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should i try bespoke?

lalakis

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I was looking to make some alteration in a RTW jacket and i went to a tailor. He told me that he can do bespoke suit with Dormeuil S130 fabric the price he quoted me was 550 to 600 eur. To tell you the truth i find the price very good but i dont know how good he is. Do you believe i should try?
 

lalakis

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i havent checked his previous works, but for that price i believe it is very tempting i a not expecting something spectacular but it must better than a RTW in most case. Also he told me he is making all the buttonholes by hand. What is your opinion on dormeuil s130 is it good fabric or not?
 

epa

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I got my second "alleged bespoke" suit made after having heard a friend of mine praise the tailor. I think that the tailor made a great suit for my friend but he made a hell of a lousy suit for me. In any case, price is a location-dependent issue. In Spain I had my first "alleged bespoke" suit made by a very cheap tailor (it was about ten years ago, and it only costed me around EUR 350). I do not say that it was a very good suit, but it definitely fitted me better than any OTR I have ever bought. However, as I said, the second one, which I got about two years ago for EUR 700, fitted horribly, and I have given it to charity.
 

lalakis

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i think i will go for it for 500eur i dont think i can go wrong, i like borrelli style on suits so what do you think i should ask?
i am thinking for a charcoal gray s130 2 button high armhole anything else??
 

epa

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Listen, I am no bespoke expert like other people on this forum, but my experience in the "low price" field is that you cannot trust people, everybody claims to be a brilliant professional but not everybody is. But if you really know what you want, explain it and make sure that you get it before paying the full amount. I sometimes have made the mistake of letting them convince me that something fits great while it doesn't, and once you have taken it home, it is more difficult to get it changed. I mean, for EUR 500 you may not get high "quality" or "design", but at least it should fit well with no strange wrinkles here and there, and with the correct sleeve and leg length, etc.
Good luck!
 

gj555

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Tailors often use the term "Bespoke" and "Custom" to describe suits that are not quite there in terms of customization. But, that does not mean your tailor won't make you a good suit for 500 euros. He may use stock patterns, machined button holes, etc. but still call his suits bespoke (even though they are not). I have been to a few tailors that call themselves custom or bespoke and none of them actually make a true bespoke suit.
 

lalakis

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I have tried with this tailor to make altrations to some RTW suits and from my experience which is limited i saw good results. I will try to specify as many things possible before and wait for the final result. I will post some pictures when it is ready for you to see.
 

epa

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Originally Posted by kitonbrioni
The conventional wisdom of the forum members is that you can't get quality bespoke at that price. You might start by asking them to make a better fit out of one of your rtw suits.
The wisdom that I have acquired from reading this forum is that you are not likely to find ANY OTR suit for EUR 500 retail price either, that would be considered a quality suit by kitonbrioni...
I have been thinking quite a lot about these things the last 12 years (before that, I did not have to wear suits and I did not want to, I was more into second-hand army stuff and leather). If your body fits quite well into an OTR suit, I guess that you will be better of that way than paying a cheap tailor for doing something that is not really bespoke. However, if you have a difficult body shape (like me: I am tall, and I have unusually broad shoulders compared to my hips/waist), then I really think that it can be worth trying the tailor. I mean, if you can get something made out of a reasonably nice cloth for EUR 500 that was adapted to your shape from the beginning (even though it actually only be some kind of "MTM"), you may be better off than getting an OTR and then trying to have it changed. I have had some really frustrating experiences trying to have OTR suits changed, and some of my current suits are OTR suits that after several attempts of adaptation still fit rather bad, even for my untrained eye. For many years, my EUR 350 "alleged bespoke" suit was the one that fitted me best. Actually, my wife recently said to me that why did I spend EUR 1400 on a tailored (alleged bespoke) suit when that EUR 350 one fitted me so well...
 

Sator

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Originally Posted by kitonbrioni
The conventional wisdom of the forum members is that you can't get quality bespoke at that price.

It takes about 40 hours or more to create a true bespoke suit.

If we assume that your generous tailor is giving you the fabric for free then this works out that you are paying 12.5 Euro per hour of labour. The reality is that a half decent fabric would cost around 300 Euros anyway so you are paying 5 Euros an hour for the labour cost of making the suit. OK maybe he makes the suit in 30 hours and the fabric is a cheaper one at 200 Euros (a wool-polyester blend perhaps
frown.gif
), then you are paying 10 Euros an hour for labour. Right then you are paying only 150 Euros for the fabric (recycled curtain fabric perhaps) and it takes only 20 hours to make, then you are paying 17.5 Euros per hour of labour - at last a realistic looking price.

Do you really think this is possible? Where is this 'bespoke' tailor cutting corners?
 

epa

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Originally Posted by Sator
Do you really think this is possible? Where is this 'bespoke' tailor cutting corners?
Of course it is not possible, and of course a lot of corners have to be cut. That is why I talk about "alleged bespoke". It is obviously rather some kind of MTM, but, as I said, when OTR really does not fit you, it may be a choice, if you just need something that fits reasonably and looks OK to most people and if you are not too concerned about issues like "quality" (and if your boss is not kitonbrioni).
Also, whether EUR 10/hour is a reasonable income depends a lot on where you are and who you are. A lot of people in the textile industry in Spain certainly make less.
 

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