The European men’s clothier Suitsupply has had a customisation program for a few years now. While the service doesn’t include a custom pattern or measuring for the client, there is an option of altering existing patterns for the brave. I braved this choice when SS asked for my thoughts on the service, which works through their web store and offers more than a dozen details, such as the waist for trousers, which can be combined mostly swell. I do say mostly as the waist style I chose couldn’t be combined with brace buttons, which I usually sport. Those must be sewn on by the client.

Products from Pukimo Raivio

Kiton, grey sports jacket, size 50EU
Ralph Lauren, Black Label suit, size 52EU

The service also has more than 100 cloths available, and those can be filtered according to need. Thus, I ended up with a tan fabric from the Rogna mill in a 4-ply traveller wool weave as I trusted it would serve nearly year-round, drape cleanly, and hold a crease like woollen steel. All custom details include helpful photos, and a preview of the end result changes on a preview image accordingly. I knew my trouser size already, which did help with the process, but I wanted to test the service in full. This lead me to go against the usual Suitsupply grain with a model that combines a high waist, looser fit, and a high rise. None of these can be found on the company’s regular trousers. For reference, I measured my most comfortable made to measure trousers and tweaked a size 50.

The end result is pictured. The measurements respond to my wishes, the waist is high, the cut looser. All details came out correctly. The thing which surprised me, though, was the cloth. A traveller wool fabric woven from 4 threads should wear like iron. This wears like cotton, with a heavy disposition for creasing and drooping. If the project was a regular MTM-service, from a book-like fabric bunch, the end result would have been similar. Sample bunches are too small to find out how a large piece of the material wears. Thus, the verdict is positive for Suitsupply’s service and negative for Rogna’s opinion on a “good” traveller cloth.

suitsupply.com