Date Posted: Tue, 06 Mar, 2018
Bespoke is a term that is used to describe an item that is commissioned
for someone who has complete control over every small detail of that item right
from the way its crafted to its finest details. Over the years, the term has
become synonymous with superior craftsmanship and perfection. Its essence lies
in Savile Row, the holy grail of bespoke suit makers in London. Bespoke tailors
have carefully guarded the craft of suit making for centuries and passed it
through generations. However, not everything that is “custom-made” can be
called bespoke.
A bespoke tailor will first ask you to choose from a wide
array of fabrics, after which you are carefully guided into making all the
major and minor decisions that your suit will feature. These include choosing
your pocket style, lapel style, buttons, buttonhole color, button thread color,
vents and other major features that will shape the overall appearance of your
suit. He will ask you to choose your own lining fabric from different colors
and designs and will also give you the option of having your name or initials
inside the suit.
Some other special features that sets a bespoke suit apart from
off-the-peg suits are working cuffs on your suit sleeves, having the last
buttonhole and button thread on your sleeves to be a different color and having
a handmade lapel hole in a color of your choice. Any special requests such as
having a pocket inside your coat to the exact measurements of your wallet,
phone, pen or cigar can also be accommodated as a bespoke tailor never says no
to any request made by a client. After everything has been discussed, the
Master Tailor will take detailed measurements of your body. As part of the
bespoke tradition, it is important that your suit is hand-cut by the same hands
that have measured you. Most tailors usually cut a pattern of your suit on
craft paper before actually cutting your fabric, though there are a few tailors
on the Row who are confident enough to cut the fabric directly by mapping your
pattern on it. Your suit will then be handcrafted using a floating canvas which
is hand-stitched throughout the front part of your coat. A bespoke suit is
usually seventy percent handmade with at least fifty hours of handwork, so the
real price of your bespoke suit is patience, apart from its monetary value.
Among the many tailors that exist on The Row, there are
only a couple who I would consider as the masters of the Bespoke industry. The
first of its kind was the Legendary Henry Poole, the first Tailor on Savile
Row- Located on No. 32 since 1847. Henry Poole till today holds over fifty
Royal Warrants and has been a tailor to people who have left their footprint
behind such as The Rothschilds, Sir Winston Churchill. He was also the creator
of the suit we today call the “Tuxedo” or the “Dinner Jacket”. However, it was
Anderson & Sheppard who had created the revolutionary Drape Cut suit, a cut
which most tailors on The Row today model their suits on. Frederick Scholte of
Anderson & Sheppard, who was the personal tailor of the Duke of Windsor, hated
the fact that suits were always restrictive in movement giving a corseted look
to the body. He created a cut in which the fabric was not fitted to the body,
it was draped over the body in a way that gives a sleek curved silhouette from
the sides without restricting movement.
He further created a technique where a larger sleeve head
could be eased into a smaller armhole by creating small pleats, a technique
that can only be achieved by hand, giving immense ease of arm movement and
comfort. It is therefore no surprise that some of the world’s bestdressed men
such as Fred Astaire, Rudolph Valentino and Tom Ford have been clients of
Anderson & Sheppard. Regardless of whether someone has commissioned a suit from
Henry Poole, Anderson & Sheppard or any other bespoke tailor on the Row or around
the world, they would all agree that once you have found a tailor that gives
you the bespoke experience you have always imagined and opens up your
sensibility to the “Eye of Bespoke”, stick to him. He is worth his weight in
Gold.
Written by Pawan B.
Pawan.B is a Savile Row trained bespoke tailor and shoemaker.
His tailoring house, Knights & Lords, is headquartered in London and has a
flagship store in JBR, Dubai. Knights & Lords is known to be one of the few
tailoring houses to have mastered the famous “drape cut” and continue to
provide bespoke services to corporate and royal clients.
Knights & Lords: 04-3995313
This article was published on www.denoaireonline.com
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