Bespoke
How it works, how long it takes, and what it costs.
In that order, because those are the three things you want to know and the three things most tailors put last. Nothing on this page is a pitch. It is the ledger, opened.
You don't need to know what you want. You need to know what you do all day. I'll work out the rest.
- 5steps, three of them fittings
- 12 to 14weeks, first measure to collection
- 60hours of hand work, roughly
- 4people, one table
Step by step
Five visits. You do very little at any of them.
Twelve to fourteen weeks, start to finish. Each fitting is short. The work in between is the sixty hours.
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First visit. About an hour
A conversation, and measuring
You tell Ruth what you do all day, what the suit is for, and anything you already know you dislike. She measures. Bring the shoes you will wear with it, because trouser length is decided here. You will be told what the cloth you like costs before you choose it, not after. You pay half on ordering.
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Downstairs, without you
Your pattern is cut in brown paper
Ruth draws and cuts your pattern by hand on the 1921 table. It goes on a hook in the cellar with about 11,000 others, labelled in pencil, and it stays there for ever. Come back in twenty years and you are cut from it, plus whatever the twenty years added.
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First fitting
The basted shell
The cloth is cut and held together with white thread. No lining, no buttonholes, chalk marks everywhere. It is meant to look unfinished. Ruth looks at how it sits on you, not how it looks, and marks the changes. This is the fitting where most of the arguing with the cloth happens.
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Second fitting
Forward
The suit is further along and closer to finished. Smaller changes now. If you have changed shape since the last visit, and people do, this is where it is caught. Measure again on Tuesday, as the cellar door says.
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Final fitting, and collection
Finished, and yours
Dot has sewn the jacket, Kofi has cut the trousers, Ruth has argued with both. You try it on one last time. You pay the second half and take it home. From then on, alterations are free for the life of the suit. Whatever its age. Bring it back whenever it needs it.
Prices
Starting prices, in writing, before you walk in.
These are where each starts. Cloth can change the price. Ruth will tell you what your cloth does to the figure before you choose it, never after. Half on ordering, half on collection.
- Two-piece suit£6,400Jacket and trousers. The one most people start with.
- Three-piece suit£7,600With a waistcoat.
- Jacket£4,600With the book pocket. It is not optional and it never has been.
- Trousers£1,500Turn-ups if you insist. We will tell you first. We have been telling people since 1936.
- Alterations to a Pellow & Vane suit£0For the life of the suit, whatever its age, whoever it was made for.
- Alterations to another maker's bespoke suitBy arrangementRing and describe it.
If the figure is more than you can say out loud, you are not the first person to think so at this table. Say it anyway. Ruth would rather you asked what a plainer cloth does to the price than went quiet and went home.
On asking for it faster
You can have it fast,or you can have it right.
A customer once offered double the price for a suit in two weeks. Ruth said no. "We only know how to do one of those." The waiting list for a first appointment is currently about three weeks, and after that it is twelve to fourteen. Plan the wedding around it.
The questions you are too polite to ask
Asked anyway, and answered.
- Do I need to know what I want?
No. You need to know what you do all day. Sit at a desk, stand at a lectern, travel, play the trumpet. Ruth works out the rest. Once a trumpeter needed room across the back for the high notes, so she cut the back while he played. Tell her what the suit has to do and she will make it do that.
- What do I wear to the first appointment?
Whatever you would wear on a normal day. Bring the shoes you intend to wear with the suit, because the trousers are measured to them. That is the only thing you need to remember.
- Can I bring someone?
Yes. Bring whoever you would want an opinion from. Ruth will still measure you, not them, and the record in cloth will be of you.
- What if I change shape?
You will. People change shape over a weekend, which is why the rule on the cellar door ends with "Measure again on Tuesday". There are at least three fittings to catch it. And after collection, alterations are free for the life of the suit, so a changed shape in ten years is our problem, not yours.
- Will I look ignorant?
Not to anyone here. Nobody at this table expects you to know cloth weights or the right word for a lapel. Kofi arrived from a fashion degree and "had to unlearn everything that made clothes look good in photographs". Ignorance is a better starting point than that.
- Will I be talked into things?
No. The prices are on this page. Ruth will put a figure on your cloth before you choose. If you want a plain dark suit with nothing clever, you will get a plain dark suit with nothing clever, cut properly. If you insist on turn-ups, you will be told, and then you will get turn-ups.
- Can I email?
No. There is no email, deliberately. Ruth does not do it. Ring 020 7946 0321 and she answers when she is not cutting. It is quicker than email, and you will find out in the first minute whether you like her. Most people do.
- Who else wears your suits?
People you would recognise. We have never said who, and never will. "If you want to know who else wears us, you're asking the wrong tailor."
- Can I see the workshop?
Yes. The door is at street level and the workshop is downstairs. You are welcome to see it: the table, the patterns, Dot by the back window, and Hugo underneath the table, asleep.
- I already have a Pellow & Vane suit. Do you still have my pattern?
Yes. Every pattern since 1921 is in the cellar, on a hook, labelled in pencil. Ring, and say roughly when it was made. If it was made for someone else and you inherited it, bring it in. Alterations are free whoever it was cut for.
- Do you come to New York?
Twice a year. The dates go out by telephone to customers on the list. Ring, and ask to be added.
PhotographRuth measuring a customer, tape over her shoulder, the shoes he brought on the floor beside him
Next
Ring, and say it is your first time if it is.
It changes nothing except that Ruth will explain more. The first appointment takes about an hour and the waiting list for it is about three weeks.
Monday to Friday 9:00 to 17:30. Saturday by appointment. Closed Sunday.