01
The first visit
We talk about what the suit is for, choose the cloth together and take twenty-six measurements.
The bespoke suit
A suit cut from a pattern drawn for you alone, made by hand over three fittings in our workroom above the shop.
- A paper pattern cut for you alone
- Three fittings, from basted to finished
- Every buttonhole sewn by hand
From first measure to last press
02
Pattern and cutting
Your pattern is drawn on brown paper, then chalked onto the cloth and cut by hand.
03
The baste fitting
The suit is held together with loose white stitches, so that we can take it apart and recut it.
04
Forward and final
Two more fittings refine the collar, the sleeves and the line. Then the last press, and it is yours.
What a suit costs
Two-piece suit
Recommended
Three-piece suit
from £3,950
- Jacket, waistcoat and trousers
- Three fittings
- Any cloth in the shop
- A second pair of trousers
Overcoat
from £3,600
- Single or double-breasted
- Three fittings
- Cashmere or heavy wool
- Silk lining in your colour
Cloth from the old mills
We keep about two thousand cloths in our books, most of them woven in Huddersfield and the Scottish Borders: worsteds for town, flannels for winter, tweeds for the country and fresco for the few hot days Edinburgh allows.
At the first visit we lay the likely ones over your shoulder by the window, in daylight, because cloth changes colour under a shop lamp.
We will tell you which will wear for twenty years and which will look wonderful for five.
Good to know
Why three fittings?
Because a body is not a set of numbers. Each fitting shows us something the tape measure missed, and the suit is recut to it.
Can a second suit be quicker?
Yes. Your pattern is kept, so a second suit needs one or two fittings and about eight weeks.
Do you look after the suit afterwards?
For as long as you own it. Small alterations in the first year are free, and we press and repair our own suits at cost.
Can I bring my own cloth?
Yes, if there is enough of it. A two-piece suit needs about three and a half metres.
Your first fitting is free
An hour on Thistle Street, the cloth books and a tape measure. Nothing to pay until the cloth is ordered.