MTM- English-American Tailors in Westminster Maryland. They are a very large suit manufacturing plant, all computerized, laser cutting, etc. I toured the factory floor. They are the back end for Tom James, an MTM firm where salesmen come to your office. That part of it is not worth it, as the salespeople will tell you they are tailors. They are not. They have no idea.
If you go to the actual factory, in the back there is a little showroom visible from the parking lot. Ask for George.
They take your measurements, and its a very complete set of measurements. Then they feed it into the computer, which does the cutting.
There are various patterns to choose from, but to be honest, I change so many things after discussing with George that the pattern is but a starting point. As with other tailors, take a jacket and pants that you already like, its a good starting point for them to understand what you mean.
As a Plastic Surgeon I can tell you the most difficult thing for me is divining what the patient wants from what they are telling me. Bring also pictures of suits you like. That is useful only to demolish your expectations because like with my patients, what we like usually needs a different body (other than your present body) to work well. But it is an important lesson to learn otherwise you will be disappointed.

I would strongly suggest consulting with a psychiatrist about those voices in your head.

Also, taking suiting advice from a plastic surgeon is like buying a wedding dress at a pawn shop.

Last edited by Eckharti (2013-01-09 15:25:47)

Last edited by Eckharti (2013-01-09 17:53:30)

Paying no attention to the trolling on this thread - A further question from Tudor is for opinions on the various Hong Kong travelling tailors. Any opinions based on experience out there ?

Thanks.

I'm always doing favours for mates. I'm like that. If you look at the posts above you will see that the friend then came along to say thank you to me too. He's a busy guy and just dropped me a line to see if I could help out. It's all in the post which starts this thread.  He is not a plastic surgeon.

By the way I totally fail to get the point or indeed the meaning of this metaphor "Also, taking suiting advice from a plastic surgeon is like buying a wedding dress at a pawn shop."?   How is it supposed to work?  Chevere makes a good point about how far one should trust one's own judgement.  Anyway the advice was useful and well appreciated.   

Anyway as for the Hong Kong company, Garytailors; if they do ever respond to my simple question... I will post their reply here, I suspect it will be entertaining or revealing. 

Ivy Jim's own view seems to be that one should buy ready made and get them tailored.  That sounds cogent to me; both he and I are lucky in that we fit pretty well off the rack though!  I did have some bad experience with London alteration tailors though, until John Simons put me in touch with Stitchcraft off Oxford Street...  to quote Jim "It is a minefield out there".  I would welcome comments on the Hong Kong Tailors though.

Indeed what's with London Tailoring these days?  I did ask John Simons but he remained calm but Gnomic on the matter.

Thanks again Chevere, this will be my starting point; I have a boat load of questions and doubts about bespoke by the way: from a Modernist perspective if I might be so pretentious to say!  GaryTailors did get back to me and were honest; they do fused canvas, frankly I liked their honesty.  I might just be lucky in that OTP stuff fits me pretty well and usually only needs adjustment of small degrees.

My tip: O'Connell's.  They have some very tasty natural shoulder suits, and (obviously) you can try them on, eliminating the risk in bespoke.

Last edited by Yuca (2013-02-06 11:45:19)

Depends what you want and who you are getting it from.  In terms of classic natural shoulder: if the tailor isn't already familiar with it, then there is a risk.  Every tailor promises the earth, but getting a specific style right is a lot to ask.  If you find someone who has made the style you want before, the risk is much less, of course.