Wentworth Bespeaks Bespoke. And it is Good, maybe.

Off the Rack is fine, if you have an Off the Rack body- and Off the
Rack tastes. But if you don't, you are bound to have considered
bespoke tailoring.

Bespoke is the past participle of
bespeak, meaning, more or less, "ordered", as in ordered just the way
you want it. Just for you.

Interestingly, it is often possible to find beautiful, lovely, handmade
suits on okay- suits made in the famed workroooms of Savile Row,
specifically for specific men of wealth and taste. But, unless
you somehow stumble onto a suit that was made for your body double, you
will not really be getting a bespoke suit. You will be getting a
beautiful, lovely, handmade suit that fits someone else, just like the
off -the-rack suits do. Unfortunately, a large percentage of the
clothes that turn up in a search for bespoke aren't even that. Many of
them are simply suits that have no size in them and a slightly gullible
(or worse) seller has assumed that lack of size labels means they
were custom made.

But we get ahead of ourselves. Let's talk about the varying ways to get a non-standard suit:

First is made-to measure. This is when someone measures you and
discovers, for instance, that you wear a 42 Long coat, but you wear
size 32 trousers, or, if you are past middle age, the other way may be
more likely. You wear a 42 Long coat and size 38 trousers. In either
case, the standard trouser size (36) won't fit and would have to have a
lot of alterations to maybe work or maybe not. So, the factory
makes a suit just for you, but makes it in standard sizes and with
standard detailing, just like you bought the coat and then bought the
pants, instead of buying them together.

Custom gees next. The factory makes the suit, but you get to pick
things the other kids don't, like lapel shape, pocket details, vents,
pleats, leg width, etc. You don't get to do anything crazy, but
you know that the suit is made just for you, because it may not be
available otherwise. On the other hand, it probably gees from
the factory with the pants unhemmed and the jacket may still need some
slight alterations. You may have had the sleeves made at a customized
length and you may even have had working buttons and buttonholes
on them.

Finally, there is true bespoke, which means a tailor sees you and then,
after measuring you, cuts and sews a suit for you, with another fitting
(or more) before the suit is finished. You may specifiy
various details, but you may also learn the tailor has done things like
padding on one side to conceal a lack of symmetry you weren't aware of,
or set the inside pockets higher or lower to acgemodate your chest (or
lack of it). Once he has developed your pattern, the tailor may not
need to go through all of the steps every time, but he has to go
through them at least once.

Actually, those used to be the ways to get a non-standard suit. With
the advent in the last 20 years of much more precise fabric dyeing,
suit separates have begee widely available, with no risk of a
differing dye lot leading to a slightly different shade between the
coat and the pants. As long as both halves of his body are more
or less standard, even if they aren't standard to each other, a man can
get a good fit buying suit separates. And he can save a lot of
money doing it that way.

But he didn't get any acgeodation for that low shoulder or for
being sway-backed, or for his Walther PPK. And he doesn't get his
name on a label inside the pocket, or that extra pocket where he
likes to keep his car keys, so saving money isn't everything.

In case you didn't know, there are people who will sell you
a "bespoke" suit on okay. The first thing to remember is, if they
don't see you, or even a picture of you, the suit is not going to be
made specifically to fit your body, not in the way a tailor would do it
if you went to his shop and stood there while he looked at you.
The second thing to know is they may well not be hand making the suits
any more than the guys down at the local off-the-rack place are.
And the third thing to know is they may well be making junky
suits.

So you have three problems to overgee: 1) the actual customization and
fitting, 2) the level of hand work, and 3) the level of quality
otherwise.

As you probably know, there are several brands of ready-made suits that
are either entirely hand made (such as Oxxford) or partially hand made
(such as Corneliani). There are other issues to consider,
though, besides handwork, like lapel interfacings (properly
made of canvas, but sometimes made with fusible webbing that puckers
when drycleaned) and as simple a thing as adequate "margins"
(correctly known as letouts) in case you gain a little weight.

Imagine paying for a "custom suit " that turns out not to fit, to
be shoddily made, and to not have enough room to make it fit.

THAT is the okay suit your Uncle Wentworth bought a couple of years
ago. In fact it was a "twofer" and the two suits came in fitting like
they had been made for two different guys, both of them skinnier than I
was at the time. Now, some of that was my own fault. When
they ask you to measure yourself or a well-fitting garment, it is not
the time to be proud. It is the time to be brutally honest. But it is
also not a bad idea to be sure to specify that all seams (especially in
trousers) have an allowance of an inch or more for further adjustment.
And it makes good sense to ask your electronic tailor to cite you
some examples of the level of handwork- like buttonholes, canvas
construction, and plain old sewing. If you ask enough questions they
will either encourage you to look elsewhere, or insure that you get a
quality garment.

When you have taken all of this into account, ask yourself this last
question: Can I expect to get the level of quality I want at this
price? It is one thing to buy a beautiful used garment that
someone may have decided has depreciated, or to catch a once-in-a
lifetime sale price on a new one that has outlived its first season on the rack, but
like the guy told you about diamonds, if you are going to reduce price
and keep quality high, what else are you going to reduce? Markup? Maybe.
Overhead? Maybe. Prestige? Maybe. Or maybe a little of all three.
Or maybe a little quality. Ask the seller and see what he says.

So, we return to our original question. When you are armed with a good
set of working measurements, can you get a good working suit? Yes
indeed. Can you get a beautiful handmade one from Savile Row? Yes
indeed, as long as you are willing to take someone else's color choice
and someone else's starting pattern.And it will certinly impress your
tailor when you take it to get it fitted to your own quirks and
humps. Can you get one made to fit you, specified exactly as you
want it? Sure, but even on okay, you should be prepared to pay
for it.

I hope you have enjoyed this little guide and found it helpful.
Please give it a helpfulness vote and be sure to see my other
guides on a surprising array of topics.

Thanks
WT