What are the benefits to having a bespoke suit over buying from the rack?

Having a bespoke suit has several key benfits, The most important feature is the fit. 

• A true bespoke suit, is created from scratch which means it is done with your local tailor who moulds the suit to the contour of your body, over several fitting sessions. These are generally quiet expensive if done with a quality tailor. It has unlimited customisation, and you have a lot more input along the process to create the perfect fitted garment.   In Sydney there are 0nly a few of them left. 

• Custom Made - This is not a bespoke although several brands use the word bespoke to promote a custom made to measure suit. A custom suit generally is a better fit compared to off the rack suit, with the options of unlimited customisation, and after fit alterations to improve of fit. This is more common than bespoke due to price point. 

• Off the Rack - The items are created to fit an average person in the market, and are created to a body of a fit model and graded to size, which means that it does not have too much of uniqueness to your body shape or personal preferences. It is perhaps the cheapest option. They are a great substitue to custom made, if most of the grooms are a standard sizing. 

Other benefits that having a bespoke suit over an off the rack item is the attention to every detail and quality of materials. Generally a bespoke suit is made with love with an experience local tailor, and you are involved through out the process. Most custom made and off the rack suits are made in a production line in an offshore factory, and then shipped here. Generally these items are not the same quality or standard of a bespoke item (hence the price difference)

For someone that is looking for assistance of which way to go, for a strict budget, it is perhaps best to hire a wedding menswear stylist/advisor that has a good knowledge of the what is available in the market and what are the best companies and manufacturers that are availble to deliver the best value for your spend. If you need more asssistance drop us a note. 

All the best for the journey ahead, and wishing you every blessing for your special day! 

Whilst a lot of answers address the value of bespoke over OTR (off the rack), the essential element is the lady or gent wearing the suit. Framing of jacket and trousers is the main distinguishing difference between these two products. OTR products do not take into account any unique framing issues (like big shoulders and narrower waist) It is why they are OTR and different brands will suit different body types.

Bespoke products whilst offering a huge range of fabric and design choices, also should take into account the framing of the wearer, and this will be a distinct difference between tailors. A good sales person will understand how to frame a clients unique shape, and can even assist you with the design to suit heigh/weight variables and also muscle bulk vs lithness. 

The cost is the second main factor, and there are alternative options like Made to Order, Made to Measure which are all subsects of Bespoke but reduce the range of design and choices. This subject is quite diverse and the literature is sometimes best taken with a grain of salt, but understanding the construction of the bespoke garments is essential before moving forward with a bespoke suit. 

If you would like more information please feel free to drop me a line, happy to answer any specific construction questions you may have.

Regards

Matthew

Made to Measure Specialist

Brittons - Perth

As some of us have already pointed out, what you're paying for with a bespoke/custom suit is the design element. You pick everything; colour of the suit, lining, pockets, button colour/style. Everything in a custom-made/bespoke suit is chosen by you and is made specific to the individual.

The downside is that custom-made suits are very expensive; the ballpark guess for most custom made places would be $1,000 and above for just the suit alone. They also require more time as they must be added to a construction line and that can take anywhere between 3-8 weeks or so (maybe more!)

Off the rack suits limit you to "as they are" and may require after-market alterations to achieve a nice fit. And even so, some parts of the suit may never fit correctly no matter what you do to it. You don't have a say in pockets, buttons or other details either. 

However, even with alterations a ready-to-wear suit will cost significantly less; $250 - $600 or so, depending on what suit you actually chose. Lets also assume that alterations cost $75-$100 on average. Worst case scenario, you have saved $300 for the tradeoff of less choice.

In summary, custom-made/bespoke suits are more expensive but offer you limitless choices, while ready-to-wear limits your choices in favour of a more balanced budget.

- Imperator Menswear

Thanks for the question! Please do not get caught up in the theatrics of many companies selling made-to-measure suiting as 'bespoke'. A truley bespoke suit is when a paper pattern is made as a unique piece for the client (the pattern is 'bespoken' for you), you also work directly with the tailor (person sewing not saleman) and have complete discretion over design, detail placements and mm perfect measurments. It is also alomsot entirely hand made and takes many labor intensive hours to construct layer by layer. This is where the high cost comes from and very few people in Australia offer this service.

For someone who is of general build this can be a bit overkill when you weigh the cost/benefit, howver like a couture dress it is a truley unique experience that everyone should have the opportunity to have at least once in their life. There are a few made-to-measure companies that can provide an almost bespoke experience where they can adjust for specific posture points and unquie design details which can give you a more affordable alternative and almost a bespoke end result which is a great trade off if budget is a concern and you are wanting a unquie piece. 

My advice to clients with non-unique shapes/builds is if you can find a fabric, style and colour you like off the rack, use a skilled tailor and alterations to your advantage to get the perfect fit. 

At Black Jacket Suiting we give you those options, advice and ability to align budgets and desires.

Thanks,

Ryan.

Hi Thanks for reaching out we find a lot of grooms like the idea of a bespoke suit this will normally fit much better than off the rack as you can imagine the suit is made for the groom unfortunately this is a costly exercise we have made some really good partner arrangements with some bespoke tailors where they can offer a better deal if we refer you please feel free to call or ask us we will be happy to get you our parner deals.

most groomesmen suits are brought off the rack this is where we are really popular as we understand there are sometimes more than 3 or 4 groomesmen we can offer you our wedding packeges.

please feel free to call or visit any of our stores for our deals.

Thanks

MSW

Hi

The biggest benefit is control over the fit and the choice in material. When fitted by an experienced tailor you will find a bespoke suit follows the body more accurately creating a much better fit, it will also be designed and cut with the customers build and shape in mind allowing for a more flattering shape. The quality of construction is also much higher, alongside the fact of being able to choose (with the tailor) suitable cloth to further enhance the look. 

A rack suit will be cut 'generally', allowing most builds to fit into the same shape and usually requiring alterations to that shape to complete the fit. The choice of colour/ cloth and fit is restricted to what is available at the time.

Best regards

Xavier

Black tie by Xavier

A bespoke suit can be designed to a certain degree, as far as style goes, than what is offering on the rack also there more options of fabrics available. However bespoke is more expensive that an off-the-rack suit that is altered. Also if you have a figure that is hard to fit off-the-rack, then bespoke will assure you of a much cleaner look.