Tailoring

A bespoke suit on Savile Row starts with a paper pattern cut for one person and usually takes several fittings before it is finished. Tailoring explains that process and everything below it, down to the alterations that make a decent off-the-rack jacket look made for you. The Savile Row guide walks through a commission from first measurements to final fitting and explains how to visit the street in Mayfair even if you are only looking. Other stories deal with the terms tailors use and shoppers misread. Full canvas versus fused. A soft natural shoulder versus a built-up one. How much shirt cuff should show below a jacket sleeve. Shirting gets attention too, especially the Oxford button-down and the way its collar sits under a lapel. Tailoring also turns up in places you might not expect, from Rei Kawakubo's deliberately unbalanced jackets at Comme des Garçons to the military cut of the MA-1. A tailor can take in a waist in an afternoon. Shoulders are a different matter, which is why they should decide what you buy.