Made To Measure Suits: Indochino Review, I

Made To Measure Suits: Indochino Review, I

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Back in the day it would take weeks and a series of physical visits to a tailor (and not to mention a sizeable sum) to get a bespoke suit, which is still the case.  But luckily modern technology and consumer demand have been what I believe to be the driving forces behind the burgeoning made to measure suit industry.  Everyone from Women’s Wear Daily to style bloggers like myself have touched on the fact that MTM is growing and hopefully here to stay.  Indochino is one of the companies leading the charge.  Unlike the other companies I will be discussing in the Made To Measure Battle Royale, Indochino only operates online.  There are no visits to a store required, in fact, even if you wanted to, you couldn’t.  Physical stores are not part of Indochino’s business model.  For some gentleman this is ideal and others perhaps not.  But I believe it is really a matter of preference.

The process at Indochino is quite simple.  One goes to the Indochino website and selects a suiting fabric they want to work with, I choose ‘The Essential Gray Suit’ ($379).  Next you go through a series of customizable options: lapels, number of buttons, vents, lining, monogramming, pleats and a series of other ‘Advanced’ options.  It is crucial that you utilize the ‘Advanced’ options, for it is here you can choose for a functional boutonniere, which I criticized Alton Lane for not providing.  I choose a jacket with single button front, peak lapels, side vents, hacking pockets, functional boutonniere, functional sleeve button holes.  For my pants I opted for no pleats, no belt loops, no cuffs, suspender buttons and side tabs.  This is basically the same suit I designed at My.Suit which I did partially for purposes of comparison and partially because I do really like that style of suit, but I realize it is not for everyone.  The customization process is very easy and very straight forward and some styling tips are even provided, which if you are a novice to the suit game, is a plus.  The next step is to create a profile and add your measurements, this is the less fun and more time consuming part of the process.

There are a few ways to get your measurements taken.  You can go to your tailor, have a friend take them, try it yourself or just guess.  I would highly advise against the latter two and say it is a much safer bet to settle for either of the first two.  Luckily, Indochino provides short videos of how to take each measurement, a great improvement over the simple diagrams that most online shirt and suit companies provide.  I highly recommend watching each video at least twice before having a friend take the measurements for you, for here, it is always better to be safe than sorry.  I should make note however, of my main concern about this process.  That is, as a consumer or tailor unfamiliar with Indochino suits they may not know the nuances of how Indochino styles the pants and jacket using your measurements, the cut, if you will.  But anyway, once you input all of your measurements your suit is ready to be ordered, sounds quite simple really.  But what matters are the results and much like My.Suit, Indochino vows to cover alteration costs.  But more on this next time.  In the next post in this series I will discuss the receiving of the suit via mail and the initial alterations, as no suit fits perfect the first time.

Note: FYGblog did receive material compensation from Indochino in exchange for reviewing its product.  However, as has been stated before an unbiased view will be taken when evaluating and discussing any product or brand for which FYGblog receives material compensation for.

7 COMMENTS

  1. loved the Alton Lane piece. however, I can’t disagree more as regardless of a functioning buttonhole, having a friend take your measurements or watching a video to learn how to take measurements just taints the entire process, and thus the final product. I’d never shop here.

    • Drew,
      Glad you enjoyed the Alton Lane piece, there is at least one more coming about that experience.

      A valid and understandable point about having a friend take your measurements, part of the experience of a traditional made to measure suit fitting is lost by going this route. But unfortunately, for $379 you cant have everything. I would like to note that you could always have a tailor take the measurements. But that aside, I think that if a suit fits well and the wearer looks good in it then it has fulfilled its primary purpose, regardless of who took the measurements.

      Would love to hear some other opinions, anyone else care to share?

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