spoon tailor -hong kong bespoke operation in San Francisco

[dragon8]



First timer here, be gentle Has anyone had any experience comparing Spoon Tailor quality to: 1. Brooks Brothers 1818 (I get this at $700, corporate discount) 2. Duchess Clothiers - http://www.styleforum.net/t/159853/duchess-clothier-of-portland

• The price range of Spoon Tailor is pretty similar to Duchess at ~$800 per suit. How does the construction and tailoring quality compare?
• Mixed reviews from SF (http://www.styleforum.net/t/159853/duchess-clothier-of-portland), but pretty good reviews on Yelp on their Portland store (http://www.yelp.com/biz/duchess-clothier-portland-2)
• One member described it as "if you're into neo-vintage MTM boarding on hipster." (http://www.styleforum.net/t/171338/portland-or#post_3057067)

I am looking for a basic/classic solid charcoal suit, mostly for business and weddings. 27 y/o male, 176lb, 5'11"), fits well into a BB Fitzgerald. Thanks in advance!

I think if you fit well OTR I'd go that route. Just remember that no tailor can ever copy a suit specifically so if you like a certain cut and you don't need any major alterations on the suit stick with OTR

 

[otheme]

Here is the latest one from Spoon. Two trims.

 

[AHS]

Indochino is coming to San Francisco next week and I was thinking about trying one of their suits. I've never done a suit MTO before, but I am guessing hat Indochino's quality isn't great and I suspect that I may be disappointed.

So... I ask.... Is it worth to spend $300 or $400 more and use Spoon? Will the difference between the two be considerable? For point of reference, most of my suits have been Polo blue label, Brooks Brothers, and Brooks Brothers Black Fleece.

AHS

 

[otheme]

"I've never done a suit MTO before, but I am guessing hat Indochino's quality isn't great and I suspect that I may be disappointed."

There, you said it. If the $400 difference is a major concern, finding a 90%-fitting RTW suit would be a much better bet. Based on all the real-life Indochino suit pics posted here, I think their biggest problem is that the collar and shoulder don't fit most people (including the models on their own web site), and that is not something you can fix by alteration.

With Spoon, at least you can eliminate that concern. IMO, not having to deal with that uncertainty, the basted fitting, and almost unlimited number of alterations, is well worth the extra $400.

 

[cropknox]

I had a suit made by Spoon and was quite satisfied. I going back soon to have a sport coat and some trousers made soon.

From the "how does this Indochino suit fit" posts I've seen here, you you're certainly going to get a better fitting suit from Spoon. Quality wise, I cannot speak to Indochino, but Spoon suits are very well made. There is certainly much more hand work than one the vast majority of RTW labels. Spoon also stocks an extremely wide variety of quality suitings by recognized mills, which judging from their website, Indochino does not.

Finally, in dealing with Andrew at Spoon, I found communication very easy. I was able to tell him "I like a traditional tapered English drap cut, but I do not like ridiculous ['Style Forum Approved'] slim cut fashion" and he understood exactly what I meant.

 

[AHS]

Thanks for the feedback. Planning an exploratory visit to Spoon next week to talk prices, fabric, etc... Hoping to get a suit made next month.

AHS

 

[k4lnamja]

anyone know the pricing for Spoon's suits?

 

[cropknox]

anyone know the pricing for Spoon's suits?

There is a pretty lengthy discussion about pricing earlier in this thread (here). To summarize, the staring price for suits is $800 and a full canvas jacket costs an extra $50. I paid ~$1,100 for a two-piece suit made of 11oz. super 130 Loro Piano.

 

[mghani]

Hi All,

I have been lurking on this forum for a while doing some research on Spoon Tailor and finally took the leap and got a full canvas jacket made. Overall I would say it was a great experience and felt the price was very competitive for what you were getting.

I am actually in the process of working out some kinks on the shoulder finish of the jacket and I would say the folks at Spoon Tailor, so far have been good about working with me to try and fix it up. I have attached some pics to hopefully get some suggestions or guidance on what might be causing the should dip on the jacket, so even standing upright with my arms at my side the dip in the should still persists.

Any ideas on what might be the issue or what to suggest to the folks at Spoon? I am planning on heading back there this weekend to have them take another look.

Thanks!

 

[otheme]

Looks like you have a divot on the left side only? Shoulder divots are a pain to work on, it might involve re-cutting the arm hole and sleeve cap. See http://www.styleforum.net/t/151698/divot-terror

Also, it looks like you have some extra fabric on top the shoulder. The tailor at spoon is fairly good at addressing this. Just tell them that you prefer the shoulder line to be slight concave.

The rest looks OK to me.

 

[thomaspaine]

Had some more shirts made with Thomas Mason fabric a few months ago, really like the way these turned out.




Also had a blazer made, but it feels...off. Sleeves are obviously a little long. I wanted it slim but the waist suppression forms an hourglass silhouette that I'm not really into. I'm ok with the jacket length and lapel width...I know that isn't everyone's cup of tea here. Any ideas on what to suggest?

 

[mghani]

Looks like you have a divot on the left side only? Shoulder divots are a pain to work on, it might involve re-cutting the arm hole and sleeve cap. See http://www.styleforum.net/t/151698/divot-terror
Also, it looks like you have some extra fabric on top the shoulder. The tailor at spoon is fairly good at addressing this. Just tell them that you prefer the shoulder line to be slight concave.
The rest looks OK to me.

The divots are on both sides but the one on the left is a bit more prominent, thanks for the link, I did come across that during my searches on the issue.

I got an email response from the folks at spoon basically providing the same resolution for the issue, removing, possibly re-cutting, and re-position the sleeve at the arm hole. I am heading back there this Friday, could you explain a bit more what the result of requesting "shoulder line to be slight concave" and what I should expect back based on the request?

Thanks for the information!

 

[malat]



Had some more shirts made with Thomas Mason fabric a few months ago, really like the way these turned out.




Also had a blazer made, but it feels...off. Sleeves are obviously a little long. I wanted it slim but the waist suppression forms an hourglass silhouette that I'm not really into. I'm ok with the jacket length and lapel width...I know that isn't everyone's cup of tea here. Any ideas on what to suggest?

Holy hipster, san francisco!! Yikes.

I think the button point on that jacket is too high. The short length of the jacket makes the odd proportions more severe; perhaps patch pockets would have worked better with such a short jacket. The way the pockets are squeezing up your torso is visually unflattering to your body's proportions. I would definitely start by asking for the waist suppression to be relaxed and then see if they can clean up some of the extra fabric around your blades.

I've had great luck with the tailor at Spoon on Sacramento taking directions, but I'm not sure this one can be salvaged considering the proportions of the cut. It honestly looks like an orphaned suit jacket that you grew out of many years ago. Good luck!

 

[thomaspaine]

Holy hipster, san francisco!! Yikes.
I think the button point on that jacket is too high. The short length of the jacket makes the odd proportions more severe; perhaps patch pockets would have worked better with such a short jacket. The way the pockets are squeezing up your torso is visually unflattering to your body's proportions. I would definitely start by asking for the waist suppression to be relaxed and then see if they can clean up some of the extra fabric around your blades.
I've had great luck with the tailor at Spoon on Sacramento taking directions, but I'm not sure this one can be salvaged considering the proportions of the cut. It honestly looks like an orphaned suit jacket that you grew out of many years ago. Good luck!

Thanks, I was afraid that might be the case. I asked them to drop the button stance during the first fitting but perhaps not enough. Is it possible to take the skirt in to try and remove some of the hourglass-ness? My fear is that just removing the waist suppression will make it look like a sack.

 

[imatlas]

It would take a lot more than a little less waist suppression will make that look like a sack. Also, there appears to be too much fabric across the shoulder blades.

I'm just not a fan of their button down collar. I had a few made up by them, and didn't like the positioning of the collar buttons. Like yours, they set the buttons so low that the collar is pulled taught by them. I asked for the buttons to be moved, but that didn't work out very well either. I still didn't get the roll that I'm looking for, and wound up with holes where the buttons had been on a couple of the shirts, as the fabric turned out to be quite unforgiving. Between that and a few other nagging issues Andrew has offered to make me a new trial shirt at no cost. I will bring an example of a button-down with proper collar roll in the hopes that they are able to replicate it.