If you are considering purchasing a custom-made suit you will come across the terms Made to Measure and Bespoke tailoring. Bespoke means ‘ordered to be made’, and bespoke tailoring has a long history dating back to the Renaissance. Later, made-to-measure suits arrived offering a cheaper, quicker tailored solution. Bespoke tailors are typically small independent family businesses, while made-to-measure suits are normally offered by large luxury brands. Some independent tailors now also make made-to-measure suits to complement their bespoke services. When choosing between a bespoke or made-to-measure suit, you should compare the following: fitting, customisation, price, and time required to make.
Fitting
Bespoke tailors create a one-off paper pattern for your suit by hand. Made-to-measure tailoring, on the other hand, will take an existing pattern and make some simple modifications for your suit. Bespoke tailors may take up to thirty separate body measurements to create your individual pattern. Every bespoke tailor is a little different and they each have their own house cut or house style. You will find out about the house cut when you go for the first fitting. Bespoke tailors may require as many as five fittings before the partially finished suit is presented to the customer for approval. With made-to-measure suits, modifications to the chosen pattern would mostly happen with jacket and sleeve length, and waist circumference. However, some tailors may also agree to adjust chest and shoulder measurements.
Another consideration is that with made-to-measure suits an existing pattern from one brand may fit better than that of another. Variations between brands are most commonly found in the chest and sleeve measurements, and these are normally the areas that made-to-measure tailoring will not adjust. So, it would be best to look at patterns of various brands and find out which modifications are possible before ordering your custom made suits in Melbourne or any other city.
Generally speaking, a bespoke suit will always fit more perfectly than a made-to-measure suit. This is because bespoke tailoring takes account of quite a few more details that make a significant difference to how well the suit fits, for example, shoulder and sleeve angles, posture, and shoulder width to name a few.
Customisation, pricing and tailoring time
Made-to-measure suiting will typically offer a customer a selection of a few hundred fabrics plus limited options to customise style, buttons, and lining from the original choice of pattern. However, there will be variation between both brands and tailors, so an individual consultation is recommended. Bespoke tailors will offer a choice of up to 5000 fabrics with almost infinite customisation possibilities in terms of style, buttons, and linings. Pricing reflects the differences in available choices with a bespoke suit costing perhaps five times the made-to-measure option. Whereas bespoke tailoring will require anything from 2 to 4 months, a made-to-measure suit will be complete in no longer than 2 months after a maximum of 2 fitting sessions.
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