Ongoing Bespoke Projects

[gimpwiz]

good for you. I’ve had to tell a tailor, who became a friend, his prices are too high & I cant afford him anymore. He understood, it wasn’t personal.

Yeah, I getcha. My most recent invoice was a fair bit higher than expected. I'm actually not sure if that was due to choosing H&S fabric, I feel like I heard him give a much lower number using one of the perennial VBC fabrics, but I'll ask. Shirts are up about 20-25%. However, that's kind of life, 20-25% across the board is almost expected these days versus four years ago. Overall I feel like Spoon does a pretty great job and I was sad when during covid their business suffered tremendously. Now they're busy again and don't take outside alterations and raised their prices and I'm stoked for them that they are doing well. (I'll ask them if they're okay for me writing their 2023 prices here.)

 

[jonathanS]

Yeah, I getcha. My most recent invoice was a fair bit higher than expected. I'm actually not sure if that was due to choosing H&S fabric, I feel like I heard him give a much lower number using one of the perennial VBC fabrics, but I'll ask. Shirts are up about 20-25%. However, that's kind of life, 20-25% across the board is almost expected these days versus four years ago. Overall I feel like Spoon does a pretty great job and I was sad when during covid their business suffered tremendously. Now they're busy again and don't take outside alterations and raised their prices and I'm stoked for them that they are doing well. (I'll ask them if they're okay for me writing their 2023 prices here.)

This was double haha.

Anyways, the broad point is, with good deals, the internet has a way of changing that really quickly. For those who know me, I’m happy to make recommendations & introduce my friends to tailors, but not in public forums.

Also, I think there’s a difference when the cost of searching for a tailor is high (effort to find, relationships built, travel to a country etc).

I have no issue pointing people where I would’ve gone, without the relationship (and it’s readily available online) & im still considering going to pirozzi but there’s a pretty significant price difference! My friend in napoli told me I should see his friend - I’m thinking about it still. I don’t return until November, so I have time.


Also, being that they’re in SF, they probably raised bc of high inflation. Everyone is using that as an excuse to raise prices. From what I remember, shirting fabric isn’t expensive.

 

[JohnMRobie]

From what I remember, shirting fabric isn’t expensive.

Not super expensive compared to suiting/jacketing but like anything else in this world if you’re getting cut lengths it depends if you’re getting it at the street price from a merchant, a tailors price from an agent or an agents price from the mill. I’ve experienced a similar 3-4X - 2X - 1X ballpark as you find in the rest of the cloth world respectively. If you don’t have a decent agent or account you can get gouged pretty quick and drop $300-350 on a length of Riva fabric for example.

 

[jonathanS]

Not super expensive compared to suiting/jacketing but like anything else in this world if you’re getting cut lengths it depends if you’re getting it at the street price from a merchant, a tailors price from an agent or an agents price from the mill. I’ve experienced a similar 3-4X - 2X - 1X ballpark as you find in the rest of the cloth world respectively. If you don’t have a decent agent or account you can get gouged pretty quick and drop $300-350 on a length of Riva fabric for example.

I know I’m the minority opinion on here. But I find riva to be a pain in the butt. I do t have all day to sit around & iron my shirts.

 

[JohnMRobie]

I know I’m the minority opinion on here. But I find riva to be a pain in the butt. I do t have all day to sit around & iron my shirts.

I mainly wear Soyella and Bonfanti 170/2 Dallas with some Riva Lino Arsenal mixed in for the summer and Cashmerello mixed in for the winter. Not for the folks who need/want a super pressed look but I do shirt laundry once a week or so and it takes 30-45 minutes to press straight out of the wash with no sizing or starch while I throw something on tv. Not all that bad. I do agree it’s a little more work than other options and when I need a serious shirt I default to Thomas Mason SuperHampton for my whites that take a press really easily.

The bonfanti 90cm stuff is good and priced pretty fairly BTW for anyone who is after a mill they can order direct from for CMT options.

 

[gimpwiz]

Honestly I assumed most of the cost was labor, but regardless, I don't really begrudge them. I still want to get like, eight shirts or so, over the next year or year and a half.

 

[knightdrape]

Yes, but that’s more work, cash only & helps if you speak Italian. Before, every house was like that. Look back at the forum. Ripense in Rome was 2200€ before people hyped him up like crazy. Now he’s closer to 5000€.

The 1/1.5k€ is attainable if you know where to look, develop friendships with locals or speak italian (presumably that’d help develop friendships). And if you find a good tailor in that range, you don’t share it online, because they won’t be 1-1.5k€ for long. Haha.


Paone is another great suggestion. A lot of good tailors in napoli.

When tailors up their prices, does their quality of product, services, or branding gets better? A pretty steep jump from 2200 to 5000 with no changes

 

[Texasmade]

When tailors up their prices, does their quality of product, services, or branding gets better? A pretty steep jump from 2200 to 5000 with no changes

No. It’s their demand or costs went up normally.

Would you expect product, service, branding to get better because their prices went up?

 

[knightdrape]

No. It’s their demand or costs went up normally.

Would you expect product, service, branding to get better because their prices went up?

It depends, if it went up by almost 100% in a short period of time then maybe it will be nice to know some where with the tailor has improve.

 

[jonathanS]

No. It’s their demand or costs went up normally.

Would you expect product, service, branding to get better because their prices went up?

+1 on this, except greg abbott is a patriot

It depends, if it went up by almost 100% in a short period of time then maybe it will be nice to know some where with the tailor has improve.

it’s the same product. Just double price. Hence why a lot of people don’t talk about their tailors online & people are often very sensitive about price online. Im just a private person, so I don’t like talking specifics on public boards.

 

[knightdrape]

Maybe if your tailor isn’t busy, they can do it in 15 days. But most tailors that are good are quite busy. You’ll be lucky to get in a first fitting. There was a fella on here about a month ago that was going to Japan & wanted a suit made. Only a very few were able to turnaround in his timeline.

I’d love to have a jacket made in Japan or Korea by the likes of ciccio, assisi, fumiya hirano, and others. But I’m not planning trips back to Japan & flights to Japan are quite expensive & long (living in the US). Double the price to Italy. I’d love to visit Singapore, Thailand, Japan. There’s a young Chinese girl who apprenticed at musella dembech, who is doing her own sartoria in China now. She’d be interesting.

Do you want to visit Singapore for a regular holiday or to also visit tailors/ menswear stores?

 

[Texasmade]

+1 on this, except greg abbott is a patriot

I’m going to disagree with you on Little Piss Baby but we’ll leave that out of this thread.

Back on topic. I don’t really expect tailors to suddenly get better because their prices increased. A lot of them have been toiling away for years in obscurity charging cheap prices to locals putting out good stuff until the internet found them. Now there’s huge demand for their services so makes sense for them to increase prices. If they can now more easily feed their family while putting in the same work, then good for them. That’s everyone’s dream ultimately. Get paid more without working more.

 

[JohnMRobie]

It depends, if it went up by almost 100% in a short period of time then maybe it will be nice to know some where with the tailor has improve.

If a tailor gets super popular something has to give and it seems like the options are

A) Stop taking new clients like Corcos and Despos
B) Raise their prices to justify the added hours, maybe slow demand down and hopefully add help (The last bit isn't so easy to find a competent coat maker to add to the mix based on scuttlebutt)
C) Reduce attention to detail and rush things out
D) End up with a super long turn around time or
E) Suffer through it and work 100 hour weeks.

It seems like most tailors end up doing a combination of raising prices, having slightly longer turn arounds and suffering through working crazy hours. Which frankly, I'll take the price hikes and slower turnarounds over getting a worse product though I do feel for them. If you've talked to a tailor lately anyone decent is very busy and most of them are struggling to find coat makers to add to keep up with demand and talking about how people don't want to be tailors anymore. It's kind of a sad state of affairs. Price hikes are going to have to keep coming.

 

[jonathanS]

C) Reduce attention to detail and rush things out
D) End up with a super long turn around time or
E) Suffer through it and work 100 hour weeks.

I’m simply saving my tailors from these unfortunate choices.

Do you want to visit Singapore for a regular holiday or to also visit tailors/ menswear stores?

holiday, Japan too, but japan would have the added bonus of seeing tailors. Can’t say who id use though.

 

[knightdrape]

If a tailor gets super popular something has to give and it seems like the options are

A) Stop taking new clients like Corcos and Despos
B) Raise their prices to justify the added hours, maybe slow demand down and hopefully add help (The last bit isn't so easy to find a competent coat maker to add to the mix based on scuttlebutt)
C) Reduce attention to detail and rush things out
D) End up with a super long turn around time or
E) Suffer through it and work 100 hour weeks.

It seems like most tailors end up doing a combination of raising prices, having slightly longer turn arounds and suffering through working crazy hours. Which frankly, I'll take the price hikes and slower turnarounds over getting a worse product though I do feel for them. If you've talked to a tailor lately anyone decent is very busy and most of them are struggling to find coat makers to add to keep up with demand and talking about how people don't want to be tailors anymore. It's kind of a sad state of affairs. Price hikes are going to have to keep coming.

Thank you for the insights. Now it kinda justifies the price increase. I'm still doing my homework on finding the right tailor for myself. It is kinda confusing when there are options from less than $1000 to $4000 +++ for a suit from where I come from.