Bespoke: an explanation
Making pockets…Bespoke is a very old-fashioned word, nowadays often replaced by the term tailormade, though the two are in fact not exactly the same. It stems from the 17th century, when tailors used to have stocks of fabrics in their shops. A customer would select a certain cloth for his suit thereby reserving it for himself, and so the cloth would have been ‘spoken for’.
What distinguishes bespoke from tailormade or made-to-measure, is the fact that only with true bespoke clothing, a cutter drafts a completely new pattern just for you, fit to be worn by no one but you.
Many companies consider this unnecessary, and they will dutifully take your measurements, some of them even boasting with the excessive number of measurements they take, and after that proceed to disregard all of those measurements, save two or three. From these few left measurements, all others are calculated according to standard Ready-To-Wear-industry standard size-tables. An adjustment for stance, shoulder slope, style preferences, and that is called bespoke, but that is NOT what it is. There is no problem with that, there is a good chance that this will make your suit fit a whole lot better than an off-the-rack would. But in my eyes you are simply being swindled: Not because of the way they work, but because they pretend something, namely drafting from scratch, just for you, which they don’t.
About those industry size-tables: These are made on the basis of cross-section sizes in a given area, country, continent. The mean size relation between, say, chest, waist, hip, sleeve length, (the list is much longer) is calculated and averaged, and thus ‘size’ are created. And while many people will fit inside such a suit, it won’t fit so well ON the person. Come on, how many people do you know who are average in shape and size?
I won’t call any names, but I guess you know who and what I mean. Be weary of companies that wield the term bespoke, and then have you try on a jacket off a rack on your (or their) first visit. It isn’t bespoke, because all they do is note down on what points the jacket you are trying on, should be corrected. Nothing wrong with it, just don’t call it bespoke.
Take for a very different example these two guys: Jonathan Quearney , a very good friend of mine, and Desmond Merrion, with whom I write emails from time to time and whose blog I enjoy reading. Real, serious, proficient, bespoke tailors. No discussion. Both offer, alongside their true bespoke suits, Made-To-Measure suits. Different product, different price. Now that is how I like to see it. Why fake, why hide? Just show what you do, explain the difference between the products, and keep it truthful. Good show, fellows!
A bespoke tailor can not have you try on a jacket at the first appointment, simply because it hasn’t been made yet. At the first meeting, he will take your measurements, and that is it. And when a bespoke tailor has you in for a fitting, the thing will be unfinished, with white threads all over the place and strange greyish cloth (the floating canvass) on the lapel, and during the fitting he may take out the sleeves, remove the collar, open the shoulders and so on. That is how a bespoke tailor works. Then the jacket goes home with the tailor, he readies it more, and then there is another fitting. Only this way can you realize a truly stunning suit, only this deserves to be called bespoke.
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