GREG SPEAKS ON THE ELEMENTS OF DRESSING WELL
In my 33 year career as a merchant tailor and professional speaker, dressing and addressing people regarding their respective images, I know beyond a doubt that people and organizations who project an image of success tend to be more effective, and achieve greater results than others! Only a custom made suit gives the polished and sophisticated look of someone with uncompromising good taste and success. It establishes one’s “rank” just as does the uniform of a General in the military. Respect and confidence draw more success. Many men in tailor-made suits still aren’t well dressed, Being well dressed is truly illusive!
It requires attention to six areas simultaneously:
PROPER FIT: An individual should be aware of his or her particular fit problems. There is a smooth look of sophistication that only comes with having one's clothing made to his or her individual posture and distribution of measurements.
COLORS: Wearing the proper color tones to match your skin, hair and eye colors makes you look your best.
STYLE: Capturing the "essence" of an individual's personal style requires selecting a cut and style that is consistent with one's profession, age, body type, and background.
FABRICS: Knowing which patterns, colors, weights and finishes that lend themselves to your "look," environment and the demands of your lifestyle.
ACCESSORIES: Your "good taste" is projected in how perfectly your shirts, ties and other accessories compliment a suit or sport jacket and slacks. Learn the secrets of how to project a great image, casual or dressy!
ON-GOING ATTENTION: Clothing is too often approached as an "event," added when needed, and ignored until the need for replacement comes up! Dressing well is an on-going process that should be kept up regularly.
HANDMADE VERSUS FUSED
Until a few years ago, all suits were made with a “hymo-canvas” inner lining. Better quality suits (ready-made or custom-made) had more handwork than less expensive brands but all were made “properly”! As labor costs increased and it became difficult to find good tailors, technology developed a process by which 90% of suits are made today; Fusing. Virtually all suits under $2000 are fused (hot glued), instead of being hand stitched. The construction of a suit is what makes it look expensive and determines whether it will continue to look good and survive dry cleaning for 30 years, or just one year. Fusing takes only minutes, vs. hours of handwork. These major differences in manufacturing are just more compelling reasons why your money is better spent having clothing custom made. A better made, better fitting suit with more convenience and value, not to mention a much better selection of fabrics. vs. buying a designer name off-the-rack, and promoting a distribution system for profits at three levels. That much of an investment should buy the superior fit and convenience of Greg Chapman’s!
Understanding Custom Clothing
It's difficult to understand what makes one custom suit worth $500 and other worth $5,000 or more! Custom suits are like cars. Some are Toyotas while others are Bentleys. All are good for someone, yet some are better for others. The suit should "reflect" the individual's taste level and stature. For clothing, it boils down to quality differences in three categories: the Fit, the Workmanship, and the Fabric.
The Fit:
At least 95% of custom suits today are more like ready-made suits than a custom suit. They don't fit as they should! These suits are made from block patterns that assume a "normal" shoulder slope and a "standard" distribution of measurements! To the the degree that an individual's posture varies from the norm, the suit "misbehaves" in way or another. Sloping shoulders look more sloped, a flat rear end looks flatter, etc. This compromised approach to custom clothing is called made-to-measure. It's a shortcut process by tailors who no longer know how to draft an individual pattern on the cloth to address the shape of each individual.
The Workmanship:
Custom suits can be put together in a matter of hours, or can take several days to a week to complete. The amount of handwork, level of craftsmanship, and thousands of tiny stitches, determines how expensive the suit looks and how well it hold up over time. The continuing look of newness, 25-30 years, comes with the use of expensive components and many days of handwork, which are compromised in less expensive clothing.
The Fabric:
Pure wool is available from $10 per yard to more than $1,000 per yard. With four yards per suit, it's easy to calculate how one suit can cost so much more than another. Our "Smart" Approach includes finding quality labor and duty-free fabrics making our clothing an extraordinary value.
Building a Wardrobe with a Plan
Typically, most men buy two or three new suits every other year, wear and clean them to death, push them to the back of their wardrobe and repeat the process two years later. At even $1,000 to $1,500 per suit, three at a time every other year, 20 times over a 40 year year careers, they've spent $60,000 to $90,000 for a lifetime of ill-fitting, poorly, disposable, off the rack suits. At any given time all they have is three current suits to show for it!
The Smart Approach:
Buy better fitting, better made, longer lasting clothes. As an option, consider spending two to five years building a core wardrobe of classic clothing on our "Wardrobe Plan, " four outfits a year, including our "bonus" half price outfit. In three years, you'll have a dozen outfits, in four years, sixteen or in five years, Twenty outfits. Key is to build a large enough wardrobe to be able to go four to six weeks between each wearing. Rotation allows the wrinkles to fall out naturally assuming the suit is made properly with a "hymo" canvas interlining. It's the dry cleaning more than the wearing of clothes that wears them out.
The Net Gain:
A Custom tailored image of success with the savings of up to 33% for a lifetime wardrobe of perfect fitting, superior made clothing, that will look as good 25 years later as the day it was made! MAny clients are taking this approach to building business, formal and casual wardrobes. Give us a call to learn more about flexible short or long term plans starting as low as $200 per month then watch a miracle happen.
Custom Tailoring the Greg Chapman way... you should never go back to off-the-rack, ready-made clothes again!
