The Made-to-Measure Process
Joe Hemrajani measuring a customer
At the Masonic Society’s forum we’ve been discussing the virtues of Brooks Brothers‘ custom shirt program versus a bespoke or a made-to-measure product from a tailor. I thought it might be valuable to discuss how the made-to-measure process works, at least with the tailor I use. The process is essentially identical with almost all tailors, however.
I should probably begin by discussing the difference between the terms “bespoke” and “made-to-measure.” You’ll frequently hear those terms used interchangeably in advertising, but that’s somewhat inaccurate and misleading.
Made-to-measure refers to a process in which the tailor begins with an existing pattern and adjusts it to fit your particular measurements. You’ll be able to select your fabrics and specify many of the styling elements. There usually aren’t any intermediate fittings with made-to-measure tailors, they measure you, produce the garment and then deliver it. Adjustments to the fit will be made on subsequent purchases.
Bespoke tailors don’t begin with an existing pattern. When you commission your first shirt or suit from a bespoke tailor, the cutter will take your measurements and start with a clean sheet of paper, producing a pattern that is specific to you and you alone. In the case of shirts, some tailors will make a prototype shirt, ask you to launder it as you typically would a couple of times and wear the shirt to check the fit. Others will simply make a real first shirt. Adjustments will be made to the pattern after verifying the fit, then the remainder of your order produced. In the case of suits, they’ll produce a “forward baste,” which is your actual suit very roughly sewn together. The lapels will not be attached, it won’t be fully lined, pockets not finished and so forth. The tailor will check the fit, mark up the suit, take it completely apart, recut it and sew it back together again. This may be done a few times until both parties are satisfied with the fit. Only then will the suit be completed and finished.
I’ve made the decision that I cannot justify the added expense of fully bespoke suits and shirts, which can be several times the cost of made-to-measure.
I work with a traveling tailor, Hemrajani Brothers, but there are many different tailors who provide the same service, and it may well be that you have a local tailor in your area. Certainly in larger cities, even here in Indianapolis, there are local tailors you can work with to achieve the same results. This is how Hemrajani’s process works. Several times a year, one of their tailors (in my case it’s usually Mr. Ram Keswani) moves into a hotel room for a couple of days with about 3000 fabric books. At your first visit, the tailor will take a very extensive set of measurements and some photographs of you so they’ll have records of your body type. Then he’ll discuss what kind of garments you’re looking for, suits, shirts, trousers, sport coats, dinner suits. Hemrajani even makes custom linen pajamas. You’ll select your fabrics, then your styling details. In your shirts, do you want a button down or point collar? What kind of collar spread? Button or French cuffs? How many buttons? Shoulder pleats? Pockets? Length of your tails? With suits, single or double breasted? Notch or peak lapels? How many buttons? Waistcoat? Hacking pockets? Ticket pockets? Pick stitching? Lining color? Working sleeve buttons? Pleats or cuffs on your trousers? Belt loops or braces? Brace back?
It seems daunting, but he’ll happily lead you through all of the fabric and styling choices to arrive at something appropriate for you. Remember, you’ll be a walking advertisement for their services, so it’s in his best interest to make sure that whatever you get looks just right.
After taking your credit card and billing and shipping information, he’ll hand you a card reminding you when and what you ordered, how much you paid, and will tell you to expect a box in 6-8 weeks. At this point, your measurements and order are sent to Hemrajani’s California offices where they adjust your pattern, then the whole order and pattern are transmitted to Hemrajani’s Hong Kong production facility where your garments are actually produced, then shipped back to California and thence to your front door.
Your shirts will need to be laundered about three times before you’ll really have a feel for the fit. (A small amount of fabric shrinkage is computed into the pattern.) Suits, jackets and trousers should be taken to the dry cleaners for a professional pressing — that suit has been stuffed in the box for a while. BTW, Hemrajani includes a beautiful hanger with every suit you buy. It’s a little touch that adds a lot of value.
Honestly, your first order probably won’t be perfect. My first suit needed some adjustments to the sleeves, my shirts needed a bit of room in the shoulders. The next time you meet with your tailor, wear the clothes you bought last time. He’ll make those adjustments to your pattern and the next effort will be closer. After three sessions, we’re both completely happy with the way everything fits. The first session’s results were better than anything I ever bought from a store, however.
The cost depends almost completely on the fabrics you choose. Better fabric = higher cost, but in general I’ve found the price of the things I’ve bought from Hemrajani to be on par with better mainstream department store and mens’ shop brands, and the fit and construction are superior. Hemrajani’s jackets are full canvas construction, not fused (essentially glued together) as most mainstream brands are, canvas construction creates a much softer and lighter garment that wears better and conforms more closely to your body. And I get what I want, not what the store has.
Again, Hemrajani is who I use, they have a good product AND they visit Indianapolis, many tailors don’t. (Their website tells you where and when they’re visiting.) They’re not paying me, I’m simply a satisfied customer relaying my experience with them to you. There are many tailors from which to choose — but not as many as there used to be. I encourage my gentleman readers to utilize the services of tailors who produce clothing that is made to fit your body, especially in the case of shirts. Custom shirts are a fantastic value proposition, and you’ll never realize how badly your shirts fit and feel until you buy a proper shirt.
Ronald D. Martin
on August 6th, 2009
Brother Jeff,
Can you give us an idea of a range of costs for a dress shirt, slacks etc.? In addition, do they quote you a flat price which includes all current and future alterations?
Thanks,
Bro Ron
Jeff Naylor
on August 6th, 2009
Bro. Ron, it really all depends on the fabrics you choose. For a dress shirt, for example, if you buy something in their “Superfine” line they’ll run between $70-$90, that’s a far better fabric than you’ll buy from, say, Brooks or Lands’ End off the shelf. “Executive Collection” line, broadcloths run around $129, which is in line with Brooks custom at the low end, Brooks better fabrics go for around $225 for same quality. With Hemrajani you can go up as high as around $240 for a Thomas Mason Gold or Monti fabric, which is world-class material. I like Thomas Mason Silver. It’s around $125, better fabric than Brooks custom, far less expensive, and I have more selection and better fit and construction.
Suits generally run me right around $900 for a typical office-type suit. I normally use a Vitale Barberis Canonico Italian-made fabric, it’s in the middle of the pack, quality-wise, and that’s in line with Brooks main line suits, but again the construction is better. They’ll be perfectly happy to sell you a Scabal or Dormeuil fabric that can run between $1500-$2000, which is closer to what Brooks will charge for their Golden Fleece line.
What they’ll encourage you to do if you need future alterations to an existing garment is to go to a local alterations tailor, which really doesn’t cost a lot. Their model really doesn’t support alterations very easily, unless you happen to be local to their Costa Mesa offices. And once they get your pattern figured out, unless you gain or lose a lot of weight you won’t need much in the way of alterations. The last suit I bought fit like a glove right out of the box.
Ronald D. Martin
on August 6th, 2009
Bro Jeff,
Do you have those dress shirts always dry cleaned? How does the Thomas Mason Silver wear? Normal wear and tear – life expectancy of the shirt?
Thanks,
Bro Ron
Jeff Naylor
on August 6th, 2009
I normally have all my Hemrajani shirts cleaned just because my local cleaner is particularly good and particularly inexpensive. As long as it takes me to iron a shirt, I’m happy to pay the cleaners to take them off my hands and send them back to me two days later clean and pressed to perfection. Plus, if buttons come loose they fix them and that kind of thing, something else I don’t have to worry about.
Compared to my Brooks and Lands End shirts — and I do have some Brooks custom shirts that I bought before I began using Hemrajani — I’m much happier with the wear of the Hemrajani. With the Brooks shirts I began seeing minor fraying on the collar tips and on the cuffs within a year, and once the fraying starts it doesn’t take too long until the shirts are unwearable. My oldest Hemrajani shirts are 18 months old and I see no evidence of wear in the same areas. I suspect the better grade of fabric has a lot to do with that.
I grant you that I’m particular about my shirts, but I wear a shirt and tie every day so the feel and the life expectancy are issues that are pretty important to me. It’s definitely more effort to pick fabric samples from a few thousand possibilities and make all the decisions about the shirt’s design than to just click the buy button on the website, but I think it’s worth the effort.
There are a lot of custom clothing posts I could follow this up with, I work with a custom hatter in Oregon, a company that makes tweed suits and overcoats in England, and, believe it or not, a necktie maker in Thailand. All of those companies produce clothing to my exact specifications that are of far superior quality to off the rack equivalents at the same price or less.
Jeff Naylor
on August 6th, 2009
One other thing about the custom shirt makers — and there are a lot of them, Hamilton in Texas, Cego, Paris and Geneva in New York, Alex Kabbaz if you’re particularly well heeled, Anna Matuozzo, Charvet, any number of English makers, several Hong Kong makers who travel in the U.S., they do little things that aren’t immediately obvious but are quality touches.
Brooks Brothers shirts come with plastic collar stays. My custom shirts come with brass stays. Brooks shirts come with plastic buttons, my shirts come with mother of pearl buttons. My suits come with my name embroidered over one of the inside pockets and they include a maple suit hanger that supports the shoulders properly and has a felted trouser bar to keep them from slipping off. They’ll design in extra pockets, I have pockets inserted for my cell phone. It’s those little quality touches that make the effort worthwhile. In my opinion you get more than you pay for relative to store brands.
None of this is to berate Brooks Brothers at all, they have a wonderful product and it’s a tremendous resource that I have a number of my favorite dollars invested in.
Chris Sloffer
on August 6th, 2009
Bro. Jeff. I have trouble reaching the mytailor.com site you link to above. Things are correct?
Also, I have recently come upon the blog a bit ago, and have been quite enjoying it.
My usual outfit seems to be the Canali or Zenga shirts and suits, but they need to be found at the season change or the are prohibitly expensive at places such as Raleigh’s in Indy. I may try the method you suggest as a way to get the higher quality for lower price.
Chris
Jeff Naylor
on August 6th, 2009
Thanks for your support!
mytailor.com comes right up for me from those links, but as many DOS attacks as have been happening today it’s hard to tell what’s happening.
I love Raleigh Limited, but you’re right, they’re not somewhere I can afford to shop on a regular basis. The author of one of the blogs I link to, Will Boehlke of A Suitable Wardrobe, is a professional wardrobe consultant and one of these fellows who travels to England a few times a year to do his suit shopping at true bespoke tailors. Will uses Hemrajani for his shirts. I started using them for my shirts when I learned that and I never went back.
MP
on August 7th, 2009
I work with a custom hatter in Oregon
Not always needed, as, fortunately, the Akubra Federation IV hat comes unbashed, and with a whole ton of sizes available.
Jeff Naylor
on August 7th, 2009
It does, that’s true… but the FedIV isn’t a Homburg, which is the next thing I’m having made.
mp
on August 7th, 2009
Jeff, I hardly ever wear a suit, as I’m in uniform most work days, and if I’m going to Lodge, being as it’s MA, and I’m usually travelling with a PSGW, I wear a dinner jacket … so I hardly have an opportunity to wear a real hat.
So, I’ll stick with a good generic fedora, bashed on my own, as even that will attract attention in this day and age, and I can get away with it while wearing late 50′s era clothing for swing dancing, too.
Jeff Naylor
on August 7th, 2009
Honestly, I won’t have much of a chance to wear the Homburg either, but I’m replacing all of my black tie kit this year and I really don’t have a proper hat to wear with black tie. That’s why the Homburg.
About 75% of the time when I wear a hat it’s a fedora (still normally sourced from Art Fawcett @ Vintage Silhouettes in Oregon), the remainder of the time it’s almost always a tweed flat cap.
mp
on August 7th, 2009
A tweed flat cap – what we call a scally cap in Boston.
I see your point about the homburg with black tie, though I’m thinking even that would draw excessive attention on the way to Lodge – and, really, it needs a top coat to go with it, as it would seem to me to look over done to wear just a tux and derby or homburg.
Then again, I come from a tradition where black tie events, if they continue past 6pm, one isn’t required to wear a cap, but that’s a military thing.
Jeff Naylor
on August 7th, 2009
I hardly ever wear a hat without a topcoat anyway, except for the tweed caps that I wear with my tweed suits. “Scally cap,” that’s a new term for me, I need to put that one down for future reference.
And I have a new topcoat underway for that purpose as well, Harris tweed in a color called “Almost Black,” it’s a very, very dark charcoal herringbone that I’m having made up as my version of a Chesterfield. Black velvet collar, fly front. The peak lapels aren’t quite kosher for a Chesterfield, but I decided I liked it better that way.
Jeff Naylor
on August 7th, 2009
BTW, my lodge, Vitruvian, spends most of its meeting time at the restaurant rather than at the lodge, it’s more of a social event than a Masonic event, so I do things a little differently than I might for a ‘normal’ lodge.
mp
on August 7th, 2009
My biggest issue on the top coat front is versatility – I need one that I can wear with dinner jack, OR with a standard suit, and right now my suits are trending towards blacks and light greys in colors.
What works for both?
I’m considering getting out to one of the Hemrajani session while they’re in Boston, although it’s a lot of bank for someone on contractor’s wages.
Jeff Naylor
on August 7th, 2009
A medium charcoal might be just the thing for a wardrobe that splits between grays and blacks, and charcoal is perfectly acceptable for evening wear as well. Another option would be to go with a midnight blue. Midnight can have a blue appearance in the daytime and appear black in artificial light.
FYI, Hemrajani isn’t making my topcoat. I’m having it made by Bookster in England, their website is http://www.tweed-jacket.com . Right now the conversion rate is very advantageous, and Bookster has done a lot of very good tweed work for me at very favorable prices.
http://www.tweed-jacket.com/CLOTH%20PAGE/CLOTH%20GALLERY/HARRIS%20TWEEDS/images/Nearly%20Black%20Herringbone_jpg.jpg
That’s the cloth I’m using for the coat they’re working on for me, and even with all of the extras I had them do and the shipping from England it came in at under $600. I have one of their coats already in a gray-green tweed with a burgundy overcheck, and they do some very fine work. That might be a good alternative for you.