007's Tailor: A Guide to Men's Clothing

007's Tailor: A Guide to Men's Clothing: "Learning about suits and how they're made is interesting. Tailoring is a fine art and hopefully one that will not be lost on future generations.


A short history of British tailoring

The recent history of fine tailoring and men's suits centers around the area of Savile Row in London. In the early 1800's they were known for military uniforms and clothing for royalty. In the late 1800's, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Dr Livingstone, and the Maharajah were customers of the Row. Around this time, increased demand from royalty caused Henry Poole and Co., Davies and Son, Meyer & Mortimer, and other tailors to outsource work to local sweatshops. Disease spread quickly in these crowded, unventilated rooms and the threat of it being passed on through the fibers in the clothing was the source of many major news stories. In the early and mid-1900's, the Row attired JFK, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, and others. More recently, it has seen Eric Clapton, Hugh Grant, British Prime Ministers, and countless others.

While the tailors there are famously secretive about their clients, a few stories that are known show the Row has had a hand in the larger affairs of the world.

In one story, the Shah of Persia [Iran], Mozzafar-al-Din, visited England around 1902 on the promise of receiving the Order of the Garter. King Edward VII refused to give this high honor to the Shah. A quick thinking Secretary had a special medal made that resembled the Order, but was missing the Cross of St. George. He and had it sent to the royal yacht just in time for the Shah's arrival. The King was so enraged by the sight of the medal, though, that he threw it out of his yacht's porthole. As a consolation, the Shah was introduced to the King's tailor, Henry Poole and Co. on Savile Row. (Although, a few years later, Britain sent the Shah a full Order of the Garter.) In another story, the 1973 French play La Cage aux Folles (on which the original French movie, and then later, the Robin Willams movie The Birdcage were based) caused a run on curled feathers which were used in their elaborate Savile Row-made stage costumes. This cause a few month's worth of backup in dressy military uniforms that also required curled feathers.

Today, the Japanese call a suit a 'sebiro', which is their pronounciation of 'Savile Row'.


Bespoke and custom-made suits

The top-of-the-line suit, which is called bespoke ('bih-spoke') in England, is a handmade suit where you choose the fabric. The cutter then measures you, creates a set of individual paper patterns just for you (which can be used for later suits), cuts the fabric, and then they and the tailor assemble it exactly. A good tailor will prepare their pattern for you based on your 'figuration', which is the way you lean or stand. All suit jackets have 4 buttons on the end of the sleeves. Real buttons in button holes holding the end fabric of the sleeve together is a tell-tale sign of a bespoke suit. Most off-the-rack suits have buttons which serve no purpose, but are simply there for appearance.

But probably you're not planning to spend $2000-$3000 or more on a suit. Unless you have the money to burn, you don't need to. If you do have that kind of money, it might be a worthy invesment to support the fine craftsment, like investing in the arts. Custom-made suits also fit better, are more easily altered over time, and last longer than factory-made ones, so ultimately they may be worth the higher price tag.

A key thing to remember in buying a suit or any other part of your wardrobe is that there is a clear difference between flashy and simply well-tailored clothes that fit both you and your personality. The former is necessarily expensive, the latter need not be. For the latter, James Bond is my personal favorite style icon, especially for the British look which others, including the Italians, take their cues from.


Style points

* James Bond apparently preferred pleats. If you have pleats, your pants should be cuffed; if you have a flat front, your pant cuffs should also be flat. Cuffs on your pants should be exactly 1 3/4'. If you have pleats, you should only have two on each side. Savile Row only tailors pleats that fold in, not out ('reverse' pleats).
* When looking at suits, the way one fits you and the quality and type of fabric used are the two most important elements. After that, the quality of the construction of the suit should be considered. One of the easiest ways to tell whether the suit is well constructed is if the canvas between the fabric covering your chest (called a chest plate) is 'hanging' and not 'fused'. In other words, it hangs freely between the wool and lining and is not glue to them at the seams. The best way to check is to ask (if the store doesn't know, assume not). Or online, there should be a description of the qualities of the store's suits and that should be one of the qualities highlighted. Hanging plates last longer, fit more naturally, and are easier to tailor. All Savile Row suits use hanging plates, of course.
* Find a good tailor to make sure your suits fit perfectly. The following are a few things that a tailor can adjust for you.
o Your jacket should be tailored to curve in so that there is a slight gap showing between your arms and chest when your arms are hanging freely.
o Your jacket's sleeves should be so that about a 1/2' of your shirt's cuffs extends beyond the jacket when your arms are hanging freely.
o The collar should be fitted so that after you shrug your shoulders up or to the back, after the jacket falls back into place, you don't see any of the material on the back of the collar. A tailor can make such alterations easily. Your shirt collar should stick up from the jacket collar about 1/2' inch. See this still from Dr. No for an example of a well-tailored suit (Sean Connery on the right) and a not-so-well-tailored suit (the American spy on the left). Also note Connery's jacket's cuff buttons: they're the real thing with matching buttonholes and not just there for decoration.
o There's a story that Fred Astaire had his tailor at Anderson & Sheppard pull back their carpet so he could tap dance in his new suit in front of a mirror to check that his collar didn't pull away from his neck.
* Wear your suit and shirts. If you take care of them (such as not wearing your suit pants without shoes to prevent the bottoms from fraying), they'll last a long time. Don't send them to the cleaners any more than is neccessary. But brand new clothes don't look as good as clothes that have developed a bit of worn-in character. Fred Astaire used to throw his new suits against a wall to 'knock the newness out of them'. According to one rumor, Connery's tailor for Dr. No made him sleep in his suit for a couple of nights to get used to it."