I love my male clients – and I adore working with menswear, particularly tailored pieces. I firmly believe that the fit, feel and fabric of a suit are incredibly important - and can be hard to find at a reasonable price. In addition to the massive amounts of suits and separates crowding the stores that are mediocre at best, there’s the jungle of alterations. Unless you have a tried-and-trusted tailor that you rely-on, you may face the challenge of an in-store tailor that may or may not know what they are doing. True story: while shopping with a client for his WEDDING SUIT (read: arguably the most important suit of his life) at a fairly upscale store, the in-store tailor tried to tell us that the pants width cannot be adjusted and that “no tailor would do that” and that the “current trend for suit jackets is to not cover the butt” (client and I moved on to another store, chuckling all the way).
When I recently faced my toughest male client (actually, make that my toughest client in the history of clients) – my husband, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to test-drive a different route to suit shopping – the affordable custom suit. My husband does not have a difficult body type and no specific fit challenges – his difficulty lies in his busy schedule, his complete lack of interest in any sort of shopping, and his razor-sharp sense of humor, particularly targeted at his stylist / wife.
We made an appointment with 9Tailors (www.9tailors.com) at their Downtown Crossing office, and met with company owner Samantha Shih. I’ve known Sam for a little while now, and she got us in on very short notice to accommodate our deadline of July 30th, for a wedding we’re attending. 9Tailors office is located on School St. in Downtown Crossing, right next to Border’s and their studio is neat and functional, displaying suit and custom shirt options on dress forms. Sam sat down with us and explained the options they offer, showing us fabric swatches and pointing out style and cut examples on the dress forms. It was very clear that the European fit would work best in our case, as it is a slimmer option. My husband opted for a dark navy pique weave, which is a very subtle texture to the fabric. The color is very close to black, but not quite as formal / somber. The fabric does not have sheen to it, since it will be more for daytime use. We opted against a 3-piece suit, although I hesitated a bit, and am somewhat kicking myself now since I’ve seen some very attractive vest ensembles on the new cable lawyer shows. The entire appointment, including the fitting took about 30 minutes, but we were very decisive.
Less than four weeks later, my husband’s suit was ready for the first fitting. I bravely skipped the appointment, but instructed the Mr. to move around while in the suit, raise his arms, stretch arms forward to assess the sleeve length, pay special attention to where the shoulder seam hits his shoulder and gave a lot more helpful advice that likely went in one ear and out the other (we’ve been married for 7 years). After the fitting, the husband enthusiastically reported back that the jacket felt great, and the only alteration that is needed is a minor pants adjustment. A round of alterations is included in the custom suit process at 9Tailors, and I am confident that we’ll soon have the final version – I’ll post an update when we do.
The price for a custom suit at 9Tailors starts at just under $500 – very reasonable when you think about the average off the rack suit price combined with the necessary alterations costs. Plus, you can opt for the bells and whistles, like your choice of color / fabric for the lining and piping, monogramming, and more.
– Maria
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