How Honest is Your Tailor?

Published: Monday, August 21st 2006

I have chosen this title for the simple reason that there are too many so-called tailors up and down the UK who have never worn a thimble in their lives held a pair of shears and send all their work to factories at home and abroad, yet claim they make their suits themselves and call their tailoring bespoke!

If you are not told from the outset that your suit will be factory made or outsourced to another party I think this is totally dishonest.

My intention is to give you the customer as much information as possible to ensure that this does not happen to you. Why should you pay for a Mercedes and only get a Reliant Robin?

A good eye can spot bespoke a mile off. Here are some pointers:

  • Price, it is IMPOSSIBLE to make a GENUINE UK MADE Bespoke garment for less than £1,500. The main cost of a Bespoke suit is TIME/LABOUR and lots of it. How can you buy decent cloth, superb trimmings and all the other ancillary items needed for Bespoke garments coupled with business running costs on top of 70+ hours of labour for less than £1,500 and for those tailors that use out-workers, then pay your coat and trouser makers a FAIR wage? Simple, YOU CAN'T.
  • Beware of the tailors who want to sell you 'special offer' cloth lengths they just happen to have in their shop. These lengths are usually poor quality fent, roll ends or short lengths, more often then not have cloth flaws running through them. They are usually bought by the tailor through the back door for £10 or less!
  • Out breast pocket, ( the top welt pocket ) on a factory jacket will have zigzag stitching down the sides and no hand stitching on the top or ¼" in from the sides
  • The flower hole on the lapel of the ready to wear suit will be about ½" long.
  • The so-called hand stitched edges will be will be very pronounced and deep - they are done on an AMF machine in seconds, true hand-edges are on the edge and very lightly done (not in your face), the idea is to see it from certain angles only.
  • Same on the outside jacket pocket flaps - lift them up to see the consistent machine stitching on the underside.
  • The collar is a good place to look, especially the melton under-collar, the piece under the cloth collar, is it zigzag stitched
  • Look inside at the lining, especially where the armhole is, it should be hand felled/hand stitched (other places to check include the lining shoulder, back neck lining ( see image below which shows a machine finished lining ) and along the bottom of the jacket lining) - if it's machined into the jacket then it's an engineered garment, or in other words factory or machine made. You can easily distinguish hand stitching on a lining as the seams tend to be "laid" over each other instead of running together - give it a gentle tug and you will easily see the stitching.


  • The inner pockets on factory garments are normally only in the lining section, on bespoke they are about 1" into the cloth facing. Inner pockets suffer a lot of stress, especially at the pocket mouth, setting them forward makes them last longer. Some manufacturers DO set the pockets forward, so ensure you check for the other signs.
  • On a factory-made jacket, the jettings on the outside pockets ( the small strips of cloth where the outside flaps are ) are always ribbed with a ridge, on bespoke jackets they are flat, totally smooth, and have been pressed open with no ridge as this removes bulk from the appearance of the jacket.
  • At the fitting stage both sleeves should be in the jacket, if only one sleeve is fitted into the jacket, ( because price and speed is obviously an issue ) this is also an indication of a factory made suit, or certainly out-workers are involved.
  • Don't be fooled by patterns in a workroom, they mean nothing. Ask to see your pattern - your unique pattern will have construction lines on it. It will have your name on it. It will have any alterations applied to it. A stock pattern is not unique to you!
  • If your garment is at the try-on stage, make sure that you have a full canvas all the way down the front. It should be totally free and loose from the fabric, the two move completely independently of each other - this is what makes a soft jacket ( see first two images below ). It should not be fused or have anything stuck on the cloth. Fusing is either black or white in colour, and normally has a ½ canvas chest piece with white felt chest felt also fused on it (see third image below).






  • My top tip? Check the under-collar on a finished jacket - zigzag stitching here is a dead giveaway! (see image below)


I hope you are rushing to your wardrobe to check your suits. Were they sold as bespoke? Are they bespoke or factory made-to-measure?

Remember: A good, honest tailor has nothing to hide from you. We love to show clients around and we are happy for our clients to visit us at any time and to see their garments at any stage of make. In fact, we are happy for our clients to watch their suit be made... from start to finish.

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