enough.
Joe took his time and learned the trade well. His work has a lot of integrity.

Is, "don't think this man has a small frame," the new tailor's diplomaticism for 'quite fat'? I thought it was, "robust," but my references might be old.

I'm being a damned schnicklefritz, of course. Although, there probably really is quite a large underlying structure to accommodate. Even if I weren't about fifty pounds more than I should be, my shoulders and chest would probably take some artfulness to accommodate. Even as leaden as I am, I have a five inch drop.

I take comfort in the vote of confidence in Mr. Genuardi's work. I've certainly found him to be a very careful, meticulously craftsman.

+1. I'm quite glad I didn't have the discretionary income (mine or my parents lol) to fund my habit when I first got into menswear. I'd have had a closet full of too short one button, peak lapels with slanted pockets. Not to say the look is bad, of course, but 100% not for me.

This is probably the only time that I'll have the slanted pockets; that sport coat is sort of a dam break of funny notions that I've built up over the last few years. I fancy a pretty conservative navy blazer for my next one, although it'll have peaked lapels too; I've long had a distaste for notch lapels (one possible exception... uh... excepted)

I feel that it's worth clarifying that both the suit and sport coat will be two-button when finished.

 

[emptym]

I’ve finally given up on flannel trous entirely after realizing that I probably wear a pair fewer than 2-3 times a year, and I’m usually too warm when I do. My inner child is still upset about it, but he still thinks we live in CT.

All you need to do is spend more time in the Sunset. Seriously.

I think slanted pockets look very good on a sbpl. They achieve a specific look of sharp sleek casual. Good for a night out clubbing jacket with a white shirt. But there’s a degree where it gets too tacky. Everything in moderation. Yours looks sick. This is my linen blazer suit after a night out with a similar configuration

I liked the peak lapels, slanted pockets, and single button suits for Kilgour under Carlo Brandelli, iirc.

 

[Encathol Epistemia]

This afternoon I went to John Di Pietro's shop for a fitting of the waistcoats that he's making for me and to take custody of a taupe sport coat that I'd commissioned.

The waistcoats are close to finished, but he wanted me to choose the buttons for them, help decide where to put an extra hole for my watch fob to go through and make some slight adjustments, most notably accounting for my low right shoulder, which tends to cause obnoxious flaring around the armhole of waistcoats. I'm to visit in a week to retrieve them.

As I've been reviewing the pictures, I'm developed my characteristic uncertainty about the sport coat, but notwithstanding that, I do genuinely find it quite comfortable to wear and really like its color. It fits more closely, but not tightly, and moves better then anything that I've worn before, especially my off-the-rack black sport coat from Boyd's that it effectively replaces.

I also have scarce idea as to what is worth presenting about it, so I have a mess of pictures and hope that some of them might be interesting. (I'm also a rotten photographer, so there's a limit to the utility of any of this) I should note that I wore it around town for a few hours before this, which might account for some of the rumpling. I should also confess, even though I loathe to handicap things, that I'm almost ten pounds heavier at the moment than I was throughout the process to this point as I went on a vacation recently and it wasn't to a health spa. (In fact, it was to Pittsburgh. I do so enjoy exotic places) I'm slowly coming back to 'reality' as it were, which is to say looking like what would have happened to Gimili if he had gotten an office job instead of done adventuring.

Firstly, me wearing it from the front, side and rear.



From the front. (That wrinkling at the right shoulder is something that I think that I might need to take up with Mr. Di Pietro; it could relate to that being, as was recently determined, my low shoulder)



From the side, with arms lowered



From the rear, with arms slightly raised



From behind



The backing of the collar.



Have yourself a gander at the shoulder. (Note that holding it up with my hands, not wearing it in this picture)

The lapels are what Mr. Di Pietro calls, "cloverleaf," and are about 4" wide.


It looks far more grey with the flash. Note the pick stitching, which is featured on most of its edges; I rather like that detail.



Without the flash, it appears more brownish.



On the reverse of the left lapel is a stem holder, which Mr. Di Pietro tells me he has not had a request for a long time.



As I'm the kind of doofus who asks for a stem holder, I of course had a flower on hand to demonstrate it.



I elected for flapped pockets and a ticket pocket.



The pick stitching carries through to the chest pocket, which I'm just the kind of person who normally adorns with a pocket square. Isn't that the fun of it, after all?



The left interior pockets include a pen pocket, at my request. (There's a further interior pocket lower down that isn't pictured)



There's another interior pocket on the right side along with his tailor's tag and another, perhaps associated with the cloth mill, that reads, "Hand Tailored," in a font that's pretty inhospitable to the eyes.



This is the interior at the center vent. Mr. Di Pietro is adamant about preferring center vents as he holds that they allow more latitude in making alterations.



Here's the interior seam of the left sleeve where it joins the body of the jacket, in case anybody cares.



These buttons are made of leather. Mr. Di Pietro suggested them; I think that they look a little old fashioned and out of style, which is part of why I like them.



They go through these buttonholes, of course.



It has matching, working sleeve buttons, as one might expect.




This is an attempt to show the interior of the end of the sleeve, which I suppose I thought would be illustrative of something at some point.

Now, I'm slightly drowsy and loopy because I've stayed up too late to do laundry because jerk left clothes in the dryer for an hour after it finished and I'm just the wrong kind of too polite to have not thrown them on the floor in a fit of pique. Have at and nighty night.

 

[The Chai]

This afternoon I went to John Di Pietro's shop for a fitting of the waistcoats that he's making for me and to take custody of a taupe sport coat that I'd commissioned.

The waistcoats are close to finished, but he wanted me to choose the buttons for them, help decide where to put an extra hole for my watch fob to go through and make some slight adjustments, most notably accounting for my low right shoulder, which tends to cause obnoxious flaring around the armhole of waistcoats. I'm to visit in a week to retrieve them.

As I've been reviewing the pictures, I'm developed my characteristic uncertainty about the sport coat, but notwithstanding that, I do genuinely find it quite comfortable to wear and really like its color. It fits more closely, but not tightly, and moves better then anything that I've worn before, especially my off-the-rack black sport coat from Boyd's that it effectively replaces.

I also have scarce idea as to what is worth presenting about it, so I have a mess of pictures and hope that some of them might be interesting. (I'm also a rotten photographer, so there's a limit to the utility of any of this) I should note that I wore it around town for a few hours before this, which might account for some of the wrinkling. I should also confess, even though I loathe to handicap things, that I'm almost ten pounds heavier at the moment than I was throughout the process to this point as I went on a vacation recently and it wasn't to a health spa. (In fact, it was to Pittsburgh. I do so enjoy exotic places) I'm slowly coming back to 'reality' as it were, which is to say looking like what would have happened to Gimili if he had gotten an office job instead of done adventuring.

Firstly, me wearing it from the front, side and rear.

View attachment 1219783

From the front. (That wrinkling at the right shoulder is something that I think that I might need to take up with Mr. Di Pietro; it could relate to that being, as was recently determined, my low shoulder)

View attachment 1219777

From the side, with arms lowered

View attachment 1219778

From the rear, with arms slightly raised

View attachment 1219782

From behind

View attachment 1219765

The backing of the collar.

View attachment 1219776

Have yourself a gander at the shoulder. (Note that holding it up with my hands, not wearing it in this picture)

The lapels are what Mr. Di Pietro calls, "cloverleaf," and are about 4" wide.
View attachment 1219773

It looks far more grey with the flash. Note the pick stitching, which is featured on most of its edges; I rather like that detail.

View attachment 1219774

Without the flash, it appears more brownish.

View attachment 1219770

On the reverse of the left lapel is a stem holder, which Mr. Di Pietro tells me he has not had a request for a long time.

View attachment 1219771

As I'm the kind of doofus who asks for a stem holder, I of course had a flower on hand to demonstrate it.

View attachment 1219775

I elected for flapped pockets and a ticket pocket.

View attachment 1219762

The pick stitching carries through to the chest pocket, which I'm just the kind of person who normally adorns with a pocket square. Isn't that the fun of it, after all?

View attachment 1219769

The left interior pockets include a pen pocket, at my request. (There's a further interior pocket lower down that isn't pictured)

View attachment 1219772

There's another interior pocket on the right side along with his tailor's tag and what I assume is from the cloth mill, although I'll be damned if I can read it to tell for sure.

View attachment 1219785

This is the interior at the center vent. Mr. Di Pietro is adamant about preferring center vents as he holds that they allow more latitude in making alterations.

View attachment 1219779

Here's the interior seam of the left sleeve where it joins the body of the jacket, in case anybody cares.

View attachment 1219764

These buttons are made of leather. Mr. Di Pietro suggested them; I think that they look a little old fashioned and out of style, which is part of why I like them.

View attachment 1219763

They go through these buttonholes, of course.

View attachment 1219780

It has matching, working sleeve buttons, as one might expect.


View attachment 1219781

This is an attempt to show the interior of the end of the sleeve, which I suppose I thought would be illustrative of something at some point.

Now, I'm slightly drowsy and loopy because I've stayed up too late to do laundry because jerk left clothes in the dryer for an hour after it finished and I'm just the wrong kind of too polite to have not thrown them on the floor in a fit of pique. Have at and nighty night.

I really like the clover leaf lapel...I saw a picture of it on a dinner jacket once and thought it looked nice...might get one on a jacket down the line

 

[Thomson]

I like the buttons and the lining as well.

 

[Bromley]

@Encathol Epistemia Thanks for sharing. Looks like you're headed down a cool path with this tailor.

 

[classicalthunde]

@Encathol Epistemia I brought my tux to John DiPietro to have him clean and re-press it after my former dry cleaner made the lapels uneven, I also brought some tweed trousers to him to hem and put a cuff on, gonna go pick them up over the weekend. For a bespoke tailor, his alteration and pressing prices are very reasonable. He is quite the character, almost like out of a movie depiction of old school South Philly, it was fun to take a poke around his workshop

He does seem to have a particular house style despite specifically saying that he could do any sort of styling for jackets that I wanted. I may wind up trying out a pair of dress trousers with him in the fall, but I'm not sure if his jackets are my cup of tea. Is the DiPietro sportcoat an undarted sack-style, did you specify that or was it part of the house style?

Based upon your two experiences, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on which tailor/pieces you prefer...(for what its worth those Genuardi pieces look great)

 

[Encathol Epistemia]

So that everybody can see what this jacket looks like without being ruined by my infesting it, here it is on the mannequin in the shop just before I took it home.

I've enjoyed wearing this, although I'm beginning to think that if I might have preferred a slightly lower gorge.

I also took several pictures of me in 'action', relatively speaking, while wearing it, since I'd read something about the artificiality of the 'robot' pose.



I'M FLYING!



Raise the roof... beyond visibility... damn am I bad at this.



Suiffice it to say, this white man indeed cannot jump, which is just as well, because it'd be a blurry mess if I really had.

I like the buttons and the lining as well.

I'm very pleased with both. With both Mr. Genuardi and Mr. Di Pietro, I've had a strong instinct toward plain, matching linings. The two pieces by Mr. Genuardi both ended up with a solid color lining close to the color of the cloth, despite him offering several more 'expressive' suggestions. For this taupe sport coat, I initially intended to match the lining, but as Mr. Di Pietro paraded linings out for it, none of them were even close to what I imagined and I wasn't sure if he even had any like that (as it turns out, he does and its been used on one of the waistcoats that he's making for me), so I chose the patterned lining that I liked best. I liked the little reddish whatsits and, although I didn't realize the color when I chose it, the faint mint-green tone of the background. As I might have mentioned before, I have some very conservative color instincts; if I didn't take care, I'd be dressed in nothing but black with some charcoals for when I want to get wild. I occasionally try to resist this and it almost always turns out well, although I dread that I'll someday overreach and end up wearing a snap-dragon green windowpane one fuchsia zoot suit with a tie-dye lining or something.

@Encathol Epistemia I brought my tux to John DiPietro to have him clean and re-press it after my former dry cleaner made the lapels uneven, I also brought some tweed trousers to him to hem and put a cuff on, gonna go pick them up over the weekend. For a bespoke tailor, his alteration and pressing prices are very reasonable.

I'm happy to see him getting a little more business. I hope that the alterations come out nicely.

He is quite the character, almost like out of a movie depiction of old school South Philly, it was fun to take a poke around his workshop

I know, right? I was a little worried about his personality before I first visited him, but I've found that I enjoy it and can grasp part of how he's kept loyal clientele for decades. I love the large vintage posters of style illustrations on the side across from the mirror.

He does seem to have a particular house style despite specifically saying that he could do any sort of styling for jackets that I wanted. I may wind up trying out a pair of dress trousers with him in the fall, but I'm not sure if his jackets are my cup of tea. Is the DiPietro sportcoat an undarted sack-style, did you specify that or was it part of the house style?

There appear to be front dart running along the chests through the pockets, giving it a little shape. We didn't discuss the shape much, mostly only the details of the lapels and pockets. I really left the shoulders and shape to his discretion. Of course, I'm more or less what would happen if those sacks of flour that are used to teach parenting actually grew up, so there's only so much shaping that can be done and a less fitted shape fits what I want for this jacket. I do recall that he had a suit in the shop a few months ago that he was working on for a client who was transferred to New York City that was more shaped. If you want the silhouette to be more shaped, inquire and if it's within his abilities, he'll work with you.

Based upon your two experiences, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on which tailor/pieces you prefer...(for what its worth those Genuardi pieces look great)

Well, the sport coat from Mr. Di Pietro has the advantage or disadvantage that I've actually worn it in real-world conditions (Well, most of it was sitting on ****** at Ashton smoking a cigar, drinking cocktails and reading The Economist to ride the worst of that thunderstorm that passed through the city last night out); I've only worn the garments from Mr. Genuardi unfinished in his studio.

I'm too cowardly to really judge them against each other and I intend to continue working with both. I'll concede that I suspect that Mr. Genuardi might be the better and probably the more meticulous of the two. He seemed to take more measurements and each time he's fit me thus far he's been in a flurry of measuring and chalk marking; he's also very careful about observing me as I move, sometimes noticing something that prompts him to further alter the garments or take a measurement. Mr. Di Pietro does, however, seem to have rather a knack for intuitively understanding a client; he seemed to quickly gather a sense of my sensibilities and needs. Mr. Di Pietro was also especially quick to note and accommodate my square shoulders.

They differ some in their salesmanship and handling of clients. Mr. Di Pietro has been very willing to promote other kinds of garments that he makes, seeming particularly keen on making an overcoat for me (quoted price around $ 3,000), and leans heavily on the work that he's done for local teams. Mr. Genuardi only ever tentatively inquired as to whether I needed shirts, which I did, but I had already settled on Ray Nepomuceno for them. One thing that I very much like about Mr. Di Pietro is that he's readily receptive, even solicitous, the particular details that I want for a garment. Mr. Genuardi is of course very receptive to requests, but I've found that I've had to put more care into making sure to pause things to make one rather than moving right to the next part of the consultation or fitting. (That said, I occasionally consider some day telling Mr. Genuardi, "omakase," and seeing what he comes up with)

John Di Pietro also has a great advantage in access. It takes about four hours on three trains to get me from Philadelphia to Joseph Genuardi's studio, whereas getting to John Di Pietro is a matter of fifteen minutes, mostly on the Broad Street Subway southbound local. Mr. Di Pietro also charges around two thirds or so of what Mr. Genuardi does. One thing, but not the sole thing, that will keep at least some of my business with Mr. Genuardi is that he's only a few years older than I am; given Mr. Di Pietro's age... well, let's just say that the kind of decades-long relationship that he's had with so many other clients won't be feasible for me.

I really don't know how much I trust any of my opinions; aside from spectacular failures, I suspect that a tailor is somebody that considerable time should be taken to evaluate and reasonably understand and I've only been at this since April.

 

[SuMisura_YEG]

Bad picture but your thoughts would be great.

 

[Bromley]

I think you're gonna trip over that cord.

 

[SuMisura_YEG]

I think you're gonna trip over that cord.

What are your thoughts on the suit?

 

[lordsuperb]

What are your thoughts on the suit?

He doesn't like your suit.

 

[Bromley]

What are your thoughts on the suit?

It's so hard to tell from pictures like this. Looks a little on the tight side around the middle. How do you like it?

Pictures presented to dissect the fit of tailored clothes should be taken from across the room at a party, or while seated in a cubicle or at a restaurant. Or while walking, or picking up a dropped napkin. Encathol Epistemia has the right idea.

 

[Punt]

We had La Montagna visiting Amsterdam again: first fitting of a new grey suit... also some addition pictures or finished works...

And final fitting or a green coat for winter