So you want to get a suit made

So you’d like to get yourself a suit made just for you? It is impossibly difficult to get a good bespoke suit in this country, at any price, but here are some pointers to make the best of a difficult situation.

There is good reason why the suit is regarded as the pinnacle of men’s dress. The jacket in particular is a highly evolved piece of old world technology. It has had hundreds of years of evolution and optimization behind it. The result is a garment that, when made in the traditional way is very comfortable, durable, and very flattering.

The way a suit flatters the wearer’s proportions is unmatched. No other piece of contemporary garment in a man’s wardrobe is sculptured the way a tailored jacket is. The chest area of a jacket is made convex even if the wearer’s chest is flat and ribcage small. Moving down from the chest, the jacket narrows considerably to form the appearance of a trim waist. Moving down further, the jacket widens to encompass the hips. If the wearer has even a moderately acceptable figure, the jacket bestows him with a strong shouldered, powerfully built, hourglass appearance. Morever, the sculptural quality of the jacket is very durable because it is built on a foundation of horsehair canvas which has been permanently shaped with a series of darts and wedges as well as hand stitches. The lapels roll gracefully. Finishing touches like hand-sewn buttonholes give the jacket a heirloom quality.

The above describes a jacket as made by an accomplished tailor with traditional methods and materials. However, I have yet to meet an accomplished tailor in Malaysia. And the traditional methods are painstakingly labour intensive, which is why nobody adopts them anymore. Traditional materials are very expensive too.

Instead of shapely jackets, tailors are predisposed to make less shapely ones because they require less ironwork, are easier to sew up, and require less conscientous fitting. A strongly waisted jacket requires several fittings to get right – where the cloth lies smoothly on the body instead of pulling and rippling. The horsehair canvas has been replaced with a synthetic fusing because it is much faster than the hand process of marrying cloth to canvas, besides the fact that fusibles cost almost nothing compared to quality horsehair canvas. The hand padded lapel and collar have become extinct. It is rumoured that there are only four tailors left in the country capable of making a fully canvassed jacket in the traditional method.

Customers, often unknowledgeable, do their part to degrade the potential their garment has. They often pick a wool-polyester mix, preferably with cashmere fluff mixed in. Such cloths have no place in a bespoke garment. Indeed, in this country one should never, ever source his cloth from the tailor. There is simply too much fake stuff from China masquerading as Italian. Tailors also markup their cloths to an absurd level.

Your first step
Your first step should be to look at a thousand bespoke suits. This sounds like some outdated Zen philosophy, but the reality is that one needs to sensitize oneself to the look of bespoke suits. The wording of my instruction is precise: Look at a thousand bespoke suits. Suits you see being peddled by Gucci or Ralph Lauren or other brands in magazines are not bespoke. These are RTW suits. Worse, the suits you see in magazines like GQ or Esquire are often not wearable. They are tolerable for a photoshoot especially if you are highly paid to do so, but they are almost all too tight to be practicable in everyday life.

After having looked at a great many bespoke suits you will have formed a pretty definite idea of your ideal suit.

Your second step
Now it’s time to go shopping for cloth. Avoid the cloth shops along Jln TAR or elsewhere like the plague. Tailors and cloth shops are not the place to source cloth from. The quality is dubious; the price is ridiculous.

The place to buy cloths from is eBay. Looks for the shops British Fabrics and AKSTextiles.

„But,“ you protest, „I need to feel the cloth first!“ At this point in your experience curve, it is better that you do not feel the cloth. If you buy by feel, you will end up with a thin high super number if you are moneyed, and if you are not moneyed you will end up buying a wool-polyester mix with cashmere fluff thrown in. In other words, with no experience to speak of you will buy exactly those cloths which are least serviceable.

For your first few suits, stick to plain dark grey and plain navy. Never black. Avoid anything with stripes for now. Stick to a plain weave grey or navy.

Weight of the cloth should be above 10oz (300g) if pure wool; wool-mohair mixes can be lighter. Mohair cloths are highly recommended for our climate because they wear much cooler than wool. Fresco, the name given to a particular type of weave, also wears cool. Avoid high super numbers – anything above Super 100s is unnnecessary; those above Super 120s are fragile.

Consider Irish linen in a heavy weight (11oz) for casual jackets.

Any cloth you buy should come from the UK. Avoid Italian cloths.

You will need 3.5m of cloth for a 2-piece suit if you are below 6‘ tall.

Your third step
Once the cloth is in your hands, it is time to decide on a tailor.

If you are in Singapore with any regularity at all, you should use Iris Tailor. It is by far the best tailoring shop in SE Asia.

The outlook is bleak if, like me, you rarely travel. For it is an understatement to say that Malaysian tailors are wretchedly bad, at any price. Price plays no role in determining the quality of a tailor – they are all bad, no matter how expensive.

Many forumers have used Ah Loke Tailor. The results are mostly underwhelming, but no worse than Bespoked in 1U or Lord’s in Bangsar. At least ALT is cheaper by a quarter, and has a more contemporary cut that yours truly has had a hand in influencing. At ALT, a fused suit will cost RM900 if you supply your own cloth. A fully canvassed number will cost an additional RM500.

It is necessary to go to the tailor 3 to 5 times before taking delivery of your suit. Your first visit will be a measurement and definition session. You will be measured up and your preference recorded. Lapel width, number of buttons, type of back vent and such will be discussed. There is absolutely no reason to get excited about the „creative“ possibilities – avoid all tailoring shop proprietors who call themselves creative directors. Always default to classic options with regards to lining colour, number of buttons, lapel width and all such options offered to you. Many are tempted to make their suit special by asking for novel details like pink lining, contrast buttonholes, contrast pick stitching, extra skinny lapels, etc. All are ill-advised. The supreme challenge of your suit is the fit, which no Malaysian tailor understands. Novel details are like gaudy makeup. On an ill-fitting suit it is like gaudy makeup on a pig.

The next visit will be a fitting session. You will wear the half-finished suit while the tailor inserts pins in various locations to remind himself of the necessary changes to make. Depending on the customer and tailor, this may be the only fitting session or there may be several more. Your last visit to the tailor will be to pick up the finished suit.

This post has been edited by kotmj: Apr 8 2011, 05:16 PM

Actually, please do not PM me. I will only respond to questions that go beyond what is covered in the article, and where there is evidence that you've actually done Step No. 1 ( which is to look at a 1000 bespoke suits).

Unrelated to this, I am trying to build a collection of vintage Malaysian/Singaporean bespoke suits. If you have old suits hanging in a closet and would like them to go to a good home where I will provide them with the proper care and storage, please do contact me. If the garment is very old (1930's-1950's) and particularly interesting, I am willing to pay up to RM500 for a jacket.

This post has been edited by kotmj: Sep 9 2011, 12:08 AM