Itinerary
Currently I no longer travel abroad to visit customers. Since moving to Spain, I have been focusing more and more on local customers. I like travelling, but it’s disruptive to my workflow. It would be different if I had tailors working for, or with, me, but this is not the case at the moment.
Out of my little shop on the coast, I do make visits to the following areas though: Marbella/Malaga, Granada, and Almeria. Drop me a line if you’d like to meet on one of my visits. Thanks.
Changes… NYC visit postponed
Funny how life can be quite in the way of itself sometimes. During the last few weeks, things have been pretty hectic for me. A number of circumstances were not exactly in my favour, and there was a fair bit of stuff to sort out. Also the reason why I haven’t been bloggin much lately. Not wanting to bother you with my personal life, I won’t go into any details. Suffice it to say I’ve been real busy getting things straightened out, and now that it’s done, things are looking good again.
The point of this, is that I am now again working every day and I’m exceedingly busy. And there we discover a bit of a problem. Regular readers and subscribers to my newsletter will know, I had been planning to visit New York City, with my tape-measure in my pocket and my swatch-bunches in my suitcase. I was quite looking forward to the experience, and curious to see how business would be for a dutch tailor in New York. So I had booked the flight and hotel, but as the disorder of the last weeks slowly resolved itself into neat little packages of clarity and purpose, it became clear that going to the States at this point in time would be a very debatable proposition.
Now some people might say it’s a bad idea to plan a trip and then cancel it, and indeed this has been a source of concern for me. It might make a stange impression on people.
But I realise that it would be a worse idea by far to come over at this moment. For one thing, I wouldn’t know where to find the time to do the jobs for those people in the US who’d order a suit or a shirt. I really am quite, quite busy. So in the end, I guess I’d harm myself more by going to America and failing to deliver, then by cancelling and going instead in January or sometime later. So there you have it.
It’s of course rather a disappointment for the people who want a suit from me, but I simply can’t justify taking on jobs that I know will take forever to finish. After all I’m not the only bespoke tailor, and I’d rather have people be happy with another tailor, instead of having them become impatient with me.
Once things change, and I will be able to start dealing with possible US clients, I will let you know. I guess it will be somewhere in the first few months of the new year, but I’m not going to promise anything until I’ve finished the work I’ve got to do at this moment.
Dates confirmed for NYC 14/15 november
UPDATE: Circumstances have forced me to revise my planning for the next few months, leading to my NYC visit being postponed.I duly apologize to those people who have shown an interest in my work. For more info, please read the post just above. Thank you.
My visit to New York City next month is confirmed. I’ll be there on the 14th and 15 of November.
To get in touch with me, write me a martinstall@gmail.com or call me on my cell-phone: 0031 6111 111 61.
As for the procedure of ordering a suit, have a look here, where you’ll find a brief summary of the way it works. Aside from a thick pile of suiting cloth swatch bunches and my private stock, I’ll also be bringing a large collection of sea-island cotton shirting cloths. Thus I can offer alongside bespoke suits, both made-to-measure as well as true bespoke shirts for those who appreciate A Fine Shirt.
If you have any questions or if you desire further information prior to making an appointment, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you.
Armholes: The dreaded scye!
Much talk goes on about something called scye, or armhole. This is an aspect of Bespoke coats that is extremely important, both for the comfort as well as for the appearance of the wearer.
Please have a look at this photo:
This is an old Ready-To-Wear coat of a well-known Italian producer that I’ve taken apart for the purpose of this example.
Under it is a striped coat I’m working on at the moment. You can just see a bit of the striped fabric in the lower part of the armhole. The white ruler shows that, altough there is only one size difference between the two coats, the armhole on the Ready-To-Wear coat is a full three centimeters deeper. In the magic world of bespoke clothing, that is a long way!
Why is the armhole so important? Well, first of all, there is the matter of the depth of the arnhole. A lower armhole means that the undersleeve, the part under your arm, is attached to the body of the coat at a lower position. Much lower than where your arm actually connects to your torso. This results in ungainly symptoms when wearing the coat, as well as discomfort. When you raise your arms a little, the shoulders of your coat will go up, the side of the coat will flare out to the sides, and the whole coat will almost seems to be hanging from your biceps.
Here you see the striped coat on a dummy.The red thread on the dummy is roughly where the arm of a person is attached to the torso. It will follow that the smaller the hole, the more acurately it has to be placed to be at the exact location on the body. If not, it will feel terribly uncomfortable, and will look horrid. The kind of feeling you’d get if you’d put on a bespoke coat of another person. This aspect of the scye is due to the stance and the build of the body, which differs with each person.
This photo shows the same coat on the same dummy, but you will notice that the red thread seems to be ‘off-centre’
This shows very nicely what the art of bespoke is all about. In the previous picture, the coat is placed on the dummy in such a way that it shows, roughly, where the armhole is supposed to be placed around the arm-torso point. In this photo here, however, I have adjusted the coat so that it ‘fits’ the dummy better. And immediately, one can see that the stance of this particular customer is different from standard. Nice thought: I’ll ship a bottle of Stormhoek to the first reader who can tell me what the stance of this customer must be like. If you’re in the trade, you’re exempt form participation 
.
There is absolutely no point in simply cutting a tiny armhole, if you don’t know where to position it. And that is, in my opinion, exactly why the Ready-To-Wear industry cuts larger armholes. If they’re bigger, there are less problems to position them for a variety of physical builds, so you will sell more suits. Like I said before: efficiency equals compromise.
By the way, here is the Ready-To-Wear coat armhole on the dummy. ‘Nuf said.
Are you a Bespeaker?
A small selection of my personal stock, just to wet your appetite
As I’ve explained elsewhere on this blog, the word bespoke originated in the 17th century. Back in those days, a tailor would have a stock of fabrics available for his customer to choose from. Nowadays this rarely happens anymore. For a tailor to keep a decent choice available, would cost so much that it simply isn’t feasible, and besides, there is such a vast amount of fabrics available, that a tailor woud never have enough choice for his customers. Finally, travelling tailors such as myself cannot haul around rolls of fabrics wherever they go. So we resort to swatch books/sample bunches. The disadvantage of that, is that a customer can’t see a whole length of fabric as it drapes, but it does allow for a choice from practically all that is available.
So when I visit customers I have an ample supply of swatch books with me. Usually too many, as I often find that the more types I show, the harder the choice will become.
Now here is a nice thing: I recently had the opportunity to dig through the warehouse of a very large cloth producer here on the continent. They had closed down a part of their business, limiting from then on to military clothing, so they were selling out. Actually they wanted to sell their 30.000 meters stock to one buyer, which of course was no option for me. What on earth would I do with 30.000 meters? But by very kind permission they let me rummage through it and pick whatever I liked. Well, did I have a ball! Like a kid in a candystore. So I selected 80 different types of fabric, from ultra thin to wintercoat-material, classic designs and contemporary, flanels, tweeds, what have you. All things which I like so much that I just couldn’t resist. I had been planning to buy some 15 kinds, or maybe 30 if I’d get real excited. I ended up shipping 700 meters (sic!) to my home.?
So obviously I take my personal swatch-bundle with me, and because I was able to get these materials at quite a good price, I can now offer you exquisite cloths of such quality that it would substantially raise the price of a suit or a coat if I were to order it from any well-known producer. But when people select from my own store, I won’t have to add anything to the price. Heh, if you catch me on a good day I might even throw in a little discount. Say ten euro’s off ))
?And all that fun for the same price as the standard worsted’s and S120′s. How’s that for a deal?
Travelling Bespoke Tailor, very excited about New York
I’m planning a visit to the US in November, and I’m quite thrilled by the prospect.
Since I began blogging a few months back, I?ve been getting rather frequent inquiries from the U.S. Some of course have been simply general queries, others have been serious requests to come and visit. While I would love coming over, I have also been apprehensive about it. Obviously there are costs involved, and in order to make it all feasible, I had to wait until enough people wanted me to make the move. Well, that moment has come. It’s a big step for a local tailor to come to America, but it’s one that I have to take. And want to.
For now, I have only planned to visit New York, but if queries from other cities come in, I am of course more than willing to extend my stay and come look you up. At present, I am also considering the following cities: Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle. (Seattle is where I used to live, I’d love to go there once again.)
For those readers who’ve not yet had the time to read all my rantings, I’ll just summarize the procedure.
On the first visit, we will discuss your future suit. The thing is that a suit should not only fit your figure pleasingly, it should also express something about you. What I mean is that every tailor will cut your suit specifically for you, but not every tailor will look beyond physical aspects. So I usually like to have a little time to talk to people about their suit. What kind of use will it get. Do you wear suits every day? All day long? A few questions will help me to cut something that really will fit you well.
We also look at the sample bunches I bring along. Here you will find a wide variety of cloths, patterned and plain, lightweight or more sturdy. I use cloth from several well-known firms, such as Scabal, Harrisson’s, and Holland & Sherry. Also my personal supply is there. If desired, I can assist you with the right choice of cloth.
I will then go home and cut the suit and baste it for a fitting. Once it’s ready, I’ll return to try it on you. Right now, this is intended to be in Janurari, but might be earlier. At this stage the suit will be sewn up with cotton thread (basted), which allows quick and easy alteration, so as to fit the suit to your physique as well as possible. Any details you will want changed can be discussed.
Then I return home and finish the suit, after which it is delivered to you by courier. Ideally, a second fitting would in some cases be desireable, but there is a good reason why I choose to work with one fitting only: One is usually enough. I say ususally. However, a suit needs to settle on you. Even if the fit is perfect, a few weeks of wearing it might cause small matters to arise. This is why I always request my clients to make an appointment on my next visit, for me to check once again for a perfect fit. That way it will be a far more true-to-life assessment than with a second or even with a third fitting. So when, after having worn the suit for a while, you would discover that you want a few more things adjusted, I will take the suit and tweak or alter whatever has turned up.
And that will be that: A splendid suit, ready for years to come. And that can easily be ten, or depending on the cloth and care given, twenty or more. Anyone out there surprised I’m so passionate about bespoke clothing? What can be nicer than giving someone a suit, ‘Here you go sir’, and knowing that they will still wear it in ten years? Heh, I like my job!
Martin Stall Bespoke in London 27&28th of september
Next week I’ll be in London for two days visiting customers. I still
have a little space left in my agenda, so if anyone is interested in
meeting up, please contact me so that I can schedule an appointment for
you.
The dates are: 27th and 28th of September.
You may call me on my mobile, +31611111161, or you can write me an email at martinstall@gmail.com .
I’m looking forward to meeting you there. Thank you.
Get your Bespoke fix through RSS
Hi all,
Just to let you know, I just added an RSS option to this blog, for those of you who take full advantage of the web’s automation. Enjoy!
Of course, if you want the really easy life, sign up to my newsletter . I can’t promise how often I’ll send these, but at least twice a month is the idea. With this I will keep you up to date on new posts on MartinStallBespoke, but more importantly, by receiving the newsletter you will stay informed about my itinerary, which might interest expecially my American readers. Thanks.
Enough about me, lets talk suits
Someone I respect and who’s opinion I value greatly, mentioned to me a few days ago that after reading my blog, he came away with the impression that it is all rather self-absorbed. Lot’s of me-me-me. Funny thing, the abbot in my monastery used to tell me the same thing about myself. Guess I didn’t learn much in those years. Oops, here I go again, talking about myself.
Anyway, I’ve been giving this some thought, and I agree with him, therefore Martin Stall Bespoke is going on a new course: Under the motto: Enough about me, let’s talk suits, and without further ado:
A trouser pattern on a length of cloth. Alas, the poor cutter has not enough cloth to fit it all on, or does he? You will see the little point of the pattern on the left sticking out over the edge of the cloth. Normally, in this case, it is a matter of rearranging the pattern pieces so as to create space. But this will use up more of the cloth. That is a loss, isn’t it? So, to economise, many professionals cut along the pink line you see there. They cut off the little wedge-shaped piece on the left. Then they cut a seperate wedge, and they stitch it on. Happens all the time, and has gotten to be quite acceptable. Not that it’s wrong, or ‘not-done’. And then you gain, when cutting, some 10 to 15 percent of cloth length. Admittedly, sometimes it can’t be avoided, depending on the customer’s circumference. But it should be avoided, when the only reason to do it, is to economize.
This is how it looks once it’s finished. Please excuse me for the fact that it’s just a stiched-up model, it is only for illustration purposes. Note the groin area where you see the little wedge.
Here is a close-up of the same thing. You can see the triangular, or wedge-shaped insert. I guess I won’t have to tell you that I don’t make my trousers like that.
Instead, and the only exception I will make is when it would otherwise cost unreasonable extra amounts of cloth, they look like this. Always.
On being cheeky
You deserve one of my suits. I’m being serious. They’re that good. Think I’m cheeky? I am. And it gets even better:
I know for a fact that many of my readers are wary of tailors with big names and impressive records. You’ve been overexposed to the “Real Bespoke, starting from only 400 pounds/dollars/euro’s” nonsense. You’ve been made to pay a fortune for something that honestly should cost half of that. You’ve had your full share of “the best quality fabrics, made by the finest craftsmen!” only to find that what you’re wearing has the life-expectancy of a cheap and small car. “But I thought I paid for a Mercedes!” And you probably did.
Horrid scenario’s. Good thing I’m laying it on thick. The truth of the matter is, sadly, that there are many people with experiences such as the above examples. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing negative to say about other professionals who do not lie, no matter what product they sell. Just don’t tell the people lies about it. A good off-the-peg sold at a fair price, as an off-the-peg with a fair price, is fine. But a swell Made-To-Measure sold as ‘Real Bespoke’ stinks. Hm.
I have a different view, and you know it if you’ve been here before. I like to look at my work as being WYGIWYPF. What You Get Is What You Pay For. Simple as that. That’s why I don’t really like to give discounts: It would mean that I have to compromise my definition of quality, and I wouldn’t want my customers to receive something below my standards.
“The insolence!” I hear some people thinking. Yes, my friends, I am cheeky. Maybe I should wish I wasn’t, but a man can only change so much about himself, can’t he? And I’m actually a pretty nice guy on the side, even if it is me who says so. And the suits largely make up for my boldness. I wish I could be my own customer. Heh.
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