Where to buy my first real suit

[Supr49er]

Yeah, Nordstrom's has nice suits and will alter them for you.

[Al B. Sure!]

I say rack and altered, as well, unless you have a unique body-type.

[Dinner]

Sounds good.

600 - 1k sounds a lot , though I've never bought bespoke. How would that amount of money rank in the US suit market?

If you shop around you can get an extremely nice name brand off the rack suit (with alterations included) for ~$1000. I've bought five custom made suits over the years but always over seas because the labor costs are just too high in the US unless you know someone who knows someone (who works in an illegal sweat shop). I've been happiest with suits bought in Korea; they use very high quality European made fabrics and you can bring them a picture out of GQ or some other magazine and they'll literally make you an exact copy using real hand stitching and excellent materials for ~$400. I hear China is also good but that they'll try to cut corners on materials and methods (for instance eliminating the stiff fabric between the lining and the exterior which helps the coat hold its shape or by sealing/gluing seams instead of sowing them) but I've never actually bought a suit in China. I did get two very nicely fitted suits custom made in Iraq but the material wasn't up to US standards (it was Iraqi made wool) but on the upside they only sold for like $175 for a custom made 3 piece. Kosovo was also a pretty good as they offered European fabrics and didn't seal/glue the seams but there was virtually no hand stitching either (all machine stitching). All in all I much prefer my Korean bespoke suits as the craftsmenship is quite high plus they add little extras like your name stitched on the inside of your suit plus extra little pockets worked in (in addition to the normal interior one there was a passport pocket, a watch pocket, and a spot on the back inside where you could hide money just in case you got mugged).

BTW go for the wool silk blend instead of the all wool.

[Dinner]

Now, custom made shoes are where it is really at as you literally get the best fitting shoe you've ever owned. The hard part is finding a reputable cobbler when you're over seas who won't just try to pass of a shoe made from an existing last (the foot mold) as custom made. Sure, it's still made to order but it's fitting a generic shoe size unless they do the whole nine yard of making a last just for foot. I've bought two custom made pairs of dress shoes, one was the cheapy which wasn't worth it, but the other was totally worth it as they actually took a mold of my foot and did the whole nine yards. This was ~10 years ago but the cheapy custom was ~$150 while the full custom was ~$300 and worth every god damn penny especially since they literally made each shoe out of one solid piece of leather so there was only one seam.

If you bought custom men's dress shoes like that in the US or EU they'd easily cost around $1000 so go on vacation to Asia and pick them up for 1/3rd the price.

[Ecthy]

You don't seem to mind sweat shops as long as they're in overseas.

[Dinner]

Nope. In many places the choice is between no job or a crappy job so I will gladly help provide them with business. BTW bespoke suits aren't really sweat shop material (pardon the pun) as usually it's a tailor and his sons who run the shop and they're just trying to survive like all the other small business owners. We're not talking massive foreign owned factories abusing workers and instead mostly family run places. That's hardly an abusive sweat shop if they're willing to do the work themselves at that price.

[Ecthy]

And tailors in America are not just trying to get by like most of us?

[Ecthy]

I really think you should support your fellow Americans more

[Ecthy]

Nope. In many places the choice is between no job or a crappy job so I will gladly help provide them with business. BTW bespoke suits aren't really sweat shop material (pardon the pun) as usually it's a tailor and his sons who run the shop and they're just trying to survive like all the other small business owners. We're not talking massive foreign owned factories abusing workers and instead mostly family run places. That's hardly an abusive sweat shop if they're willing to do the work themselves at that price.

The question is who gets a fair share of the money. If the situation is as you describe it, then it's better than nothing I guess. But I wonder how do you know this? If out of several hundred dollars but a few pennies get to the labourers and the big money is kept by their employer, I'd rather boycott than pay for those jobs. How do we know? I put little to no trust in overseas produced clothes. Not that this would provide any solution to the problem of a youngster with little money in need for a proper suit.

[Dinner]

First of all most tailor shops in the third world are small businesses and you can walk in the back to see where the guy and his family work. We're not talking big business here. Second of all even if they farm some parts of it out I'm ok with that as long as no one is being coerced or forced to work. As long as employees are free to walk out if they don't like the pay or conditions then that's ok because they're freely deciding to work there as it's likely the best opportunities they have at that time (and many of them go on to open their own shops after a few years). It's called hard work and thrift; these people often have that ethic while more wealthy westerners would no turn their noses up at such job opportunities. Either way, I'm getting a great suit at a great price custom made to fit while they're just happy to have customers who bring money into the local economy. BTW you won't find to many sweat shops in South Korea these days and instead they really are independent small businessmen trying to make an honest living.

[Dinner]

And tailors in America are not just trying to get by like most of us?

They're free to compete in the market but if someone else offers a high quality product for less then that's the free market in action, baby.

Again, provided everyone is there of their own free will and have the option to quit any time they like. Just because they're willing to work harder for less money doesn't mean they're abusing themselves.

[Ecthy]

To be fair I wasn't thinking of South Korea when I made that remark, more along the lines of China etc., but I'm willing to take your word for it for the time being.

[Dinner]

I really think you should support your fellow Americans more

When price is close or even a bit higher I usually buy the American made stuff but when the American made stuff is several times more expensive... Well, I vote with my dollars so unless there is some really superior craftsmanship in the more expensive product (though often there is just higher profit taking) then I'll buy the equal quality product which costs less.

[Dinner]

To be fair I wasn't thinking of South Korea when I made that remark, more along the lines of China etc., but I'm willing to take your word for it for the time being.

As I said, I've never bought a custom made suit from China though I imagine I've probably bought a ton of off the rack clothing from China. In fact, I know I have and I can't say anything about production standards work working conditions in the large industrial places selling to the chain stores. I was talking about bespoke dress clothing.

[Ecthy]

As far as buying from rack is concerned, China can't be much better than Bangladesh = no go.