Ongoing Bespoke Projects

[Crispyj]

Welp, just commissioned a sport coat by Frank Shattuck!
Some vintage military lambswool in taupe from Frank's own stock.

 

[yanagi]

Has anyone commissioned anything frlm Sartorial Formosa at one of their trunk shows? Or any other traveling Italian/Neapolitan tailors who (in normal times) are doing NYC trunk shows?

I've commissioned and received jackets from Sartoria Tofani and Zizolfi in NYC.

Welp, just commissioned a sport coat by Frank Shattuck!
Some vintage military lambswool in taupe from Frank's own stock.

Spoiler

View attachment 1360985

I would seriously consider it, but I have two ongoing projects. Hope you enjoy it!

 

[dieworkwear]

I've only seen a handful of coats from Zizolfi -- a few in his workshop, one on the internet on Simon Crompton, and then a couple worn by one of Zizolfi's customers (seen in person). All of them have looked very nice.

If I was in NYC, I would try Zizolfi or Corcos.

 

[Crispyj]

I've commissioned and received jackets from Sartoria Tofani and Zizolfi in NYC.



I would seriously consider it, but I have two ongoing projects. Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks! This'll be the second ongoing project for me. Also another upcoming one from Anthology in the summer.

 

[Crispyj]

I've only seen a handful of coats from Zizolfi -- a few in his workshop, one on the internet on Simon Crompton, and then a couple worn by one of Zizolfi's customers (seen in person). All of them have looked very nice.

If I was in NYC, I would try Zizolfi or Corcos.

Did Corcos start taking customers again? I can never find any information regarding their trunkshows

 

[dieworkwear]

Did Corcos start taking customers again? I can never find any information regarding their trunkshows

As far as I know, you email them and ask to be put on the waitlist. I asked to be put on the waitlist about four years ago and got an email about a year later saying they were taking new people from the waitlist. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to NYC for trunk shows, so I never commissioned anything. I don't know what the wait time is like now.

 

[Crispyj]

As far as I know, you email them and ask to be put on the waitlist. I asked to be put on the waitlist about four years ago and got an email about a year later saying they were taking new people from the waitlist. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to NYC for trunk shows, so I never commissioned anything. I don't know what the wait time is like now.

Maybe I'll ask Kenji Kaga-san when he comes to NYC again to show me through the backdoor of Corcos hehe. Interesting thing Kaga-san told me is that he considers Corcos to have the best quality and handwork in Italy.

 

[coolpapa]

Kotaro of Corcos is the most meticulous tailor I have worked with (Rubinacci, Steed, Formosa, NSM). I'm expecting my first completed commission later this week and I think it will have been a year and a half since I first met him. If I can give one piece of advice on bespoke, it's this: don't be in a hurry. Take the time to do as many fittings as needed to get it right. When you put on that bespoke suit for the first time, it's easy in the excitement of the moment to want to rush out and wear it yesterday.

 

[Despos]

For years my shop has not been able to produce more than 4-5 suits a week and I think our average is actually about 3 per week.
I used to see this as a deficit but my thinking changed. If I tried to produce more I couldn't put as much time into each garment. Putting in the time equates to a better more consistent result which became what I valued over higher production numbers.
Decades ago Oxxford had a quota for the people who made the collars on their jackets. You had to make between X & X amount of collars per day. A minimum to earn your pay but a maximum per day because the quality would suffer. It takes time to produce something by hand. If you want it done quicker you minimize the steps and standardize the operations. That's the principle behind RTW.

If I ever produced an advertisement for my business I would use a picture of a tailor working at his bench making a jacket. The picture next to it would be a factory mass producing suits and the owner talking with the production foreman saying, "how can we make more suits at a lower cost?"
Above the tailor would be a bubble saying "how can I make this one suit even better?

 

[jonathanS]

I also had the same experience with Formosa about 6 years ago. I had a 3-piece suit made by him, and the results were very bad. The suit jacket didn’t fit at all and the trousers were very tight in the crotch area. When I pointed this out, he didn’t bother to offer to correct the mistakes. Needless to say, I never commissioned anything from him again afterwards.

I have commissioned and continue to commission garments from Neapolitan tailors, woth good results.

Neapolitans are why I take delivery (read: pay second half) in person. Because once they have your money, their willingness to fix problems mysteriously vanishes.

 

[jonathanS]

Kotaro of Corcos is the most meticulous tailor I have worked with (Rubinacci, Steed, Formosa, NSM). I'm expecting my first completed commission later this week and I think it will have been a year and a half since I first met him. If I can give one piece of advice on bespoke, it's this: don't be in a hurry. Take the time to do as many fittings as needed to get it right. When you put on that bespoke suit for the first time, it's easy in the excitement of the moment to want to rush out and wear it yesterday.

I’d like to try Corcos at some point. I like the work I’ve seen. For what it’s worth, I have a feeling Dalcuore will produce a good product. But I haven’t taken delivery yet (supposed to next trunk show in New York). It’s been a long time coming though. First started it in September 2018. (There were problems. But, they were willing to fix them.)

 

[classicalthunde]

Neapolitans are why I take delivery (read: pay second half) in person. Because once they have your money, their willingness to fix problems mysteriously vanishes.

is it standard protocol to pay half up front half on delivery? I’ve always assumed with bespoke it was all up front?

 

[yanagi]

is it standard protocol to pay half up front half on delivery? I’ve always assumed with bespoke it was all up front?

50% deposit, 50% delivery has been my experience. I would be very uncomfortable paying all up front as a first-time client, and even more so if the tailor were traveling rather than local.

 

[potter AB]

If I ever produced an advertisement for my business I would use a picture of a tailor working at his bench making a jacket. The picture next to it would be a factory mass producing suits and the owner talking with the production foreman saying, "how can we make more suits at a lower cost?"
Above the tailor would be a bubble saying "how can I make this one suit even better?

Thank you! Good bespoke will not chose the path of rationalization, reduction, optimizing labour etc.

Hence I do not grab the essence of another recent thread in this forum. It compared two jackets (one bespoke, the other RTW or MTM) by the same maker. The bespoke item looked rather like a rtw product, which perhaps should not astonish at all. A company that focusses on both RTW/MTM and bespoke will most lilkely have an industrial mindset. Words such as optimizing, turnover, reducing costs, tolerances, mimicking hand made processes... come to my mind.

True, there's bad bespoke as well - and a lot in between. Good bespoke, however. will always try to do an extra effort, focus on the craft itself and try to meet that 1 wearer's expectations as good as possible.

But what will the future be of bespoke? Interestingly, none of the menswear blogs focus on the ongoing discussions amongst tailors, while these might shed a light on what's going on behind the scene. At least in London quite some young talents have been attracted to the craft in recent years. They must have eyes and ears as well. But we never get their thoughts on renewal, new techniques, better business models, religious beliefs in tailoring ("this is the right way to do it"), nor on prices, their pay, on customer service etc.

It does matter, I think. If the craft wants to survive, the torch will have to be passed on to this next generation, no?

 

[PMA]

2nd fitting in Harrison’s Millionaire cashmere. Client put on a little growth in the bicep and chest since the first fitting.