Men’s custom tailoring is not a new idea, but an entire industry has sprung up around new ways to make bespoke clothing more available and affordable to consumers. I’ve tried having suits made by a couple of these companies, and one stands out for the perfect balance of quality and value: InStitchu.
The advantages of going custom speak for themselves, both in terms of fit and style. You can’t get any better fit than something made specifically for you (especially true for anyone with a body that deviates from fashion industry conceptions of “average,” which is most of us). You also get to dial in every little detail of your preferred look, starting with fabric and pattern, with virtually unlimited choices, but this process goes down to things many who have only bought off the rack might never consider: lapel shape, cuff shape, cuff buttons, vents, lining, contrast stitching, pleats, and so much more.
Over the years I’ve written about custom tailors a few times and acquired several bespoke suits in places known for making them well, such as Shanghai and Hong Kong. I’ve been through the traditional process from start to finish including repeat fittings throughout suit construction by highly acclaimed tailors, so I have a pretty good feel for what custom entails, and that’s why I was eager to try the newer, faster and cheaper ways.
Seemingly inspired by the extremely successful Warby Parker eyeglass model, there is an entire new direct to consumer segment of the economy that uses the internet and technology to cut out traditional retailers and deliver faster, cheaper results while shopping from home. This is especially helpful if you don’t live in a hotbed of custom tailoring like London. But as Warby Parker found out, while online sales work for a lot of people, they don’t work for everyone, and sometimes there just is no substitute for brick and mortar. Same thing with bespoke clothing.
When it comes to getting fit, there are three options, and from best to worst they are:
1. Actually being measured by a skilled tailor in person.
2. Using the existing measurements of a suit or garment that already fits you perfectly.
3. Measuring yourself at home.
One of the things I like about InStitchu is that they offer all three and execute them well. There are a number of upstart digital tailors, and they generally offer detailed instructions, tips and videos for how to measure yourself at home (usually with help from a friend or partner). However, this can be much harder to do accurately than it looks. If you are ordering a groom’s party suit for a single wearing at a wedding - a niche that represents a surprisingly big part of the business these companies do - self-fitting is often just fine. But if you plan on buying more than one or two suits and shirts and shopping repeatedly, it’s worth getting fit professionally at the start, whether it’s by one of these companies in their showroom (free) or a local tailor who knows how to measure (fee). While most on-line tailors push you to self-measure, InStitchu’s website makes clear that the middle ground of using the template of an existing item you know you like is a better option than DIY.
But there is more to the process than getting fit, and the most important thing is quality. As is the case with so many things, when it comes to custom tailoring, what you pay dictates to a considerable degree what you get. At the highly skilled shops on Jermyn Street in London, it is easy to spend two thousand dollars or more (maybe much more) on a new suit, but you know they are going to do it right. So, if you are going to skip that and do it online, it only makes sense if you are saving money. But at the same time, it is hard to expect much from a two-hundred-dollar suit. After shopping around, I found that InStitchu, which cost two to three times as much as its cut rate competitors, but half to a third as much as traditional luxury bespoke, is the perfect compromise of great quality at a very fair price.
I actually started with a competitor, the better known and less expensive Indochino. One appeal is that they have a lot of brick and mortar stores in the U.S., so I scheduled an appointment and went in for a fitting. But my impression is that I was fit by a sales staffer who had been trained to take measurements (compared with my later experience at InStitchu, where I was fit by a clearly skilled tailor). Afterwards, the first two suits I bought didn’t fit, despite having gone in person for measurements, and they had to be remade. Now they fit, and they are nice for three hundred-dollar suits, but comparing them to the others in my closet, it’s easy to see that they are not as high quality.
My experience at InStitchu was much different from start to finish. Instead of a storefront, the New York showroom is hidden in an office building and by appointment. It is classy, right down to the cart of fine whiskies offered during the process, and the fitting was topnotch. So is the quality of the fabrics they use (for wool, exclusively fine, sustainably produced merino from Australia bearing the high quality Woolmark designation, along with equally high-quality linen, cotton and cashmere). I am very happy with the fit, feel, look and final quality of the suit and French-cuff shirt I had made. While other e-tailoring sites constantly advertise suits from around $300, and in the case of iTailor, $199, an InStitchu suit is going to run you considerably more, $400-800 with most around $700. However, in this case you get more than what you pay for - the weight, feel and quality are comparable to significantly pricier off the rack suits but is totally custom. All the finish elements from the lining to buttons to pockets were perfect, and the staff guiding me through the myriad choices while offering fashionable suggestions was extremely helpful. Ditto for the quality and fit and material of the dress shirts, relative bargains at $90-$130. I will definitely be going back for more.
InStitchu is big in its native Australia, where it has been a custom suit leader since 2012 and has built a following that includes often hard to fit professional athletes. Last year they acquired luxury Australian bespoke tailor George & King, and now offer the high end George & King by InStitchu line. The company’s biggest weakness is that it currently (they are growing fast) only has one U.S. location, in New York, with all the others in Australia and New Zealand. But whether you get fit in the Big Apple, do it yourself, copy your favorite jacket, or get measured by a local tailor, once you do it opens the world to a dizzying array of high quality, affordable online shopping. Here in the States, InStitchu has quickly been discovered by our far-from-off-the-rack sized athletes, in this case NBA basketball players. Last year the company helped prep several top prospects for the NBA Draft, including first round picks Wendell Carter Jr., (Chicago Bulls), Kevin Knox (New York Knicks), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Los Angeles Clippers), and Donte DiVincenzo Milwaukee Bucks).
Like other online tailors, InStitchu does a lot of wedding parties, and in many cases, the groom will go into the showroom, get fitted himself, pick out suits for his wedding party, and then have them each order their measurements online from wherever they live around the world. They do a lot of tuxedoes, and being able to get a custom formal outfit you can use for years for under a thousand dollars is very appealing when compared to high-price, short term rentals.
