Custom clothing

I’m the opposite. I don’t really have a brand. And sizes vary, based upon brand. I’ve always mixed it up, but as I get older, I believe it would be easier and more convenient to just go with something I know.

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think the correct term is “bespoke”

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No what he’s referring to is call made to fit. Bespoke is start to finish everything is custom made you for.

So you’re just talking about tailoring?

I'm old enough to have a mom that sewed, actually sewed not just putting the occasional button back on.

Wore many a pair of pants that mom made growing up, all of us did. Why buy clothes at retail prices that we would outgrow in a few months?

My point is if you are married, buy your wife a sewing machine. A few youtube videos and a dozen or so lopsided shirt failures later, she will be able to make you all the custom clothes you could ever want.

Honestly, the online made to measure (MTM) market just isn't worth it.

Unlike a shirt, which is supposed to line up with your shoulders, waist, hips, etc., a suit... not so much. You want a suit to flatter your physique, not match it. In other words, if you have narrow shoulders, you want some shoulder extension. If you have a narrow waist, but wider hips, you don't want for the wait of your jacket to be too suppressed, since it will make you look like a woman.

Further, most online MTM will take a pre-existing pattern, and tailor it slightly. It is not custom and, accordingly, the result will look weird and poorly proportioned. Google "indochino suit", and look at google images, and, once you get past the marketing pictures, you will see a bunch of sad, sad looking guys who tried the "custom" suit process.

Anything that you punch in online is not really custom. You are just being your own tailor. And most people are not that experienced.

Ready to wear (RTW) works for just about anyone. There are some exceptions, if you are exceptionally tall, a body builder, or are morbidly obese. But other than that... you can find anything if you look hard enough. Frankly, Dillard's and Macy's is not the answer. Better product and better value can be found elsewhere. There has never been so many great options.

Further, "real" custom or bespoke is expensive as hell. If you are paying $1,000, or $2,000 for a "bespoke" suit (and you are not in Naples or Sicily) - it probably is not bespoke, but rather MTM. Good fabric can cost $100-200 per meter alone, and you need 3-5 meters for a suit. Then, a bespoke suit takes 1 consult, at least 2-3 fittings, and about 60 hours of work. Most of the Savile Row tailors now a days are eye-bleedingly expensive, in part, because the margins are awful.

What I am saying is... online custom is not custom. It is mainly a scam, and I would personally stay away.

On August 9, 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson decided that he needed some new pants, so he got on the horn and called the Haggar Clothing Co. based in Dallas, Texas, and ordered himself up a new set, along with some shirts and jackets. That call has become something of a classic among presidential archive fans, for entirely obvious reasons: in his colorful, home-spun style, Johnson uses vivid language in describing “the crotch, down where your nuts hang” as well as describing an area we would today call “the taint”: “where the zipper ends, round under my ... back to my bunghole.” (Hilariously, LBJ belches right in the middle of that last description.)

There are plenty of issues with customizable sizes online but they're certainly not a scam.

I've dabbled with several and buy a lot of shirts from Proper Cloth. The fabrics are quite good and I've nailed down several sizes for different contexts. Yes, you're your own tailor, but for shirts that's totally fine. If the first couple efforts don't get it right, keep tweaking and they'll keep remaking them until they're spot on.

Proper cloth is solid - and for shirts, I agree, online MTM is solid.

By scam, I mean marketing (suits only) is often disingenuous and the product that you get is often not what is promised. There are exceptions. But the online MTM market is rife with issues, dishonesty, etc.