The B&R Standard
What We Hold To
Made to measure is a category, not a standard. It covers work of wildly different quality at wildly different prices, and the label tells you almost nothing. Four things decide whether a garment is worth what it costs.
The conversation
The most useful thing that happens in a fitting has very little to do with a tape measure.
Before anything else we want to understand how and where you will actually wear the thing — the room, the season, how often. What colors you are comfortable in, which is rarely the same as what you think you ought to wear. And from there, which weaves and fibers will serve you best, because a cloth that is wrong for the use will disappoint you however well it is cut.
Sometimes that means talking you out of something. We will steer almost anyone away from a black suit unless an event calls for one. It is the suit first-time buyers ask for most often and the least useful one to own. Navy or charcoal will go more places, take more shirts and more ties, and still look right in five years.
How it is made
Full canvas or half canvas, on suits and sport jackets. A canvas is an interlining of wool and horsehair sewn between the cloth and the lining, and it is what lets a jacket take the shape of the chest it is worn on rather than sitting on top of it. The alternative, used almost everywhere below this level, is fusing — gluing the cloth to a backing. It is quicker and cheaper and it never molds to anybody.
On full canvas, the sleeves are set by hand, along with the collar and the lining at the hem. The lapels are padded on a strobel machine. Further hand finishing, such as boutonniere and buttonholes, is also available.
Made in Romania, Portugal and Spain, from cloth woven in Italy and Great Britain.
The cloth
Loro Piana. Vitale Barberis Canonico. Holland & Sherry. Fox Brothers. We buy from the mills we trust rather than from whoever is cheapest that season.
Every product page lists the mill, the weight, the composition and where the cloth was woven. Most of the trade will not name a mill, because it cannot.
And then, fit
Every made-to-measure operation promises fit. It is the easiest thing to claim and the hardest to check, which is precisely why everybody claims it.
We would rather it were the result of the other three than a promise standing on its own. You are measured by a person, the pattern is yours, and we confirm the result on you at a final fitting before you take anything home. If something needs adjusting, we take care of it.
Why it matters
It all serves one thing. We want you to look and feel your best in what we make, because there is no substitute for the confidence that brings.