Admittedly, I sometimes think about, how much sense bespoke clothing makes today. The supply of ready to wear in all sorts of models and sizes is vast. Prices are accessible. Clothing is no longer a limited resource, and the element of seriousness in dress seems to have vanished, consequently. The bespoke approach, which was born, when clothing was precious, is somehow off the mark today.
Moreover, after a few adjustments at an alteration tailor, the fit of today’s ready to wear can be just as good or even better than what you get in a suit from an average bespoke tailor. You need a really skilled and dedicated bespoke tailor to surpass good ready to wear by a substantial margin, especially, if you have a harmonious build, which is more common now than 70-80 years ago, when child diseases and poor diet influenced personal architecture.
Then you have the casualization. Jumpers, jeans, t-shirts, and hang loose shirts are all around, and they benefit little from a bespoke operation.
Furthermore, the fashion mentality has colonized men’s relation to clothing. City men, urged by wives and girlfriends, are very aware about new trends. Fashion matters more, a stable personal style less, although lifestyle experts like to talk about individualization.
In other words, bespoke seems to overdo it. You are spending a lot of money on something that most people don’t understand or care about.
The usual reply from the bespoke crowd is that they dress for themselves, not other people. I do follow the position. There is an inner need to choose and to express yourself through clothing, no matter the attention and opinion in the surroundings.
On the other hand, if your clothing doesn’t have a positive impact on other people, or is ignored by them, you are not realising the full potential value in dressing. Like a good meal, dressing reaches another level, if you are able to share the experience with others. Dressing should be a social act as well.
Having said all that I would rather not skip bespoke myself. I feel at home in the bespoke wasteland. I cannot help believing that bespoke can bring an extra dimension of joy, not only for yourself but also to people around you.
Taking clothing seriously, like bespoke does, is still a precondition for making clothing a real amusement
I cannot help but feel that after a period characterized by an air of triumphant superiority in the face of ready-to-wear and made-to-order market offerings, the online bespoke community has by and large withdrawn into a somewhat melancholic distantation with regards to the merits of bespoke. A few years back, there was practically nothing that ready-to-wear clothes could do that bespoke couldn’t do better. Bespoke was viewed almost as a repository of intrinsic superiority. Today, the tables seem to have turned: Bespoke can’t really accomplish anything beyond what is achieved in ready-to-wear, or at least only by a relatively insignificant margin. Those who foray into bespoke are not heroes, but rather somewhat crazed and anachronistic. I am not saying that either is more true, but merely making an observation. Perhaps it is the rampant mythologisation of the increased interest in bespoke crafts that has called for a somewhat phlegmatic, sobering myth-buster response.