Fit of MTM Suits vs Bespoke Suits

Naturally, a bespoke tailored suit represents the pinnacle of fit for the serious sartorial enthusiast and suit wearer. This is because all factors influencing the garment are perfectly tailored to your wishes and are in balance with each other. Between off-the-rack suits and bespoke suits lies the made-to-measure suit, which in the Netherlands is often sold as 'real tailor-made'. The moment you start critically examining it with an expert eye, you quickly see through this and find quite a few points for improvement in the fit.

We are often asked to further alter and adjust a made-to-measure suit so that it fits and looks better.

Below is an explanation of the points we most commonly encounter when altering and adjusting a made-to-measure suit.

Slimming the waist of the jacket: so that it is shaped to your body, also from the back.

Firstly, we took in the jacket. We decided to do this over three seams, which means that in addition to taking in the side seams, the center back seam is also taken in. This allows us to incorporate a jacket, which is not originally cut to the shape of the back, largely into the back, without disturbing the original balance too much. As a result, you get a fit based on your body at the back as well. A point that almost everyone forgets.

Had we only taken it in through the side seams, the hips would remain relatively wide at the bottom, while the rest of the suit becomes tighter

Shortening/Taking in Sleeves: The traditional method means doing this through the shoulder.

Then we moved on to the sleeve length. We shortened them through the shoulder, thereby retaining the ornamental buttonholes that were originally in the jacket. This was important to the gentleman because the top buttonhole is a specific colour, and we wanted to preserve it. If you shorten the sleeve by cutting it from the bottom, the balance is lost; buttons are not just placed at a certain distance on a sleeve for no reason. A fine detail, but very important.

Slimming the trouser sleeves: A more tapered fit is the modern look.

Narrowing and slimming the sleeves of the jacket: Simply applying the modern sporty fit.

After we shortened the sleeve length, we separately made the width of the sleeves narrower. So, we did this in two steps. The reason is that when you shorten a sleeve through the shoulder, you lift the entire sleeve. This changes the shape of the sleeve, moving the narrowest point upwards. Since we did not want the sleeve to possibly become too tight if we did this in one go, we deliberately chose to do this in two steps after consulting, in order to achieve the right and desired result.

The waistcoat has been taken in at the side seams, so that it sits more nicely around the body. This was done through the side seams because if we were to also take in the center seam, the waistcoat would be too tight on the stomach. As a result, this is the maximum in terms of fit. If it had been made bespoke, it would have been possible to cover the curvature of the back and body position as well.

We have made the trouser leg narrower so that it follows the natural contour of the leg more closely. To achieve this, you pin the leg on the body, demonstrating the new fit. This allows you to see in advance whether it is not too tight and won't become uncomfortable. This is the most requested alteration we make, especially with made-to-measure suits and clothing.