I'm Making a Trip to English American Tailoring for a Suit. Advice?

Hello,

I will be traveling from DC to English American Tailoring to get a suit. I think I'm going to get charcoal. Does anybody have any advice concerning fabric, fit, etc. when dealing with English American? Thanks.

Run a search. You'll be pleased. Just make sure that you are very specific about what you want. They are used to dealing with customers that want what I'd describe as a high-quality, well-fit JAB suit. They can do a much more European-looking, trim suit, though. You just need to be very specific. Also - tell them you want the sleeves 1/4" short of what they initially recommend. Same with the trousers.

As for fabric, anything better than their most basic will be pretty nice. Look hard, and there is plenty of H&S stuff about most of the time. Let us know how it goes.

AO

Originally Posted by HERCULES

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Hello,

I will be traveling from DC to English American Tailoring to get a suit. I think I'm going to get charcoal. Does anybody have any advice concerning fabric, fit, etc. when dealing with English American? Thanks.

I have no idea what this means.

English American is a MTM operation outside of Baltimore. He's going to drive from DC to Baltimore to get a suit made.

Did you go, Hercules? Thoughts?

I went a couple weeks ago. I did a search before I went and saw this: http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=193893

So I saw the feedback about the suit being too long and too big.

Elio pointed me to the fabric in stock. He also had H&S books. He really thought I should just get a fabric in stock because it is cheaper than ordering out of the book.

At first Elio handed me a jacket to try on. The jacket was huge. So I knew I was going to have to convey the message that I want a suit that was slim fitting. I told him I needed a jacket with slimmer shoulders and he didn't seem to happy about this. He really want to give me a sack suit.

Same thing with the length of the jacket. He wanted the jacket length really long. When I told him it was too long he got upset saying it would look stupid if it is too short. He said gq style suits are just a fad. He said he would shorten it only so much before it would look stupid and I was ok with the fact he shortened the length up to a point he felt acceptable.

Same story with the length of the arms. He wanted to show little cuff. I told him a little shorter.

So basically, at every stop he wanted the suit bigger and I pushed him to make it slimmer. I tried to make it as slim as I could without making him too mad. I figured that was my best bet considering I dont know anything about suit making and I didn't want to tell him how to do his job.

Hopefully it turns out ok. I'm kinda worried.

This was my experience, too. I am very happy with the result. I'm glad he talked me down from doing something too slim; I'm also glad that I was persistent with him, too.

HERCULES - any updates about your finished suit yet? Or are you still waiting for it to be completed?

I'm thinking about trying out E/A as well. I live in Baltimore, so it's not too far from me. I'm pretty much fed up with trying to get a good fit with online MTM, so I wanted to try the real deal.

It does sound kind of annoying the way he kept pushing you to go bigger though...I'm sure I will have the same problem if I go there.

Originally Posted by HERCULES

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So basically, at every stop he wanted the suit bigger and I pushed him to make it slimmer. I tried to make it as slim as I could without making him too mad. I figured that was my best bet considering I dont know anything about suit making and I didn't want to tell him how to do his job.

Hopefully it turns out ok. I'm kinda worried.

this sounds like it will not end well for one of you two. Either he will cave in and do something that he does not like or he will do what he thinks is right which you will not like. With these kinds of differences, you may have been better served going somewhere else.

Originally Posted by edmorel

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this sounds like it will not end well for one of you two. Either he will cave in and do something that he does not like or he will do what he thinks is right which you will not like. With these kinds of differences, you may have been better served going somewhere else.

I thought the same thing as I was reading about his experience.

Seems that the "traditional" clothiers try to keep to the same silhouette no matter the current fads. This can be a good thing IF the house cut or house taste wasn't too far any any direction to begin with. But if you have to debate the guy at every turn then I personally would walk away. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most places won't give you a refund for a custom suit. So the guy could tell you one thing and just make it in his own mold and now you're stuck with a suit where you don't like the fit, which defeats the whole purpose of going MTM/custom in the first place.

My city is pretty old school, Midwest dressing. We have one high-end retailer (you'd see it in the GQ and Esquire lists) that carries Canali, Zegna, Isaia, Samuelson, Broni, Ferragamo, etc. Their lead tailor is an older gentleman who has suggested some strange stuff to me. I'm 31 and this store's clientele is more in the 40-65 range (due to price). His suggestions would probably be "classic" to a 55yo, but not with the modern touches that are prevalent today. My read about OP's store is that it's probably similar. I've found many articles I'd like from this store but have passed because they keep fighting me on the tweaks that I want.

Once Elio realizes you have some idea what you are talking about, he becomes much more flexible. I brought my wife and he said "Come over here and let me show you a little exhibit on suit canvassing". My wife said "What's canvassing?" I explained it before he could and he said "Your huband knows his suits" and stopped trying to guide me to his standard. He made me a nice trim suit with a high arm scye, although he does like a full break. The one thing I don't like is that the lapels on my suit are not truly rolled, there is a crease. Louche has told me they produce both styles. If it is not too late, I would call and make sure the lapels are rolled.

I'm going to pick it up on Friday. I'll post pics ASAP.

^ Great, thanks for the update, I hope everything turns out well for you.

Based on KObalto's review alone, I think it's definitely worth checking out for me. I know exactly what I'm looking for, so as long as I can convey that to Elio I think I should be able to get a really nice MTM suit for a very fair price.

KObalto - did you ever post the final fit pis?