Stores carrying clothing inventory are in business to sell merchandise, rather than to dress their clients perfectly. They pretend to have their customers best interests at heart. In the final analysis, they will sell you anything they can whether it is your best or worst color, a becoming style, a comfortable fabric weight, and whether it will fit you properly, even with alterations.
Buying off the Rack is a compromise in every respect. A compromise of proper fit for 95% of the buyers. A compromise of time, energy, and value. Money is better spent on having something made to one’s specifications, than to support the inventory and costs of moving a product through the distribution chain from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer where costs are doubled and tripled at each level, for overall markups of 900%! (Greg Chapman)
- Two people will buy the exact same suit, one 5’8” the other 6’2”, with only their chest size in common. All 35 other measurements bear nothing in common. The shorter man’s jacket will be several inches too long, causing him to appear shorter than he is in overall height.
- A person with a big chest and narrow shoulders appear to have more narrow shoulders when jacket shoulders are too wide for his or her frame.
- A person with a small head appears to have an even smaller head if wearing a wide shoulder. Conversely for the person with a large head. Cary Grant who had a large head made it a point to have his suits made with wider shoulders and wider lapels than normal.
- A crotch depth in a ready-made suit is proportioned to chest size and is usually too long for someone in good physical shape. Pre-made suits are made for an obese population, for someone with a larger waist and deeper crotch than required by a person in good shape. Stores would rather sell a suit with a baggy crotch, than not sell a suit that might be too tight for even one out of 10 potential buyers.
- A store can’t possibly address the hundreds of variables that are to a customer’s best interests in terms of the infinite mix of proper fit in a proper quality of workmanship, in a proper style in a proper color in a proper pattern.
- A successful professional person’s time spent in traveling to a store, selecting clothes, standing for fittings and alterations, and returning to try on and go pick up clothing through the process again a week or so later, often exceeds the cost of several suits purchased. An established custom pattern can produce a far superior result in a one-minute phone call discussing swatches and any changes in size, all in less than 5 minutes, with completed clothing delivered to one’s home or office, along with perfect fitting, appropriate color, and patterned shirts and ties. A total time spent of less than 5 minutes for a superior result.
- A suit that is pre-made for an “average” posture, shape and distribution of average measurements all graded up or down a scale according to chest size, cannot possibly fit as it should in 99% of cases, notwithstanding alterations.
- The proper fit of a suit with alterations is limited by three factors: the alterations which are “possible” to change once the suit is made, those that the tailor, by his own talent is capable of changing, and what the store will allow him to do in terms of time and cost, which if done properly might require a week of work, and exceed the profit in the suit!
- Distribution costs at 3 levels force compromises in the quality of workmanship which effects the immediate look of a suit in subtle ways but shortens the potential lifespan of that suit by 90%. Classic clothing that is well made can look brand new after 30 or 40 years, but suits compromised by shortcut techniques may cost ½ as much, and they last 1/10th as long.
- A person with a flat rear end wearing a pair of pants made for an average more round rear end appears to have no rear end at all, with folds of fabric collapsing and dragging down the person’s legs even past their knees.
- An off the rack suit rarely has enough fabric to let out in the event of any real increase in weight, hence is of no use. A proper custom made suit has extra fabric to let out 3 to 5 inches, even in the jacket and can be modified by a good tailor, giving it a second and third life as current styles or body size change.
- A custom suit generally comes with the expertise of someone who has made a profession of working with someone to produce a superior result in every respect in the fit of a suit, and the building of a wardrobe, supported by a file with a history of sizes, swatches and notes as to that person’s future ideas and goals for the building of a wardrobe. A store employee is generally operating with very limited knowledge and is more likely to sell you the merchandise that carries the largest percentage commission as it’s time on the rack get’s closer to the date the store must pay for the goods.
