Basted fitting of the suit in a skeleton stage with Malcolm Plews.
Meeting Malcolm Plews again. Basted fitting, the first fitting of a bespoke suit. I have encountered tailors, who start with a muslin fitting. However, that is unusual, and those who do it will be tailors, who have trained in a women’s tailor shop mostly, where the use of muslin fabric is common. Traditional tailors who make bespoke suits for men will say there is no point in a muslin fitting, since you cannot pass information from a fitting with a muslin fabric to the acttual cloth properply.
Everything is more or less up for grabs at a basted fitting. Jacket and trousers are in a skeleton stage. Neither of them have been completed with interlining and pockets yet.
Basted fitting with Malcolm Plews
I felt Malcolm’s basted fitting was a very good start. The jacket was a little short, and it needed a slight adjustment of front and back balance, which is common. In fact I don’t recall I have ever been to basted fitting without a little bit of balance adjustment. Trousers were fitting snugly around waist and hips and at the fork. All in all there wasn’t much we could change for the better. The suit appears to be on track. We agreed upon that.
The situation reminded me of a saying that goes “the first fitting is for the tailor”. It means, basically, that you as a customer should keep your mouth shut at the first fitting. Personally, I cannot follow the saying, though. I have to communicate about details from a start. Even though the tailor really can’t use the information from me at this step in the process, I still expect that he can learn a bit about me, and my expectations, which can be usefull for him afterall.
Photo: Sartorial Notes