Tailoring for Women

We have written about the credit crunch in other posts, however this particular project we undertook recently with Malcolm Plews of the tailoring house Welsh and Jefferies was an opportunity for clothes to ‘bite back’. And it involved a fashion student; Katie Robinson.

From time to time we try to make space to work with up and coming students in the clothing industry. Their ideas can be really refreshing and it gives us the opportunity to keeping in touch with current trends.

Katie’s particular specialisation is textile design and this collection, ‘Boom and Bust’, is inspired by the traumas of the City over the last few months.

The print designs were created on a range of different fabrics and used a number of iconic motifs such as the gold chip on a credit card, and embossed coinage.

After the fabric came the construction; I worked on the women’s business suit, Malcolm the men’s, and the one and only Delroy Mitchell produced the shirts.  I wonder if it is the first time a graduation show has had such a back stage representation from Savile Row?

Here is the collection, beautifully captured by the photographer Vicoria Brocklebank.

If all goes well, the collection will be selected for an independent London show at the East Winter Garden in Canary Warf on the 12th of June.

Good luck Katie!

A client rang me the other day. “I was made redundant a couple of months back and with a number of job interviews to face I think I need an edge,” she said.

The timing of this was particularly appropriate because it coincided with a piece of research carried out by a colleague of mine, Kate Rawlinson. She used to be a sub-editor for the fashion magazines and decided to give it all up to train as a bespoke tailor. The outcome of her research was an interesting mix of opinions which showed that almost 60% of women would consider having a suit made, but that this was overridden by concerns about whether or not they would like the result, and also value for money.

The most important criteria when buying a suit was thought to be the fit (82.5%) followed by the quality of fabric (52.6%). Next came quality of construction (51.5%) and then value for money (49.5%).

With just over 80% of women saying that they wear a suit to work there is undoubtedly a demand but the quality and in particular fit of what is on offer was considered as leaving much to be desired; check my post on ‘Shoddy Fashion‘.

What does all this mean? For me it indicates that there needs to be better education process in place reassuring women that going the bespoke route gives you something that covers all the bases with regard to fit, fabric, and quality of construction. There needs perhaps to be more guidance on what to expect during the process, and we have tried to cover some of this in Briefing for Bespoke. If any of you have any thoughts about ways in which we can make this more helpful please get in contact.

One of the big problems appears to be that it is difficult for women to find bespoke tailors who can cater for their needs not just as clients, but as women too. “…the service just seems like a bolt-on, not really geared up for women” said one respondent.

As for value, did you realise that an authentic bespoke suit could last you for 10 years, if not longer. Factor that out and put it against your mobile phone bill!

In the Independent on Sunday Hot List last week the comment was made that ‘men should be making an appointment with their tailor and ordering something chic and long-lasting’. I would suggest that the same goes for women too, and not only when they need an edge.

In closing, one final crie de coeur from the survey…”I love my out-of-work clothes and wish I could feel the same about my suits”

Photo: thanks to The Costumer’s Manifesto

With the current financial turmoil that surrounds us it seems appropriate to talk about price of goods, but on this occasion I intend to do it from the ‘makers’ standpoint.  The reason is that I have been more than slightly surprised recently by some of the prices claimed for ‘high quality, custom, hand made’ suits.

Here in the City  you are either accosted en-route across London Bridge during the morning rush hour by ‘banker look-alikes’ handing out vouchers for commodity-priced bespoke items,  or by low price deals for hand-made suits in the evening papers.  I find this intriguing.  Now that the true definition of the term bespoke has become clouded by a recent Advertising Standards Authority ruling, perhaps there is a lingering hope for clarity in the term ‘hand-made’.  It seems like a good premise until you start to look at the price breakdown.

Let’s take for example an offer for a ‘custom hand-made’ suit I saw the other day.  £179 was the asking price.  leaving to one side the acutal ‘fit’ of the garment let’s look at the maths.

First get rid of the VAT; about £15 in round figures.  That leaves us with £164.

It seems from recent press that ‘buying quality’ is the advice when preparing your wardrobe in times of financial uncertainty.  So how does this apply with your tailored garments.

In ‘Looking the Business‘ (Times Online) the suggestion is that made-to-measure is a better option to bespoke.   It may be helpful to expand a little on what lies behind each of these terms. 

The process of made-to-measure involves in effect the use of a pre-set template to which a limited number of measures can be applied to make for a closer fit to a client’s figure.  Generally there will  be a limited choice available for stylistic changes such as the type of pocket or number of buttons.   Once details are finalised they are sent to a factory for the suit to be made up.  The client will have probably one more fitting where limited adjustments can be made.  The end result is something that will give a generally acceptable fit but without authentic refinement to the figure of the client.

By way of contrast, bespoke gives control to the client throughout the whole process.  There are literally no limitations to the adjustments that can be made with regard to materials, fit or style.  Also, because of the way in which the garment is made, over a period of time it will ‘mature’ and settle on the figure for which it is designed.  The fusing of materials (literally gluing together) that us used in the made-to-measure process limits this process.

Longevity also has a part to play.  We all understand only too well how our body shape changes over time.  With a made-to-measure suit it is difficult to accommodate these changes because of the way in which the garment has been constructed (see comments re fusing above).  If I were to tell you that recently I made some modifications to a suit that was made before I was born, it gives you some idea as to how bespoke stands the test of time.

So for these financially challenging days lets do a ‘back of an envelope’ calculation on the respective values of each.  The average cost of a £500 made-to-measure suit with a lifespan of about 5 years (worn once a week) works out at around £2 per week.  A bespoke suit at around £2,500, with a lifespan of 30 years, and with the same frequency of use works out at £1.60 per week.  And that is for a suit that fits.

You think that 30 years is excessive?  A number of my clients are having their grandfather’s suits re-modelled.  Go figure!