MADE TO MEASURE

What is Made to Measure/Bespoke?

The difference between a ready-made garment and a Made to Measure/Bespoken one is that the ready-made products are manufactured and offered to you – the consumer once they are produced. Size and details are defined by the designers and then the garments go into production. It is not possible to change / adapt / personalize them afterwards. That is what you get if you go to a shop or a boutique.

Made to measure and Bespoke items are not produced until you make the demand. There are models, trial sets and samples, but no finished products that you can buy and take with you. You will have to design the item you want together with the sales person and only then it will be realized.

It is up to you to discuss and explain to the sales person what you expect from the suit:

Performance: Do you require a heavy wearing suit for the chill seasons? Or a finer one due to a warmer climate?
Comfort: Smooth or light? Do you want to feel the fabric and be comfortable? A light fabric will more likely flap around, mohair will be more stable but stiffer, linen is very lightweight and will enable the fabric to breathe, you will sweat less, but it will wrinkle.
Appearance: do you want to be noticed and keep up with the latest fashion? Or do you have your go –to style? Would you like to be discreet or use a fabric that has a special characteristic or design? There is a perfect fabric for everything. You have just to find it.
Fitting: Choosing the fit that makes you feel most comfortable is crucial. Everyone is different, and a centimeter more or less can make the difference between loving or hating a suit.
Posture: Not everyone has a perfect body and it is not always possible to change it. But it will be possible to make you look and feel good and also to feel comfortable.
Options: You must choose the options that are most important for you. Maybe an extra pocket for your phone, cigar, pen or anything else that might be important to you.

Why a Made to Measure/Bespoke Garment?

Personalisation: you can decide the details and completely adapt them to your needs.
Quality Control: you can choose for yourself what material the item will be made of.
Ethics: this is a single piece production. It is not possible to produce it in the Far East. It must be produced in Europe and observe the legal rules and requirements in terms of social security, ecology etc.
Personal taste: choose exactly what you like. Fashion ca help you, but you must also ensure it feels comfortable. Here you can choose exactly what you want with the help of a professional sales person.
Fitting: you don’t have a perfect body? Great! No one has. We cannot change your body. But we can help you adapt the garments to your body and make you look the best.

History

Originally a tailor would make hand-made suits. Every town had its own little tailor that made suits for the wealthy and powerful. Considering that even today you would need something like 40 hours to make a complete suit, a tailor would have been able to produce a maximum of 4-5 suits a month. It was a difficult job, for which 10 years of training was required before one could call oneself a tailor.

The Industrial Revolution changed all this. Suddenly it was possible to mass produce products at a much lower price. Although different sizes were produced, the suits were very similar. However, anyone with standard measurements was able to get a suitable suit for a much lower price.

Within a few years the idea of being a tailor became very unattractive. Ready-made suits conquered the market. Few exclusive tailors survived and they often adopted a conservative, less fashionable image.

Then the business changed again. Suddenly all the ready-made garments were produced in the Far East resulting in a disastrous loss of quality, depressed prices and unfortunately serious issues concerning use of harmful chemical products, specifically in the finishing and dying of the garments.

Most recently, we returned to traditional European manufacturing. Technological development and the new media offer completely new possibilities that enable the re-emergence of single piece productions.