Men's Fashion - How to Select a Quality Tailor

Hi, my name is Matt Landsberg with Eric Finn Custom Clothiers, we're talking about how to buy a suit and how to buy a suit that fits well. Specifically right now we will talk about how to find a tailor. So, for those people that want to have a suit made for them, what should you look for and what should you talk about when talking to a tailor to have something made. First thing to know is communication is key. If you have any particular aspects that you're concerned about, whether it be how something fits or how something has been ill-fitting when you bought it off-the-rack, bring those things up, those are important for him or her to know. You also want to talk about things that -- parts of the suit or shirt that may not wear as well. For example, if you have a wallet in your pocket, and the size of the wallet in your back pocket, which you shouldn't do, and you have a tendency to wear that area thin, you may want to bring that up with your tailor so that they know, okay, we better reinforce the pocket. Another example is the elbow. I have got a client who used to buy suits off-the-rack and always work through the elbow of the suit. Okay, well, we could adjust for that, and we reinforced the elbow so it wasn't an issue anymore. Another thing you might want to do when trying to have a suit made for you is bring a picture. If you've seen a suit on somebody, on a model, or in a magazine, take it out and cut it with you, so you can show them specific aspects of the suit you like. The button stands, how the lapels look, or any other specific feature of that suit. Another simple thing to think about is just how well do you like the guy or a woman, I mean if they're easy to work with and you have a good rapport, that's a good start. Some people just don't jibe well with somebody that they just met, and that leads to potential friction down the road, as fitting or minor details need to be taken care of. You also want to ask, how many fittings do they do, they just create the suit from start to finish and say here you go. I know some places they will just send a suit to you after they've measured you. Well, the chances are you're probably going to have to do a little bit of fine tuning to get it exactly right. Another thing too is you want to make sure that this person is not just a sales person, but they're knowledgeable about the product. If you're spending at least several hundred dollars on a suit that's been made for you, make sure they know what's going on. You may want to find and get some testimonials from other clients, and see if you can see some finished product as well. It's also helpful to talk to somebody who knows about current trends. If you want something that's a little bit more current, make sure that the person knows what's going on outside of just the old school tailoring methods, so it's one of those things that you really want to keep in mind. Lastly, you want to make sure that the tailor or the company you're working with has a policy of getting that right. There have been times when I have heard poor stories from clients and other people that a suit can be made, and if a client is not happy, what are they going to do about it, are going to say tough luck, go from there, or they're going to fix it for you? One of the things that we do is make sure our clients always walk away happy, worse case scenario, if we take a hit and lose money on that, that sometimes happen, but in a long run we want to build a relationship with our client, we're going to make sure that they're happy with their suit.