Friday, February 3, 2012

Trip to the tailor

Although I've been lucky (and persistent) enough to find a solid rotation of clothes that fit me well at thrift stores, I've also been known to purchase things that are close, but not quite there. What usually happens is that they stack up in corner of a rack somewhere until I get off my butt and get them altered, and that doesn't always happen immediately.

About nine months ago I made a post with pictures of a sport coat that I picked up that I liked quite a bit. Made entirely of rough silk, the navy/off white herringbone pattern goes with a lot of different combinations, and adds a subtle texture to just about everything. When I put the sport coat on that day, it felt a little bit boxy, and despite getting a nice compliment on it at work, the photos in the aforementioned post made me realize that it needed a bit of work.

navy herringbone

After an alteration that I was less-than-flattered with at another tailor, I grabbed a stack of three things and took them to a fellow in town who had been recommended to me by two others. In total, there were three sport coats, two of which I had brought in at the waist, and all three of which had sleeve adjustments.

navy herringbone full

The aforementioned herringbone sport coat came back, and I immediately felt better when I put it on. I didn't have it aggressively brought-in, as I have a tendency to pop a v-neck sweater on sometimes under just about everything, but the fit is enormously better.

side by side

Here they are side-by-side, just for good measure. With the alterations, this coat has gone from an afterthought in the back of my closet to one of my favorites. Considering what I paid for the changes (roughly $35*), I'd say it was worth every penny.

Oh, and yes, those are red suede bucks down there.

red suede on dead grass

*$35 is just an estimate, as my total bill for all three pieces came out to just under $80. This cost was about 60% of what I figured I was going to have to fork over, but when the the tailor that I took them to (an older Greek gentleman with a small paper full of chicken-scratched numbers) told me the price, I happily paid and didn't even ask for price breakdown. Needless to say, he'll be getting a lot more of my future business.

4 comments:

  1. Alterations are always worth the investment when you find such great thrift shop deals. It looks like the tailor did some excellent work.

    And the shoes. Amazing.

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  2. Did you have the waist of the jacket "suppressed"? I think that is the tailoring term? I any case, it looks much better. And the shoes are great!

    Best Regards,

    Urich von B.

    P.S.

    Speaking of shoes, I found a a pair a almost new black tasseled calfskin Ferragamo loafers in my exact size (with the original box and shoe bags mind you) at our local thrift store for under $30 yesterday.

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  3. The after shots of your jacket look great. I have a few things that need a trip to the tailor. Evidently, I have the arms of a T-Rex.

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  4. PUvB: I'm sure that's the correct term. I'm always forgetting the proper wording around here, but yeah, waist suppression. Nice score on the shoes, too. I haven't found a decent pair of shoes thrifting in ages.

    Jho78: I'm pretty much the opposite of a T-Rex. Kind of like a power forward with the arms of a spider monkey. :)

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