The Anderson & Sheppard Expatriates Thread

Originally Posted by iammatt

Click to expand...

FWIW, I have had suits with four fittings, two fittings, one fitting and no fittings, and they all fit the same. Once the pattern is down, I don't know that lots of fittings are necessary.

You should try the five fitting suit. I hear it is amazing.

Originally Posted by iammatt

Click to expand...

FWIW, I have had suits with four fittings, two fittings, one fitting and no fittings, and they all fit the same. Once the pattern is down, I don't know that lots of fittings are necessary.

Lots? No. but you'd figure there're always tweaks. I'd agree that fittings for fittings sake is a waste of your tailor's time.

Interesting thread.
Two thoughts:
RE: fittings: I am sure we can agree on "as many as necessary", which tends to translate to an average of three once you are past the first order. There is almost always some tweaking to be done at one stage or another. I would rather "waste" time if it means a better fit on a garment I intend to keep for twenty years or more. Plus I do enjoy my visits to my tailor, chatting and hearing about the latest SR gossip, then more shopping and a museum in London before taking the Eurostar back.
The soft, A & S, cut seems to be particularly popular on the fora. May I hazard that this may be because it looks better on American bodies (a gross generalization, I know, and meaning no offense) and also because it is less of a visual shock when seen next to a traditional "sack" suit.
Would you agree?
Frog in Suit

Originally Posted by Despos

Click to expand...

You should try the five fitting suit. I hear it is amazing.

I generally have two fittings for each of my fittings. All things being equal I have more fittings than I need, but fewer fittings than I want.

Originally Posted by aportnoy

Click to expand...

I generally have two fittings for each of my fittings.

Your fittings have fittings?

Acquiring custom clothing is a process. Fittings are the process.

I've gotten numerous garments from Raphael, and he always does a first fitting in a skeleton baste with no sleeves and no top collar. I haven't asked for it; that's just what he does. Most of my suits have taken at least three fittings, at his insistence, not mine. "Insistence" may be the wrong word. I just let him do what he wants.

I don't mind getting trousers without a fitting, but I would not get a coat without one.

Just so that American readers who are not familiar with traveling English tailors are not confused: the single forward fitting for commissions after the first is not peculiar to A&S or A&S expats, but quite common among all the SR houses for their clients in the United States. It's a predictable adaptation to serving customers efficiently across an ocean, and because the relationship of SR tailors to American customers stretches all the way back to the age of ocean liner travel, it's a habit arising from the need to deal with the historically high cost and difficulty of travel during the past century.

It does not have to be that way today, perhaps, with cheap air travel, and there are exceptions, but you will find this to be a widespread practice.

At A&S, however, it might be the case that fewer fittings became a point of pride (or expediency) even for local customers.

The question that interests me is: if you use a tailor who does not travel, but to whom you travel (and thus, is generally local), that tailor's style of work might never need to adapt to the single fitting model. There's no reason to be good at doing things in one go. You can fuss with things, which can be time well spent, or time uselessly spent: progress or just Brownian motion.

So, is it possible that those who do things in one fitting, customer after customer, become quite good at that? Manton has already commented that in his experience, the ability of these A&S-trained guys to get the balance right from the get go is uncanny. Or, is that type of expertise only going to go so far?

Also to be considered, and this is where I think the expats might shine more than their former home, is that even in the one fitting model, as long as the tailor is happy and willing to deal with subsequent adjustments, I would think that this is a reasonable safety valve for at least those sets of adjustments (limited, of course) that are still posssible after the garment is finished. People (perhaps people with no direct experience, so there might be a bit of exaggeration, but still...) often associate a bit of unresponsiveness with A&S on making post-delivery adjustments.

My experience has been that I have not needed more than one structural fitting with my DeBoise items after the first piece he did for me. I'm relatively particular...although maybe not as much as some of you.

- B

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

Click to expand...

So, a premise of this thread is that there are three active A&S expats. If there are more, do post.

Was there not a former A&S alterations tailor who once hung out his own shingle?

Originally Posted by Vintage Gent

Click to expand...

Was there not a former A&S alterations tailor who once hung out his own shingle?

I believe he still posts here occasionally.

FWIW, Darren said repeatedly that he is not fond of the A&S cut and does not prefer to make it himself. The suit he was making me was certainly different. The shoulders were sloped and lightly padded, but not extended. The coat was overall a lot leaner than A&S, with less drape.

Most of the pics that he posted of his work were also very different from the Scholte/A&S cut.

Originally Posted by Vintage Gent

Click to expand...

Was there not a former A&S alterations tailor who once hung out his own shingle?

This was a pretty good episode of Bewitched, holding lessons for us even in this century.

- B

Originally Posted by Andre Yew

Click to expand...

--Andre

I like what your collar is doing in this photo. That is, nothing, just staying stuck to your neck.

Originally Posted by Mildly Consumptive

Click to expand...

I like what your collar is doing in this photo. That is, nothing, just staying stuck to your neck.

Thanks --- it does that most of the time. However, that jacket has to go back to Tom for him to adjust the back a bit, because it doesn't stick there all the time.

For post-delivery alterations, I see him on his US visits, he marks up the jacket, and ships it back to England for me. I see it a few weeks later, and it's always free of charge.

It's not a bad way to do things if you have enough suits to hold you over.

--Andre

Originally Posted by RJman

Click to expand...

I believe he still posts here occasionally.

Even the most lost are never lost completely...a link...just discount the self referential portions.

- B

Vox- I love the look of those soft shoulders by the way... Just had a quick question about the fabric of your tweed suit. What weight is it and which textile company? I know you may have mentioned this before but I seem to have missed it...

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

Click to expand...

What is meant by "soft tailoring?" Well, let's start with an example, the construction of the shoulder of one of my DeBoise tweed jackets:

There typically is no shoulder padding at all, but there might be hand-placed wadding to shape or even out the shoulders. Let's see how the shoulders fall, and how full the bellies of the lapels are:

The full tweed suit...not the best photograph, but can see the shaping of the silhouette:

The coat worn as an odd jacket, with Kiton RTW trousers:

- B