Fabric

Choosing your cloth is the first step and you choose typically from a huge selection – well over a thousand. This choice is a matter of weight – lightweight (typically 8oz-9oz), heavyweight (14oz-15oz), or something in between. A 12oz cloth is a good all-year-rounder.

It’s also, of course, a matter of color and pattern – check, birdseye, pinstripe and so on. The cloth is one of the key factors affecting the final price of your suit. Next – at those tailors that offer a choice – you will need to select the level of construction you require, from half-lined to fully-canvassed, with some tailors offering more or less hand-making for your garment.

“It’s really the quality of construction that affects the final price,” explains Lutwyche. “Generally, without guarantees, the more you spend the better quality of construction you get.”

Measurements

Next the process gets more intimate. Your tailor will take several measurements – chest, waist, seat and perhaps several more (though not as many as is required to make a bespoke suit). Then you will try on a suit of your preferred construction. This provides a template your tailor can work with – and he will start to pin it to shape a suit that better fits you, one that compensates for the unique characteristics of your body.

Gieves & Hawkes

This is not an altogether comfortable part of the process. A good tailor will likely spend several minutes just looking at you: assessing your build, posture and symmetry, or more usually, the lack of it. Most men, for instance, have one shoulder slightly higher than the other. Allowances will then be built into your suit where possible.

More pleasurably, this process also starts to make for a suit that is to your liking. Perhaps you like high waisted trousers, or a sharply tapered trouser leg. This is where such preferences are accounted for.