No, really, it does. I bit the bullet and decided to have a suit bespoke tailored. As it happens, Raja Fashions of Hong Kong sends a two-man sales to team to stay at the hotel where I work every 3 months where they measure and photograph clients and then send the information back to head office. I had initially intended to buy consignment, but after searching a couple of shops, a couple of times, it was looking a bit grim - suits were either well worn in, or with only 10% of their price new, and considering they were typically designer brands, those prices were very high. I also considered local bespoke tailoring but talking to both shops here in town, it turned out that even for a simple design, they quoted me more than the price Erin's wedding dress.
I was a bit nervous about using Raja, even though I recognize the sales team from their previous stays, so I did some research. It turns out they are very well reviewed, by GQ and Esquire magazines, for instance, as well as by some sartorial bloggers whose eyes I respect. Though, I maintain my usual qualms about buying from places with poor labour standards, it turned out that any suit I can afford is Chinese-made. Either in the present, or a year or two ago for the last owner who is trying to recoup his investment at consignment. So I went for it. They made it a bit easier to get off the fence by cutting me a deal as a hotel staff member
Three months had passed, and I was starting to get curious. To make matters worse, they had no hotel booking at work for November as they had told me to expect. In fact, they had no future bookings at all! So I just decided to wait - maybe they had to delay because of the wild level of activity in Edmonton this November...
Well... my suit finally arrived at the hotel - but not with the Raja fellows - by UPS instead. But it did have a flyer attached explaining that they'd be at the Westin. Turns out they decided to stay in Edmonton during Grey Cup weekend and couldn't find a room with us. So I had to explain to my supervisors why my shopping was mailed to work and then wait all day long to go home to check out the suit in the box.
After the dinner dishes, I first tried on the custom shirt and it fit better than I could ever have imagined. Cuffs, collar, button holes, tails were all perfect and all in the right places - I've typically only ever had shirts where 2 out of 4 of these lined up. On the best, maybe 3 out of four. I'm still a little floored. Then I tried on the pants. Just as perfect as the shirt, though slightly wrinkled from their 10500km journey. Finally, I finished it off with the jacket, the item I was most skeptical about, since it is the most complicated of the garments and was the most travel-fuddled as well. It was great anyhow - the shoulders are perfect, the fit snug but not tight with no bulging or sagging (unlike my middle!) and it even catches the shirt collar just right without them fighting for supremacy, as my work suit does every day. Erin was super pleased and complimented me for some time afterward.
An odd note here is that I've realised that I am actually quite opinionated about suits and how they fit after 2 years in cheap work-uniform suits and that it was quite a relief and even a delight to have a suit that fits well. All in all I'm super pleased and may go back to them for for some pants for work and maybe a couple more shirts. Things are really starting to come together and Erin and I are starting to get excited. Stay tuned for a post from her about floral in the next week or two.
