Your First Proper Suit Should Always Be Made-To-Measure
Whether you’re taking your first steps into suiting or want to revamp your wardrobe, graduating from off-the-rack options should be your first port of call
A lot gets made of the word ‘investment’ when it comes to spending a little more to buy certain wardrobe staples that last. A high-quality pair of oxfords is an investment. Spending a few notes more to upgrade your staple tees or get a good pair of selvedge jeans is an investment. But the greatest sartorial investment of all, we feel, is upgrading to a made-to-measure suit—a step every man should graduate to at some stage.
The first and most obvious benefit of going MTM is that it’s exactly that: made to your measurements. Off-the-rack suits, even from high-end brands that might use good fabrics, are designed with a one-size-fits-all approach in key areas that make achieving that tailored fit extremely tricky even with significant alterations—particularly if you don’t have a run-of-the-mill body shape or posture. Made to measure suits use a variety of measurements (26, to be exact) to ensure that every body type can be adequately catered so it sits just right for the wearer.
Put simply, the suit is being made around you, not altered to fit you—something that has benefits not just when ordering your first suit, but when you inevitably go to buy another one. Developing a relationship with a tailor that knows your body shape and has your measurements on file ensures a degree of consistency than buying off-the-rack suits, even if you’re loyal to a particular brand, simply can’t deliver. As an added bonus, it makes re-ordering much quicker if you’re short on time.
The other key benefit of going down the made-to-measure path is the endless stream of customisation options that make crafting the suit of your dreams a much more attainable goal. The Bespoke Corner Tailors has over 10,000 fabrics on offer from some of the world’s leading mills, which when combined with the different options of cut, colour, lining, buttons and lapels, make for millions of ways to make your suit not just personal to you, but ideally suited to your lifestyle and the conditions you’re most likely to wear it in.
