Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware!
To help you find the real thing here’s our six point guide to making sure you’re working with a genuine Savile Row tailor...
1 - A Savile Row tailor won’t try to sell you a suit. But they will ask you about your lifestyle, what you expect and need from your garments and what you see as important in terms of design and style. If you feel comfortable with them and you like what they do, you may decide to commission them.
2 - Bespoke tailoring is a luxury service that’s about you. If the tailor isn’t prepared to give you what you want, when and how you want it, without any limits; if there isn’t a willingness to work with and around you: you aren’t talking to a genuine Savile Row tailor. (And in our view even highly skilled Savile Row tailors who force their house style onto a customer aren’t truly working to the spirit of the word “bespoke”)
3 - A true Savile Row tailor has nothing to hide and everything to show. They will answer any questions you have. They will introduce you to the cutter. They will show you patterns they’ve made, vast ranges of cloth and numerous examples of their work, from finished garments to small, impeccable details. They will not give you a limited range of cloth based on price and a tick list of lapel styles to choose from.
4 - A skilled cutter will discuss your needs while they measure you, then they’ll cut your pattern themselves. They won’t mechanically take a handful of measurements and send them to a factory where people you’ve never met will cut the pattern, nor will they use “the latest” computerised laser cutting - they’ll use skill and scissors.
5 - A Savile Row tailor will make your suit by hand, using traditional craft-based skills. It won’t be assembled from low-grade fabrics in some distant factory, it will be made in England. All of the materials used - those you can see and those you can’t - will be of the finest quality. The tailor will be involved in every stage of the making. They will fit, rip-down, adjust and re-fit to ensure your suit is nothing short of perfect and you are completely satisfied.
6 - When making a bespoke suit a Savile Row tailor will build in longevity. They will craft your suit in a way that allows it to be adjusted by several inches and re-modelled so that it can be adapted to any changes in your figure or posture. They will keep records of your measurements, the cloths used in your suits and other details as they come to know you and create a wardrobe of bespoke garments and accessories that ensures you have the appropriate clothing for any occasion.
And remember... being in a shop full of suits on Savile Row doesn’t mean you are on the premises of a Savile Row tailor. Ask testing questions, examine the clothing on display, ask to meet the cutter and satisfy yourself that you are about to embark on a lasting relationship with a genuine Savile Row tailor - better yet, be sure of that and visit us. You’ll find us at number 13, Savile Row.