The workroom: a long cutting table, paper patterns and bolts of cloth

02 — Tailoring & Alterations

Brought To
Your Body

Most people do not need a new suit. They need the one they own to fit — and the difference between those two things is usually an afternoon's work.

A jacket that fits is not a more expensive jacket. It is the same jacket, moved a quarter of an inch.

Sport coats, suiting, shirting and skirts — professional and dress casual wear. We are appointment-preferred, and all work is subject to a $75 transaction minimum — see the Select Tailoring Policy for what we do and do not take on.

What Can Be Moved

Four things, in order of difficulty

Almost anything can be altered. What decides it is not the alteration but the garment — how it was built, and how much cloth the maker left in the seams to work with.

Length

Sleeves, jacket body, trouser and skirt hems. The most common request and the most commonly got wrong, because it is measured against the shoes you will actually wear rather than the ones you arrived in.

Waist, seat and leg

Taking in or letting out through the body of a trouser, and tapering a leg that was cut for a fuller silhouette than you want. How far it can go is decided by the inlay the maker left in the seams — generous inlay means real room to move, a bare half-inch means very little.

The jacket body

Side seams and back seam, to bring a jacket closer through the waist without losing the line of the chest. This is where a garment starts to look like it was made for you rather than merely bought in your size.

The shoulder

The hardest seam in tailoring, and the one that decides whether a jacket ever looks right. It can be done, and it is real work — the sleeve comes out and goes back in. Where a shoulder is badly wrong, this is the honest conversation about whether the garment is worth it.

Whose Garments

Any house, including the expensive ones

Brioni, Canali, Tom Ford, Kiton, Isaia, Zegna, Armani, Hugo Boss — or a jacket that has been in the family longer than you have. A garment does not have to have been made here to be worth doing properly.

New high-end designer suiting takes fifteen percent off the tailoring. If you have just bought something good, this is the moment it is cheapest to make it fit.

We will also tell you when a garment is not worth the work. A canvassed jacket with generous inlay from a good house will repay altering for years; a fused jacket cut two sizes wrong will not, and no amount of skilled work changes that.

How to tell the difference yourself

20 minutes

In The Diary

1.5–2 weeks

Typical Turnaround

15%

Off New Designer Suiting

$75

Transaction Minimum

The Appointment

You put the garment on and we look at it on you, because a jacket on a hanger tells you almost nothing. Most of the twenty minutes is spent deciding what actually needs to change — which is frequently less than people expect, and occasionally more.

We pin what is being altered while you are wearing it, agree the work, and write it up. If something cannot be done well, we say so at this appointment rather than after we have taken the garment.

We alter garments from any house — Brioni, Canali, Tom Ford, Kiton, Isaia, Zegna, Armani, Hugo Boss, or a jacket that has been in the family longer than you have. New high-end designer suiting takes fifteen percent off the tailoring.

What To Bring

The shoes you will wear with it. Trouser length is measured against a real heel height, and guessing it is the single most common reason a hem has to be done twice.
Anything worn underneath that changes the fit — a waistcoat, a heavier shirt.
Everything you want looked at in one visit, rather than one garment at a time.

Afterwards

We agree the work before you leave, and we will tell you when it is ready to collect. Try it on before you go — we would far rather find something in the fitting room than have you find it at home.

The Diary