I went for my first fitting earlier tonight....
I chose what I understood to be charcoal gray, but it looks like black now that it's been made into a suit (compared to the small little piece of sample cloth)

Here's some badly taken pictures, edited to show more.







Comments please.

The sleeves are too long in the 2nd pic, but seems to have been corrected in the last pic. Your shirt is too big for u btw, or was it the tailor's shirt?
I would ask for smaller armholes, or higher (seems to be the more often used term).
For some reason the back looks really bulky..

Somehow it looks weird...
Maybe its the design.

And I just don't think higher armholes would suit his built.

Yes, the last picture is after we discussed what I want for the suit.
The shirt is mine, made by the tailor and indeed too big. I've already asked him to make it smaller.
I noticed the weirdness of the back as well, hopefully the alteration will make it looks better.

I think the tailor made everything bigger as a safety, rather than smaller and unable to correct them later.

Can you pin down the weirdness so that I might have them corrected?

Very weird pinning. I've never seen anything like this.

Xecton, let me guess at what you told the tailor:

More waist suppression
Shorter jacket
Narrower lapels

According to my suit ideals (since I don’t know yours), your tailor got two of them right. The lapels are beautiful the way he made them the first time: generous and nicely bellied. I wish AL made mine this way. I would give him a call to revert them to the original. The modification you asked for makes the lapels look out of whack: too thin on too big a body and head.

The jacket length started off plausible but ended up comically short. You need to understand that for a suit to remain classic, you do not have much latitude in the measurements. We’re talking 0.5” more or less here and there, not the 2.5 inches you got your tailor to take up the jacket. I’m not able to judge the jacket length because there is no full body shot (which includes the shoes) of you wearing the jacket. It is related to your height. I would ask the tailor to adjust the length to his liking, then reevaluate at the second fitting. Have it shorted by 0.5” then if you wish. The way it appears in the final pic, it is several inches too short.

You will notice that your cuffs peek out more on one arm than the other. Ask him to adjust each sleeve individually. Assure him it is OK for the jacket sleeves to be of slightly different lengths. Ah Loke cringed when I told him that.

You’ve instructed him to suppress the waist, so we shall see how he does it. I would take in the waist by at least 1.5” then reevaluate at the second fitting.

I would also redo the quarters. I would ask him to make them so open that the lower button cannot actually be buttoned. Notice that the tailor assumes you would button the lower of the two buttons. Tell him nobody does that nowadays, that he should go out more and read more GQ like Jind86 and that he should make them part like Moses the Red Sea. The quarters should begin to part at the first button. By the time they reach the lower button, they are 0.5” or more apart. This will be difficult for your tailor to grasp, so be compassionate.

There is also a fit issue with the upper back. There is too much cloth there, causing the drape you see. Ask him to take it in at the center back seam to make the upper back (around your spine) smooth. It should be more than 0.5” from what I can see. Any excess cloth should be limited to the armscye region, not the spine region. Don’t overdo it though. Raise your arms forwards, like reaching for a steering wheel and see if it is too tight.

The shoulders are very heavily padded and look unnatural but are not too objectionable. I don’t know how (or if) you want to deal with this because it is difficult to communicate and execute properly. I had a huge argument with my tailor about shoulder padding. He now makes them for me by hand instead of using pre-made ones. Maybe you can suggest this to your tailor. Thin bits of wadding, hand padded. Just enough to smooth over your shoulder without raising it too much.

There is also no horsehair that I can see. At the very least ask him to put horsehair canvas in the lapels for the padded lapel construction. If he is Cantonese, tell him you want a “sang” [lively] lapel and not “thong sei” [ironed to death]. For me, it makes a big difference.

Once he suppresses the waist, I expect more fit issues to turn up. Waist suppression makes fit more critical. The reason why many tailors get by with no or one fitting is because they make these stupid sack cuts (like your tailor) which drape down loosely and vertically from the shoulders. It’s like a baju melayu with shoulder and chest padding. But the moment you want a shapely jacket, multiple and very careful fittings become necessary because then you are sculpting cloth.

I would also have the trousers shortened by 2”.

Where's the gorge? Is it really that high up?

I was looking for it too, lol!

Actually, at the last pictures the tailor had thinned down the right shoulder pad. The left is still there at full force.

Can't tell the difference man.

hi guys. went to my first fitting for my suit today by accident. i didnt know it was ready for fitting, i dropped by because i came to discuss something else. the shoulders are too big and too wide and also the length. i asked him to reduce the length by 3/4 inches, smaller and higher armholes and also to pull in the shoulders slightly by half an inch. comments?

Pics are too big, can you pls size them down a bit? Thx.

thinking to get a suit from wardrobe .. do you think its a good idea ?

The one in...pavilion? Give it a try and let us know..

2nd and last fitting.

My shirt


Suit


Back

The back looks kinda weird D:

It's OK for a first attempt.

You've asked for the jacket to be lengthened, yet it still looks short, for reasons I can just vaguely guess at. Maybe it is the lack of skirt flaring? Maybe because your trousers have a very low fork? Maybe it needs another 0.5"? I wouldn't know.

The quarters remain unchanged from last time. Well, A&S does them that way too, and some like the aesthetic.

The sleeves are cut badly, very badly. The worst I've seen so far. Look at the incredible bunching of cloth at the back of your sleeves. I've never seen cloth look this unhappy.

The trousers are still too long. Look at how my trousers touch the shoe. No bunching at the bottom.



No matter how you look at it, there is too much drape at the upper back, and there are balance issues at the lower back. It is too "crooked".

Look at this guy's back and compare it with yours

http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=90990

His is smooth and clean and taut. That's what you want. Yes, it is tough to achieve this. Which is why a clean back is a hallmark of really good tailoring. (I believe he had 5 fittings to achieve this.)

The good news is, it will look much better once made up. Once the fusing and ironwork goes in, you'll look great in the mirror. And you'll look just great to most people. Few people worry about the last couple of percent of perfection like I do.

Hey guys, was kind of bzz lately.

Here goes for my 1st fitting at Bespoke by Ian Chang

Im not a very well versed when it comes to those clothing/cutting names but i trust Jerrick did his job well.
He answered most of my questions and provided good reason what can be done and what cant where the outcome will be in perfect slim fit.

Made a double-breasted suits with 3 piece full wool black suit + vest + trousers + 2 shirts with French Cuff [ 1x wing tip & 1x standard collar.]

I'm not a tall guy so he did consider some adjustment to make it look more comfortable.

Thing that he adjusted:
1) Slightly higher cut for the pants [ to show more V shape]
2) Slimmer shoulder pad [Readjust shoulder pad to bring up the skirts flaring]
3) Slightly shorter suit length [ just a minor cut to show more legs]
4) Slightly tighten the waist to have better shape
5) Trousers are just nice touching the shoes with no extra drape
6) Sleeves are just nice, not too long when i lift up my arm am still able to have a min length till my watch level. [No extra cloth falling down]
7) My sleeve from my left hand is slightly shorter due to my watch lifting up the excess cloth that causes my right sleeve shows slightly longer but this can be adjusted by pulling abit of sleeve out from my left hand.

As per photo shooting showing with slightly dim environment could not show perfectly how the suit look like. Hope u guys can throw in some feedback.


Shoulder Pad seems to fit me well~ and will he cut slimmer if my memory serve me right.

Full view from behind.

Sorry for the bright pic. The environment is too dim...i got to edit the pic to brighten up the Exposure so that u guys can see the suit

Front view

Final fitting will be 2 weeks time

Looks very good overall, especially for a noobie and a first suit at that. Very clear pictures too.

The back needs a little bit of work. I doubt though that they will do anything. I think it will be left as it is. Which is a pity because it is very little work and would make the jacket among the best from a Malaysian tailor.

I would like the sleeves longer -- too much cuff showing now.

Great jacket, really. Maybe you can show Jerrick a pic of my back. He will understand instantly and he will give it to you.

---

Added on May 8, 2010, 11:45 amThese guys have a thoroughly modern cut. Enough drape behind the armscye to allow for movement. Sleeves done well. Collar grips the neck. Lapels not too narrow. Trousers not ridiculously long.

Compare them to other tailors and you realise just how much more sophisticated Bespokkt is.

kotmj
Marketing and Communications
Bespoked Group of Companies
comprising Bespoked
and ALT

This post has been edited by kotmj: May 8 2010, 11:45 AM

hi kotmj,

yeah Jerrick is going do some minor "pulling" for the back...i wonder what is call...
And i miss that he's going to do smaller "a bit" for the armhole to look more prefect.

Regarding the sleeve, i was going through Version 1 for the thread...and was told that sleeve goes a little shorter will be great? oh gosh...i think is not too bad at the moment.

Anyway thanks for the feedback kotmj. i may use some of your suggestion on AL customization for another suit in this month.

Hope the whole set comes in prefect look. Will post up more pics on the final collection.

Guess doing a suit need alot of expertise

This post has been edited by terencetoo: May 8 2010, 12:28 PM