Sexy Life Style

CS, Los Angeles: I have been reading PS for the last few months in an effort to educate myself on various matters of style. First and foremost, I want to thank you for the time and effort you put into your work in this area. I suspect that you have a day job (and I believe you mentioned having at least one daughter in a post), so, from the perspective of another young father-professional, your work is all the more impressive.

Please forgive the bluntness, but I was hoping to get your views on why it is you chose the tailors you did for your first few British bespoke items. Is it simply the price range of the larger names that caused you not to try them out or is it a value calculation? Did you feel that you had the same options with Graham Browne that you might have had with a ‘bigger name’ shop?

Dear CS, thank you for your question. I cannot afford Savile Row at this point in my life, so that limited my decision. But I have also over time learnt the various ways in which bespoke tailors – all of whom deserve the name – differ from each other. And that informs the value calculation.

The first point to note is that the materials are all the same. Unless you want the exclusivity of Huntsman Opus or some such record cloth, you can find the same wools and linings at any bespoke house. Everyone uses Lesser, Minnis, W Bill etc and the same lining books.

Second, the process is the same. Both GB and one of the more famous Savile Row names will take an equal number of measurements, create a unique paper pattern and cut the cloth by hand, creating a basted suit that will be ripped apart and re-cut, and remade for a forward fitting. Then the final suit will be made, which can be altered again. In this way they are both entirely different to made-to-measure.

Assuming some minor changes are made at the final stage, this means visiting the tailor five times. Many Savile Row tailors will insist on more than this. That’s more expensive as it means more staff, more cutting and more time. But whether that is worth it depends on fit, which will be discussed later.

Third, the style and design options are unrelated to price. Some tailors, such as Anderson & Sheppard or Huntsman, and more known for a particular style and are more likely to stay with it. Others have no particular house style, but dislike experimentation or anything out of the ordinary, as it takes longer.

This is a question of personality rather than price. Russell and Dan at Graham Browne are always surprisingly excited about experiments – as demonstrated by both my and Guy Hills’ (of Dashing Tweeds) commissions. Some Savile Row tailors are equally impressive in that regard.

So those are the similarities. What are the differences? Well, Graham Browne does a few things with a sewing machine rather than by hand. For example, it attaches the layers of chest canvas together by sewing machine. These are still not tight stitches, and the canvas as a whole is secured to the jacket by hand, to ensure movement, but that construction of the canvas would be done by hand at most good Savile Row houses. It takes ages. And so it is expensive.

Personally, I love the way that my Graham Browne suits have adapted to my chest and feel personal. Far better than any expensive off-the-peg suit that had a floating canvas (Ralph Lauren Purple Label, for example). But a Savile Row suit might adapt better there – I don’t know, I’ve never owned one.

Another difference is that Graham Browne does not make its own shoulder pads. They are pre-constructed. Unless you have unusual shoulders, though, I don’t think this makes a substantial difference.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly for the price, Graham Browne offers little after-sales service. They cannot sponge and press suits onsite. With good Savile Row houses, this is included in the price and can be done for years to come. And while GB would be happy to carry out minor alterations after the fact, it will not substantially alter and refurbish a suit several years down the line without some cost. Good Savile Row houses will – it’s part of the service.

These last three points are all part of a value calculation, as you put it. They are all things that GB has opted to do without in order to charge less. And I’m perfectly happy with that – the construction is great and the fit fantastic, which are the priorities with bespoke.

Then there is definitely a premium for a big name (however small) and it costs a lot more to have large premises on or around Savile Row. That’s obvious if you look at the prices of Savile Row-trained cutters that now work somewhere else in the country (like Thomas Mahon) or in smaller premises (like Steven Hitchcock).

But, I think the most important thing you get, or should get with a Savile Row tailor, is consistency and quality of fit. Savile Row head cutters are at the top of their game. It is a prestigious position, and they are very good. You can have confidence that they will make you a very well-fitting suit, where you couldn’t with a smaller less-known name. It’s less risky. Not that the biggest names don’t sometimes get it wrong – but you’re on safer ground.

You can also justifiably be more demanding on Savile Row (back to the idea of service), changing things or requesting more fittings. The tailor is likely to be more demanding on that score as well.

There is a chance that there are tiny points of fit on a Graham Browne suit that would be improved on Savile Row. But I can’t see them and I’ve had suits made for a while now. I think Russell is a good cutter and others think so too.

Would I have a Savile Row suit made if I could afford it? Yes, I would. But given that it would cost three times one from Graham Browne, I would have to be earning at least three times what I do now.

My tailor, Russell, recently lent me the tailoring book he was passed by his old boss at Kashket’s, the military tailors, when he retired. Dan and Russell still use it for reference on particularly unusual jobs like riding britches or certain coats.

The book has no cover (the picture here is of a rather smarter edition). Its front is merely the beginning of Chapter 1 – Some Problems of the Tailoring Trade, by F. Chitham (Director, Harrods, Ltd.). Through good fortune and no doubt some decent treatment, this front page has survived without mark, despite the lack of a cover. And the back of the book is merely page 274 – the end of detailed descriptions on how to cut a West End Morning Coat.

The book therefore has no title. But through a little research, I have discovered that this is volume one of The Modern Tailor, Outfitter and Clothier, by A A Whife. Whife was the technical editor of The Tailor and Cutter, a trade magazine that was published from the 1850s until the 1960s. Volumes two and three apparently go into clerical dress, court dress and women’s wear. Which is probably why Russell only kept volume one.

The fact that this is only the first volume also explains why there is no index. A reference system would seem to be indispensable for a guide like this, which aims to teach cutting in no small detail.

On page 162 one can follow the instructions for a pattern of the ‘coat-frock’, which though full in the back as we consider a frock coat to be, has a belt that cinches in the waist. There is one alternative pattern, on the following page, but this is for a coat-frock with “Magyar shoulders; short sleeves; square neck; gathers on hips.”

As I read my way through this guide, expect occasional blog posts on interesting patterns and points. To start with, though, Mr Chitham’s introduction. It begins with the cheery note that “the Growing Competition to which the trade has been subjected … is the greatest problem of all, and is peculiar to the bespoke tailoring trade, in that it is a competition which threatens the very existence of many hundreds of persons engaged in the business.” The decline hasn’t stopped, really, since he wrote that a century ago. Though there are fewer hundreds threatened today.

He goes on to recommend that tailors should not become too specialist, yet should concentrate on one ‘class’ of trade: “it is impossible to make a ‘cheap’ suit today and a ‘good’ suit tomorrow.” Some houses that have pulled back from ready-to-wear should perhaps have learned their lesson here.

And finally, Chitham thinks it absolutely necessary for salesmanship that “every tailor should be extremely particular about his personal appearance, in order to create a favourable impression. He must also cultivate a pleasing manner.” I’ll have to show Russell that bit…