How to Choose a Bespoke Tailor in Los Angeles: Nine Questions Worth Asking

A man commissioning his first suit is asked to judge a trade he has no real way of judging. The vocabulary has been borrowed and blurred — bespoke, canvassed, hand-finished, master tailor — and almost none of it is protected. Two shops a mile apart in Los Angeles can advertise the same words and sell quite different garments.

These are the nine questions we would ask if we were the ones spending the money. They apply to us as much as to anyone, and our own answers are at the end so you can hold us to the same standard. There are several fine tailors in this city, and a good one will be pleased you asked.

The short answer

Three questions separate a bespoke house from a shop selling a catalogue: is the jacket full canvas, is there a pattern drafted for you alone, and who actually makes the garment. If those three answers are vague, the rest of the conversation matters rather less.

1. Is the jacket full canvas, half canvas or fused?

Inside the chest of every jacket there is either a layer of horsehair and wool, stitched in and floating between the cloth and the lining, or there is glue. The canvassed one takes the shape of your chest over the first months of wearing and keeps it for a decade. The fused one never moulds to anybody, and can bubble after a few dry cleanings.

Ask it plainly and listen for a plain answer. “Partially canvassed” means half canvas — canvas through the chest and lapel, fusing below. That is a decent garment and a long way from a glued one, but it is not full canvas and it should not be sold as such. We have set out where each layer sits in the three constructions.

2. Is a pattern drafted for me, and who keeps it?

This is what the word bespoke is meant to mean. A bespoke pattern is drawn for one figure — your posture, the set of your shoulders, a dropped shoulder, a fuller seat — and then kept and adjusted as you change. The alternative is a block pattern made for nobody in particular and altered to your measurements. That is made-to-measure, and it ought to be called that. We have written an honest comparison of made-to-measure, bespoke and off the peg, including the cases where made-to-measure is the sensible choice.

So ask who holds the pattern afterwards, and whether the second suit will be easier than the first. If there is no pattern of yours in a drawer somewhere, there is nothing to improve upon.

3. Where is the garment actually made?

Ask for a place, not a region. A good answer names a workroom and the person who runs it. A vaguer one — overseas, our partners, Europe — usually means a factory reached through an agent. That is not dishonest, but it is a different thing, and it governs how much can be changed between one fitting and the next.

4. Who will I meet, and will I meet the same person twice?

In a good deal of this trade the man who takes your measurements is a salesman, and the garment is judged at the fitting by whoever is free. It is a reasonable way to run a shop and a poor way to get a suit right, because the small corrections are the ones that depend on someone remembering how you stood last time.

5. How many fittings are included, and what if it is still not right?

Count the fittings in the quoted price, then ask the more useful question: what happens at the fourth. A house that fits until the suit is right will say so without hesitating. A house that charges for the fourth fitting has told you how confident it is of getting there in three.

6. What does the price include, and what is extra?

Pattern fees, fitting fees, a charge for the consultation, a surcharge for a particular lapel or a working cuff. None of these are improper, but they should be on the table before you choose cloth, not afterwards. Ask for the figure you will actually pay in the cloth you are actually considering. Our own full price card is on the page about what a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles, which is a useful sheet to hold any quotation against.

7. What happens in the year after I take it home?

A suit is not finished when it is delivered. Men lose a stone, take up rowing, change jobs. Ask whether alterations in the first year are included, and what a trouser waist or a sleeve length will cost in the second. The answer tells you whether the shop expects to see you again.

8. How long will it take, honestly?

Anybody can quote three weeks. The question is what the cloth merchant and the workroom will actually do, and whether a rush is being promised to win the order. If you have a date — a wedding, a swearing-in, a trial — say the date first and let the tailor tell you whether it is comfortable. For weddings we have written a timeline for grooms.

9. What would you tell me not to do?

This is the most revealing question in the list, and the one almost nobody asks. A tailor who has never talked a client out of anything is not advising, he is selling. Ask what he would discourage: a cloth too delicate for daily wear, a lining that will be dated in two years, a fashionable shoulder, buying the most expensive cloth first. An honest answer costs him money and is worth more than the rest of the appointment.

Our own answers, in the same order

• Canvas. Full canvas on every garment, at every price. There is no other option here.
• Pattern. Drafted for you from around thirty measurements and three photographs — front, side and back — so that posture is recorded and not just dimensions. We keep it and adjust it. We do not offer made-to-measure at all.
• Where. In our own atelier in Southern Brittany, France, by Max, who founded the house with Robb in 2010. The whole of it is on our about page.
• Who. Robb or Ben, and the same one each time. There is nobody else here to pass you to.
• Fittings. Unlimited and included. Most men have three counting the consultation; some take four or five.
• Price. A two-piece from $1,795, three-piece from $2,045, tuxedo from $1,795, overcoat from $1,200, odd trousers from $450, a custom shirt at $295. Finer mills from $2,995 for Drago to $3,995 for Loro Piana. No pattern fee, no fitting fee, no charge for the consultation whether or not you order.
• The year after. Twelve months of complimentary alterations, included.
• Time. Four to six weeks in domestic cloth, six to eight in imported Italian and English cloth. Six weeks is possible as a rush at a twenty-five per cent surcharge, and we will say when we are at the edge of what is sensible.
• What we discourage. Buying the most expensive cloth first. Starting a wedding suit a year out, because men change shape. And a very high Super number for a suit you intend to wear every week — it will feel beautiful and wear through.

If the answers do not suit you

We would rather say so than take an order we should not have. If your budget is below our starting price, or you need something for an event next week, buy well off the peg and have it altered properly. If you want a garment made in Los Angeles itself, there are good people here doing that and we will happily point you to them.

Come and ask us the nine

The first consultation takes an hour and costs nothing. You will meet Robb or Ben, look at cloth with the price of each in front of you, and ask whatever you like — here is what the hour actually involves. We are at 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey, appointment only, seven days a week, with free parking front and back and forty-eight hours’ notice requested.

Book a private consultation, or telephone 310-503-3592 if nothing on the calendar suits. Men come to us from Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Manhattan Beach and Culver City, and we visit homes and offices anywhere in Los Angeles for $300.

Questions we are often asked

How do I know if a tailor is really bespoke?

Two tests settle it. There is a paper or digital pattern drafted for your figure alone, kept and adjusted over time, and the jacket is fully canvassed rather than glued. A shop that cannot answer both plainly is selling made-to-measure, whatever the sign says.

What is the difference between bespoke and made-to-measure?

Bespoke begins with a pattern drawn for one person from scratch. Made-to-measure begins with an existing block pattern that is adjusted to your measurements. Made-to-measure is quicker and usually cheaper, and a good one fits well. It cannot account for posture in the way a bespoke pattern can, and it is usually paired with a fused or half-canvassed jacket.

How much should a custom suit cost in Los Angeles?

A great deal of what is sold here as custom at between $1,000 and $2,000 is a fused jacket cut from a modified block. Our own fully canvassed, fully bespoke two-piece starts at $1,795, and the finer mills run from $2,995 to $3,995. The price is set by the cloth; the making is identical at every level.

Is it rude to ask a tailor where the suit is made?

Not at all, and the reaction is informative. Anyone proud of the workroom will name it and tell you about the people in it.

How many fittings should a bespoke suit need?

Three is normal, counting the first consultation, and four or five is not unusual on a first commission or a difficult figure. What matters is whether the fittings stop when the price is exhausted or when the suit is right.

Should I bring pictures to the first appointment?

Yes, and bring the suit you already like best, even if it is off the peg. Photographs of what you want are useful; a garment that already fits you somewhere tells a tailor more than any photograph. Wear fitted trousers or jeans and a close shirt or T-shirt, and please not shorts.

Can I see work in progress before committing?

Ask to see a finished garment and to look inside the chest and under the collar. Hand-finishing shows there. So does the opposite.