> This thinking is why the men’s section is 1/4 as large as the women’s in most stores.
This is so true, and it annoys me for reasons I'll mention later.
> Contrast this with the women’s section. Women have an expectation to express themselves and their personality.
I'm a young man, but I also like to express myself by dressing a certain way, which is why I'm especially disappointed when literally three whole floors of a relatively mid-high-end department store are dedicated to women's fashion, while half a floor is dedicated to men's.
I enjoy shopping for clothes in person - this way I can feel the clothing I'm actually going to put on, I can try different sizes on, see how it looks with my jacket, etc. So it also annoys me when a greater variety of men's fashion is found online, where I can't observe the physical quality of the clothes I'm about to buy, making it a hit-or-miss in most cases.
Yes, but men’s fashion cycles run far longer than women, so we can buy higher quality clothing that lasts much longer. This also means custom clothing is very practical.
I deal with a guy, his family has a factory in India. All the grades of fabric, styles, etc, all made custom based on my measurements. A few weeks later, it arrives.
Most comfortable clothing available, and looks killer. He travels to me, or I go to his shop. Far better experience than retail and prices are less than off the rack and better quality.
Women’s fashions are much shorter cycle, so they are often made with terrible quality fabrics that are quite uncomfortable. Worse, custom clothing is very expensive and by time it arrives, the season is changing.
> You get custom made clothing cheaper than store clothing?
If you get it made in India or Asia this is the norm.
Long sleeved shirts from a good tailor in Saigon or Bangkok are 15-25 EUR p.P. for the tailoring. Then add 3-20 EUR for fabric – depending on what material you choose.
Once the tailor has your measurements on file you can either send your fabric of choice there and have the shirts be in your mail three weeks later or they send you pictures of fabrics they stock and you choose.
20% of my shirts are off-the-shelf (but all of them have been adjusted to fit me bette). The rest are tailor made.
100% of my trousers are tailor made. I never understood why any sane man would pay for pants that are pants (pun intended). Too tight, too low waist and too short at the ankles.
It makes you look like you are the younger sibling from a poor family who inherited the clothes from the elder, taller brother. And you even paid for that eye-cancer-inducing disaster. ;)
I have a tailor in Berlin who charges 70 EUR for tailoring a pair of trousers. With fabric that means I pay less than 100 EUR usually. Which is totally competitive with off the shelf pricing. He charges 40 EUR for a new cut. Aka: if I show him a picture of a cut or photo he will make it for my measurements. This is a one-time cost though.
As an added plus I have extra pockets for change/coins and invisible pockets under the belt line which are great to stash anything pointy that will distort the shape of your leg if put into the normal pants (I e.g. put my keychain there when I go dancing tango).
And the craftsmanship (seam look/quality/longevity) is superior to anything I can buy off the shelf. Even expensive brands are commonly produced with lower quality nowadays. You pay for the better material and the brand but the seams and button stitching are still sub par.
My Berlin tailor is Vianko Mode[1]. Don't be fooled by the chaotic look of the place. :)
The owner is a bit all over the place but the work he does is outstanding. Also for ladies. If you need a tailored evening dress or costume: this is the guy.
Make sure he writes down any instructions and after agreeing for some pieces, you confirm them again yourself with him, written, by WhatsApp.
My Bangkok tailor is Dino Suits[2].
Dino is one of the few real tailors in Bangkok. Most 'tailors' there are just fronts for tourists that sell fabric with a suit pattern that gets adjusted to your body. That's a pattern of /their/ choice "made to measure" which is not the same as a pattern of /your/ choice "tailored".
Usually it's a sweatshop in the countryside doing the labor. In that place you have a 1-2 dozen half-trained people doing the grunt work and 1-2 real tailors checking on them/doing the occasional difficult section. That's why they can only do the one pattern.
Dino is known in Bangkok because if one of these other 'tailors' fucks up the last resort to fixing/saving a piece is often Dino. ;)
This is always a good litmus test for a new 'tailor'. Ask if you can bring your own fabric and ask if you can bring your own pattern. If either is a no look for another, real tailor.
In Asia/India in general: if you want a jacket w/o padding in the shoulders (Napoletanean style/pagoda shoulders) be sure to bring a well fitting (better: fitted/tailored) sample jacket from home for them to copy from.
Hmm its possible. In India I bought stitched suit for ~350$, and store bought for ~100. The tailor was best in class (two extremely well dressed men who probably made more money than me took multiple measurements and I had to go to the store three times), the cloth was best in class too. But on the other hand I bough tailored work pants for ~7$, and store bought for ~15. This tailor while talented, ran a poor mans store, even his best cloth lacked a little in elegance. I am just telling you my experience, you can guess though that one could find someone in India who can tailor the perfect cloths for you at a price that beats "some" store cloths.
It is, if you choose average fabrics like the department store. You can choose the highest end fabrics and you can easily spend thousands on a suit. Retail margins on clothing are outrageously high and obviously use average quality fabrics. However, after their costs of running the store, discounting/liquidating rack items haven’t moved, their operating profit isn’t very high. Custom menswear operations don’t have this waste hitting their bottom line.
As someone who doesn't want to pour resources into a fruitless arms race, I'm glad that a supergovernmental system has unilaterally enacted arms control. ;)
The problem is that the perception is relative, not absolute. As soon as more than a few people on the fringe start chasing it, the average will move up, causing a Red Queen scenario. Victorian court dress is a ready example of what happens when economics and social norms fail to restrain appearance arms races.
This is so true, and it annoys me for reasons I'll mention later.
> Contrast this with the women’s section. Women have an expectation to express themselves and their personality.
I'm a young man, but I also like to express myself by dressing a certain way, which is why I'm especially disappointed when literally three whole floors of a relatively mid-high-end department store are dedicated to women's fashion, while half a floor is dedicated to men's.
I enjoy shopping for clothes in person - this way I can feel the clothing I'm actually going to put on, I can try different sizes on, see how it looks with my jacket, etc. So it also annoys me when a greater variety of men's fashion is found online, where I can't observe the physical quality of the clothes I'm about to buy, making it a hit-or-miss in most cases.