How To Find The Perfect Tailor
March 13, 2018
Wanna know how to find the perfect tailor to work with when launching a custom suit store?
As we promised, we're documenting the behind the scenes process of launching this store and want to educate as many people as we can. If you’re looking to find a good tailor for your custom suits or if you’re looking to start a suit business like us, this post is for you.
Finding the perfect tailor is never an easy thing to do. Some would challenge the idea that a "perfect" tailor doesn’t even exist, and with good reason. But with some proper due diligence and an ounce of good fortune, you can come awfully close to a long-lasting partnership with someone trustworthy, talented, and who is just as committed to making you look and feel good as you are.
This is what we set out to do at Legacy Lapels when we went looking for the perfect tailor to design and hand-make our suits for our brand. We ultimately found one that we believe will flourish as we grow our business and build a thriving relationship that will be evident in the bold and custom suits we create for our customers.
Because we are in the custom suit business, of course, we looked for a tailor who could provide great quality work, craftsmanship, and superb attention to detail. But because we're also in the business of people first, we looked for things like communication, willingness to help, promptness, service quality, and genuineness. Then we went with the oh-so trusted, intuition. These are all things we value in our company, so to bring someone along who values these things as well would make the whole process a lot easier. So here goes.
How To Find The Perfect Tailor
1. Go with a trusted referral.
Listen, when we launch our store we're gonna rely heavily on reviews as social proof of the amazing suits we create. We know that humans still trust other humans to help them make good and solid purchasing decisions. So the first thing you need to do when looking for a tailor is ask another man to refer you to his tailor or a tailor he knows.
That's exactly what we did when we first set out to find a tailor. We utilized our personal network, visited trusted websites, then read all the reviews, set up skype calls, met in person, and eventually chose one that we liked and trusted. But it all started within the trust of our personal network.
The advancement of the internet has made it easy to find anything you're looking for. But it doesn't guarantee that what you're looking for will be good. So go with someone or somewhere that you know of then let everything else follow.
2. Sample their work.
In order to make a good decision and get a good tailor, you're gonna have to put some skin in the game. This requires you to fork over some cash. But don't throw the bank at the tailor to get a good feel for their work, rather just enough to get them to alter something you've been needing altered. Maybe a shirt that you don't mind messing up.
Of course, when we narrowed down our search for tailors to design and create our suits here at Legacy Lapels, we asked to sample their work. But not with just a shirt, we had our final two tailors in the running to fully design a suit for us to get the ultimate experience. (Watch the videos here.)
By doing so, we could get a feel for the suits exactly like our customers would. We experienced the quality, the cut, and the fit for ourselves to determine the level of service we would be providing to those who wear them.
There's just no substitute for personal experience. So when choosing a tailor of your own, be sure to test the waters before you jump in head first. With our suits at Legacy Lapels, we can honestly say "come on in, the water is just fine." Because we jumped in first.
3. Do what your intuition tells you to do.
Just trust your gut. Go with the tailor that feels right. When visiting and speaking with a potential tailor, just listen and make an internally guided decision. Sometimes these decisions are made subconsciously by picking up on subtle things they do.
Listen to how they speak to you. Do they seem genuine? Are they patient as you ask questions to better understand the process? Or are they eager to collect your payment and uninterested? No one wants a tailor who lacks patience to cut a suit for them that we all know requires extreme patience! So pay attention and ask all the questions you wish.
These things for sure will tell you if you're at the right place or not.
We took all of this into consideration when deciding on the perfect tailor to cut and design our suits. Along with, customer service and the size of the smile on their face when greeting us, we went with our intuition and found the perfect tailor.
Their craftsmanship, quality of work, years in the business, and knowledge of the suit industry made it an easy decision. It's a relationship that we'll value for years to come here at Legacy Lapels.
In Closing
All in all, it's no easy task to find the perfect tailor. But you can take the necessary precautions to ensure that you come very close! Just keep these three things in mind while on your search.
We've done just that and are eager to open doors to those who value a freshly constructed, bold and custom suit. Not only that, but also for those who value the feeling a good suit brings. We all aim to look nice in our suits but that feeling we get once we put them on is priceless. That feeling of confidence. That feeling of prestige. The feeling of empowerment. All priceless.
Because we believe that empowered men change the world. Now let's change the world and feel good doing it.
Enter to win $100 off of your first custom suit by subscribing to the newsletter. We'll be announcing the winner as soon as our doors open so make sure you're there to know about it!
