I often get asked by family and friends: Bally, can you do me a “bespoke” suit and I automatically go in to auto mode and say to them – what is your budget? They look at me and say, roughly $400! I often smile and say to them do you mean a “made-to-measure” suit? They hesitantly say yes, that’s what I meant!
This blog will hopefully try to explain the main differences between bespoke vs. made-to-measure garments.
Bespoke
In its simplest form the term “bespoke” means an item custom-made to the buyer’s specification. More generally bespoke describes a high degree of customisation, and involvement of the end-user in the production of the product.
When it comes to suiting, the word “bespoke” is strongly associated with Savile Row (a famous bespoke tailoring street situated in England). Here the words such as history, traditions, high class and tailoring experience come to mind. One can imagine that the price of a suit is not going to be a mere $400.
After researching some of the tailors on this street, I quickly came to the Savile Row Bespoke Association (http://www.savilerowbespoke.com/About_Us/index.php). This association tries to preserve tradition, history and maintain minimum requirements for a garment to be allowed to use the “Savile Row” trademark, in other words fully bespoke tailoring.
As I slowly traversed through the website I saw photographs that personified hand work, personal service, history, highly experienced tailors, quality fabrics and more importantly fashion education and training schemes. The association also specifies a twenty-one point document that addresses specific parts of a suit, each point dictating some detail such as the length of inlays, or which seams must be hand stitched.
As you can read bespoke manufacturing is truly a highly specialised art. I personally feel that a market for these will always exist but as technology continues to develop this highly personalised art may diminish.
Next we compare this highly skillful art to a modern conventional method of stitching, MTM.
Made to Measure/Custom Made
A “Custom” or MTM garment typically refers to clothing that is sewn from a standard-sized base pattern. A tailored suit is a common example of an MTM garment.
Typically the following are the stages involved in ordering an MTM garment:
- Firstly, the customer’s measurements are taken.
- Then a base pattern is selected that most closely corresponds with the customer’s measurements.
- This base pattern is altered to match the customer’s measurements.
- Lastly, the garment is constructed from this altered pattern.
The garments will be well-fitted to the customers body and customer will have the opportunity to customise their fabric, choose from a wide selection of patterned lining, and personalise their garment styling and fit (slim, regular and loose).
Point of difference
Bespoke garments involve a higher level of customisation and the garments are more likely to be hand sewed/constructed – with a fully floating canvass within the Jacket. MTM manufacturers use a combination of both machine and hand-sewing – while primarily hand-made, machines are used for fusing the jacket as opposed to using the floating canvass that is within a bespoke jacket. The quality of fusing will vary from maker to maker – as will the stitching, finishing and overall price. An MTM garment also requires fewer fittings than bespoke, resulting in a faster turnaround time and shorter wait between customer measurement and garment delivery.
Renowned New York based designer Craig Robinson defines the difference between bespoke and MTM as, “tradition and personality versus conformity and convention”.
I believe that if you are looking for an affordable good quality garment that will serve you well in terms of durability and also looks and fits very well – then MTM is the answer. If however you are looking for a higher degree of personalization then bespoke may be the answer – it all depends on your budget and how particular you are. MTM suits will range between $400 to $1500 depending on the fabric and workmanship, and take approximately 2 to 3 weeks to construct and deliver from the date of order. Bespoke suits generally start at $2,000 and can go up to more than $7,000 depending on where you get it made, and take approximately 6 to 8 weeks from the date of order.