The House Cut: How We Cut Our Custom Suits and Shirts For Men
How We Cut Our Mens Custom Suits.
A Custom suit can be cut 50 different ways and they all can be correct.
The best fit, that’s what makes sense to us…
Traditional bespoke houses are all about, well, tradition.
The various tailoring houses of Savile Row, Milan, and Naples deploy their distinctive signature cuts on every client and every suit. For example, Savile Row’s Anderson & Sheppard are known for their “English drape”—created with a softer chest; longer jacket; broad, soft shoulders; extra material across the back; and less flare at the hips than some other suits, giving the chest and back a noticeably curvy drape. Neapolitan tailors prefer the soft, deconstructed look; their design signature is the “shirt shoulder” (an unpadded shoulder featuring sleeves attached under the armscye (armhole), as they would be in a shirt, which creates a more natural shoulder line. None of the many house cuts are “good” or “bad” in themselves. The challenge is context: even the most beautiful cut won’t work if it’s applied to a client whose body isn’t complemented by the look’s lines. Strict adherence to a single house cut can make the wearer feel as if the clothes are wearing him instead of the other way around.
In this regard, We are unique among custom suit makers. Our “house cut” isn’t a specific cut at all: it’s a fluid design process based on immaculate tailoring technique combined with your proportions, measurements, needs, and preferences. We firmly believe that great bespoke clothing emerges from collaboration; therefore, we choose to design each suit based on the client’s body type and personality, pulling techniques and cuts from different tailoring schools as needed.
Traditional custom suit houses might scoff, calling our body-responsive cuts “frankencuts.” We take that as a backhanded compliment.
We believe that matching each detail to the wearer’s body type yields the best fit and the most flattering silhouette.
The Design Process: Areas of Focus
Our design process starts with your body. When we measure our clients, we consider build, frame, shoulder slope, facial features, and overall proportions. At the same time, we pay attention to your garments’ use and purpose.
Below are some examples of the diversity at play in our multifaceted “house cut”:
From Design Sketch to Finished Looks
Our Goal…
is to balance the tailoring techniques we’ve mastered, with our knowledge of proportions and design to create the most faltering garment for each individual client.
Here are some of the design elements we can deploy:
Jacket Waist
We lean toward a more modern, consistently flattering “nipped” V-shaped silhouette, proportioned to each client’s chest/waist/hip ratio.
Jacket Balance and Length
In general, we aim for a gently contemporary aesthetic, dynamic to the client’s torso/leg ratio. The bottom line: your jacket length should flatter you specifically.
Pant Rise
We tend to use a more contemporary rise placed at or just above the hips, always proportioned to the client’s torso/leg ratio.
Shoulders
The Roped English
The Squared Milanese
The Neapolitan Shirt-Style
The American Natural “Sack”
Chest
The Constructed and Padded English Drape or “Soft Drape”
The Milanese (Soft Basted)
The Neapolitan (Deconstructed, with a High Armscye (Armhole))
Shirt Collar Spread and Height
The Cutting Room offers 48 different combinations of collar spread, point size, and height, tailored to the client’s face shape, neck length, and preference in tie knots.
The above descriptions are meant solely to describe the overall aesthetic of our garments. Options for details such as lapel type, pocket style and placement, buttons, linings, and so on are also available. These finishing touches—crucial to the bespoke design process—emerge from client preference and are included in your garments price.
TCR is a bespoke design studio based in Orange County Ca. Servicing Los Angeles, Sand Diego and the Inland Empire and specializing in custom suits and tuxedos for men and women.