Savile Row bespoke tailor's blog

Thomas Mahon is a Savile Row tailor who cuts suits for Prince Charles. He has started a blog that is part fascinating suit-nerd minutae and part sneer at lesser tailors. Since my job morphed into the kind of thing where I'm expected to dress like a grownup several times a year, for several days in a row, I find that I own more suits at this point in my life than I ever have -- three, plus a tux and a blazer -- but reading this started to make me yearn for another one, cut with Mr Sheppard's Shears and hand-canvassed.

Although first fittings are quite basic, they are popular, as they allow for more and larger inlays (seams) to be used.

This enables the cutter to check the basic fit of your pattern, and also allows more chances for later alteration, should he need to correct any major errors in the pattern.

Getting to this point can be done with the minimum of expense.

As I said, this stage is used by most tailors, especially for new customers. With older customers this stage can usually be skipped as the cutting pattern would have already been perfected.

Anderson & Sheppard , myself and a few other A&S expats miss out this stage altogether. We go straight to a forward (second) fitting.

Why? As my former mentor at A&S, Mr. Hallberry told me, “If you need the inlays, you don’t know what you’re doing”.

Link (Thanks, David!)