So I started a clothing company...

[jefferyd]

Castangia coat- hand sewn mezzaluna without the bar tack



Chinese hand-sewn bar tack (looped, not buttonhole stitch) with mezzaluna



Ambrosi buttonhole stitch bar tack

 

[gdl203]

Very interesting. I'd love to see an example if you get a chance to take a picture.

looks like this v

View attachment 1139446

 

[bdavro23]

Today was a pretty good day. Not a "I cant believe that guy spent $25,000 with me" good, but this is still a side gig. I received the second half of a shipment I've been expecting and inside were three orders for friends of mine. Two of the guys got the exact same navy sport coat in a nice Reda fabric. Neither of them had a navy sport coat, which I know will be simply unbelievable to some members of Styleforum, and neither of them had ever had anything made for them. It was a really fun experience both for them, and for me. Truthfully, this is one of the reasons I started this business. I love the fabric and curating things for people. I love helping people dress better and make better choices when it comes to their wardrobes. This is fun. Now, I didnt really make much, if anything on either of them. So this is fun, but I'm a **** business man...

The other suit was the second for a guy who has been a mentor of sorts to me for a few years. He is a senior level guy at a bank, likes clothes, but isnt an enthusiast. He has been using a Tom James guy for years but recently got irritated when his stuff started falling apart. When I went to do his fitting, all the suits he had from them were fused, and very expensive... Anyway, the first suit came in last week and he wore it today. I got a really nice text from him about the fit and comfort, so he's excited about the blue plaid you'll see below. I did make a little money on him, but still probably in **** business man territory...

Finally, I have been doing a series of tests, trying to figure out how I can do fittings remotely and sell to people who arent local to me. Obviously it would be better to be able to measure them in person as there is no substitute for that. However, that simply isnt possible in some cases, so I've been trying to come up with a method to do the fittings over Skype. This is a single data point, but the first final suit that came in was about as good as I could hope for. He's happy, I'm happy, everybody is happy. He paid full freight too, so maybe moving towards **** business man with promise...

 

[WillingToLearn]

love teh post, but would love more with the photos...

 

[bdavro23]

The matching navy jackets:

 

[bdavro23]

I got distracted last night and didnt get around to posting the suit I referenced above, so here it is. The suit is actually a fairly bright, mid blue, which is difficult to recreate in pictures. If I keep doing this, I may need to start using a decent camera instead of my phone. I also posted as good a close up of the lapel button hole as I could get last night. I've gotten some questions about them so I thought I would post it for the group. Enjoy.

View attachment 1142535

 

[Caustic Man]

FWIW, I thought Kent Wang had a great remote fitting scheme. It wasn't perfect but the trial suit plus sending in pictures for expert advise on fit changes worked really well. I haven't done anything MTM from them recently so I'm not sure if anything has changed. I suspect you're looking for a more interactive experience if you're considering doing it via Skype.

 

[bdavro23]

FWIW, I thought Kent Wang had a great remote fitting scheme. It wasn't perfect but the trial suit plus sending in pictures for expert advise on fit changes worked really well. I haven't done anything MTM from them recently so I'm not sure if anything has changed. I suspect you're looking for a more interactive experience if you're considering doing it via Skype.

As I'm doing MTM, everything is based off my patterns. I have fit garments that I use to help identify changes that need to be made and fit preferences of the customers, so I suppose its a similar process in part. Depending on a number of factors, I will make a test suit/ jacket for the customer to dial things in prior to making their final garment. This is probably overkill in some cases, but its important to me to deliver a garment that the customer is happy with.

I havent ordered anything from Kent Wang, though they have a good following on the site, so the process must work for them. I wouldnt feel comfortable working from pictures and customer feedback unless I absolutely had to. Skype is the bare minimum that I feel is acceptable for ME to work with someone remotely. With that said, I am still experimenting and I suppose I could have some revelation in the future.

 

[Caustic Man]

From the customer side I feel like a Skype consultation would be a good thing. I have developed some rather esoteric preferences in terms of fit and talking about that with someone live would be an asset. I know that there are limits to what MTM patterns can accommodate but it's nice to get a sense of what is, and is not, possible before receiving the final product.

 

[bdavro23]

I feel like I dont post here for a week or more, and then I post 10 times in a day. I guess thats sort of the nature of a side gig. In any event, these showed up yesterday and I was reminded of how it all started for me and ended up here. Almost 10 years ago, I started moonlighting at a custom clothing shop. I loved a lot of things about it, but maybe my favorite thing was the day the new cloth books would arrive. It was literally like Christmas morning for me. I would go through each book and look for what was new, what was amazing, what was so terrible it was cool.

I still love new book day, and the two in focus are among my favorites. I know there isnt a ton of love on the forum for Loro Piana, but I'm a fan. The Winter Tasmania in particular is one of my favorite suiting fabrics around. Anyway, happy new book day (technically yesterday, but whatever).

 

[Caustic Man]

Open them!

 

[smittycl]

Loro Piana fabric is fantastic. Have many garments in LP and love them all.

 

[shortlefty]

I feel like I dont post here for a week or more, and then I post 10 times in a day. I guess thats sort of the nature of a side gig. In any event, these showed up yesterday and I was reminded of how it all started for me and ended up here. Almost 10 years ago, I started moonlighting at a custom clothing shop. I loved a lot of things about it, but maybe my favorite thing was the day the new cloth books would arrive. It was literally like Christmas morning for me. I would go through each book and look for what was new, what was amazing, what was so terrible it was cool.

I still love new book day, and the two in focus are among my favorites. I know there isnt a ton of love on the forum for Loro Piana, but I'm a fan. The Winter Tasmania in particular is one of my favorite suiting fabrics around. Anyway, happy new book day (technically yesterday, but whatever).

View attachment 1142850

How can I get my hands on one of those books?

 

[bdavro23]

How can I get my hands on one of those books?

Start a clothing company

 

[bdavro23]

Open them!

As you wish...
The first two are from the Royal Wish book, which is a very lightweight (7.5 oz) wool silk blend. Amazingly, I know a guy who wears these suits daily through three seasons. He has maybe 8 or 10, but thats still pretty amazing performance out of that fabric.

This is the Winter Tasmanian fabric that my wedding suit is made out of and this might be my favorite book. 11 oz fabric with a beautiful feel and great drape.

This is a new fabric for 2019 and there are a lot of bold patterns in this collection. Pretty lightweight for spring as well.

And this, well its under 5.5 oz. Most of us have shirts with fabric heavier than that. Pretty amazing...