One conversation. One pattern. Three fittings.
About 12 to 14 weeks from the first measure to the day you collect. About 60 hours of hand work by four people. Here is where the hours go, what it costs, and the things you might not like to ask on the telephone.
How it works.
Five stages. None of them can be hurried, which is why we once turned down double the price for a suit in two weeks. "You can have it fast or you can have it right. We only know how to do one of those."
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Week one. About an hour.
A conversation, and the measuring
You come downstairs, and you talk to Ruth. Not about fashion. About what the suit is for and what you do all day: whether you sit, stand, drive, lift children, play the trumpet. Then she measures you.
Bring the shoes you'll wear with the suit. The trousers are cut to them.
Photograph: a tape measure across a customer's shoulders -
After you've gone home
Your paper pattern is cut
Ruth chalks your measurements onto brown paper and cuts a pattern that is yours alone, over the same oak table her grandfather cut on. Since she is left-handed, it is chalked from the "wrong" side.
That pattern is never thrown away. It goes on a hook in the cellar, labelled in pencil, beside about 11,000 others.
Photograph: chalk on brown paper, the shears resting beside it -
Fitting one
The basted shell
Your jacket, roughly assembled and held together with white thread. It will look unfinished because it is. This is where Ruth starts arguing with the record she made of you, and where you tell her how it feels to move in.
Photograph: a basted jacket, white tacking thread showing -
Fitting two
The forward fitting
Further on. Closer to a suit. The corrections from the first fitting are in, and new ones get chalked on. Dot, who has sewn our jackets for 44 years, is somewhere behind all of this at her bench by the back window.
Photograph: Dot at her bench by the back window -
Around week twelve to fourteen
Final fitting, and collection
You try it on. If it needs anything, it gets it. Then it's yours, with a book pocket inside that you didn't ask for.
After that, any alteration to it is free, for the life of the suit. Whatever its age.
Photograph: a finished suit, ready for collection
What you'll pay.
| Garment | From |
|---|---|
| Two-piece suit | £6,400 |
| Three-piece suit | £7,600 |
| Jacket | £4,600 |
| Trousers | £1,500 |
How paying works
Half when you order. Half when you collect. That's all of it.
When the cloth changes the price
Some cloths cost more than others. If the one you like moves the price, Ruth will tell you before you choose it, not after. You will not find out at collection.
What never costs extra
Altering a Pellow & Vane suit, for as long as the suit lasts. Keeping your pattern, for as long as the cellar lasts.
We would rather tell you what it costs than tell you it's worth it.
The questions you're too polite to ask.
People ask these in a low voice on the telephone, usually at the end. Here they are at the beginning.
Do I need to know what I want?
No. Ruth's words, not ours:
"You don't need to know what you want. You need to know what you do all day. I'll work out the rest."
You don't need the vocabulary either. Point, describe, say "that bit". It all ends up in chalk anyway.
What do I wear to the first appointment?
Whatever you'd wear on an ordinary day. The one thing to remember is the shoes you'll wear with the suit, because the trousers are cut to them.
Can I bring someone?
Yes. Bring whoever you'd trust to tell you the truth about a mirror. Hugo, the Border terrier, will be under the cutting table regardless. He doesn't count as company and he isn't for sale.
What if I change shape?
You will. Everyone does. Ruth's rule, painted on the cellar door, is measure twice, cut once, measure again on Tuesday, because people change shape over a weekend.
Over the years, alterations to your suit are free for the life of the suit. And if you come back for another in twenty years, we cut it from your old pattern, plus whatever the twenty years added.
Will I be talked into things?
We don't really do talking people into things. We're more practised at talking them out of things, as the 1936 ledger shows: "Customer insists on turn-ups. Told him. He insists." He got his turn-ups. You'll get what you ask for, with an honest opinion attached.
Will I look ignorant in a room full of cloth?
No. Knowing about cloth is Ruth's job. Knowing about your life is yours. Kofi, our apprentice, came here from a fashion degree and says he "had to unlearn everything that made clothes look good in photographs". Nobody arrives knowing this. That's what the 36 years are for.
How long before I can come in?
The waiting list for a first appointment is currently about three weeks. Then 12 to 14 weeks to collection. If you have a wedding or a date in mind, say so when you ring. Better to ask early than to ask for it fast.
Why can't I just email?
Because Ruth doesn't do email, and she would rather hear what you do all day from you than read it. Ring 020 7946 0321. She answers it herself when she isn't cutting.
Already have one of ours?
Your pattern is in the cellar.
Whether you ordered it yourself years ago or it came to you from someone else, we will alter any Pellow & Vane suit free, whatever its age. And we can cut a new one from the pattern already hanging downstairs.
We also alter other makers' bespoke suits, by arrangement. Ask on the telephone.
The first step is a telephone call. That's all.
Ring, say you'd like a suit, and say what it's for. Ruth will take it from there.
Ring Ruth020 7946 0321Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:30. Saturday by appointment. Savile Row, London W1.