There is nothing quite like dressing in bespoke.  The comfort that comes from a perfect fit, the pleasure from owning a piece of supreme craftsmanship and the quiet confidence from knowing that nobody in the room is better dressed.

Bespoke tailoring blends the traditional relationship between cutter and client with a modern approach to fabric and style.  For over 200 years, Gieves & Hawkes have made the finest hand made bespoke garments and have gained a reputation as one the top English tailors on an international level.  This suit is an investment, it should last a lifetime and often are passed from father to son.  They are hand-made on the premises at Savile Row.

This is the concept that most people think of when they hear the words Savile Row.  They think this is the only offering, but here is where much has changed in the past few years.  A relatively new development has been the offering of Personal Tailoring Service and even ready to wear clothes among the tailors on Savile Row.

Personal Tailoring Service is a bridge between bespoke and ready to wear.  Gieves & Hawkes provide unparalleled skill in cutting and tailoring, which combined with the extensive fabric selection and the finest manufacturing enables a customer to personalise their garments with a choice of style, cloth, detail and lining colour.

Personal tailoring uses traditional methods and a great deal of hand work, they construct a one-off garment- be it a suit, jacket, blazer, waistcoat, or dinner jacket – that fits perfectly, is cut in your choice of fabric, and features all those small details that define an individual.  All this, for very little more than a ready-made article, and perhaps a third of the cost if it were bespoke.  The price varies depending on fabric choice but begins at around £800 and up.

The process begins with a consultation with a sales consultant who takes the required measurements.  Customers will choose from a selection of over 2,000 fabrics and linings.  Fabric makes a suit.  The same cut can look completely different in a pattern or a pinstripe.  From 8ox to 16ox (250gm to 495gm) there is a fabric weight for every season and climate.  The sales consultant will then go through the various options available to determine the style of the suit and the details.  The jackets may be sing breasted (1, 2, or 3 button) or double breasted (2 or 3 button) with notched or peak lapels.  Pockets may be horizontal or slanted, with or without a flap, you can have a straight or slanted ticket pocket, inside wallet and pen pockets, frog and hip pockets- it is individual choice. 

Trousers can have forward pleats, reverse pleats, double pleats or be plain fronted.  Trousers can also be fitted for braces or side adjusters as well as the standard belt loops.  The measurements and choices are sent to the manufacturers and the pattern is adjusted on the computer.  Plain and striped cloths are cut by machine, with the more detailed checked cloths being cut by hand.

The components of the garment are passed through the production line, as our ready to wear suits are.  Gieves & Hawkes offer both a canvassed or semi-canvassed option – where the canvas is supported in some areas by lightly fused interlinings.  The garments are hand finished to ensure the highest quality before they pass through pressing and quality control sections before dispatch.

The process of ordering a bespoke suit beings with a detailed consultation with a tailoring sales consultant.  A cutter (often attended by their undercutter) will be called on to take the order.  Gieves and Hawkes cutters have at least 10 years and often in excess of 30 years of hand tailoring and hand cutting experience – only the best can work on Savile Row.

The cutter takes measures from the body, taking into consideration all figures and frame types.  An individual paper pattern is drafted and then cut by the cutter specifically for each customer.   The next step is choosing the fabric.  At Gieves & Hawkes they have over 10,000  choices of fabric to choose from.  The cloth is cut by hand to the individual pattern.  There are no restrictions on style, ask and the answer is invariably that it is possible rather than not.

After cutting, each item – jacket (or trouser, waistcoat – is passes to a separate tailor with appropriate skills.  This tailor is responsible for the hand rendering their item.  The garments are completed to a basic stage known as a First Baste, where the garment is loosely stitched, without pockets, button, or other details.  The First Baste garment is then fitted on the cutomer for specific requirements relating to both comfort and fit.  The garment is then taken apart and the parts adjusted to account for the changes from the customer fitting.  They are then remade and taken to an Advanced Baste, which includes the pockets and other details, and then refitted on the customer at a second fitting.  Following this fitting, more changes are made and the garment is usually finished in advance of the third and final fitting. 

All finishing is completed by hand including edge stitching, padding of lapels, individual buttonholes and application of buttons.  All linings are felled by hand, with linen being used to reinforce pockets and gorge, sleeves are stitched in place by hand and shoulder pades and canvases are hand-cut and shaped.