The Bespoke Process - Part Two - Cutting and Striking the Pattern

Cutting the suit to me, is perhaps the most fascinating part of the bespoke process. This is the stage where the measurements taken at the customer's consultation are transformed into a paper pattern, and this paper pattern is then used to 'strike' the cloth which the customer has chosen to have his garment made-up in. Striking the cloth refers to literally marking out the shape of each panel in the customer's paper pattern onto the cloth, (using tailors chalk of course) before these cloth panels are cut-out by the cutter, in order to be passed to the coat maker, who will start creating the rough shape or 'baste' of the garment to be tried out by the customer at the first baste fitting. Cutting is such an instrumental part of the process, that it gives the action of making a suit its name; a bespoke suit is not 'made' or 'sewn', but 'cut'.

A cutter at work - parts of the brown paper pattern are laid over a length of cloth, ready for marking out.

Cutters in London tailors will be apprenticed as a trainee or 'under cutter' at a very young age as it takes around 5 years to become fully trained. Indeed, many tailors will say that it'll take another 5 for that newly qualified cutter to become accomplished and another 8 or 9 to become recognised as a 'master cutter'. This gives you an idea of the kind of skill required. Cutting is an instinctive art, and one which does take years of both practice and intricate study to master. Take a minute to think about what it must take to transform a flat length of cloth into a finished bespoke suit and it hits home just what extraordinary skill and craftsmanship a cutter has to learn to start this process. Many cutters will shape the different lines and curves in a pattern completely free-hand, without any guide or template - just their eye and what they know will work for the set of measurements and the information about the customer that they've been provided with.

The cutting room at Anderson & Sheppard, complete with tailors cutting patterns and striking cloth. You can a small part of the tailor's pattern store towards the rear. 

Every tailoring house works on its own signature cut and does things slightly differently and a cutter will always be trained in his or her own house's style. On Savile Row for example, Anderson & Sheppard or Mr. Stephen Hitchock employ a delightfully full, soft and luxurious tailoring style, which focuses on comfort and ease of wear, whereas somewhere like Chittleborough & Morgan focuses on highly structured, fitted and flamboyant statement suiting. Hence why researching what different tailors offer, and finding the right tailor for you is so important when you decide to go bespoke. I would always suggest that you have an initial consultation first without placing an order, just to see whether you will bond with a tailoring company, and whether what they can achieve for you is what you're really after. Before I chose The Cad & the Dandy as my tailors, I visited another company who promised very similar levels of product construction and price, but I walked out during my first appointment when it became very quickly apparent that the tailors were not prepared to provide a suit for me which was not cut in their usual house style.

Another snap from Anderson & Sheppard's cutting room, this time from the recent visit by His Royal Highness Prince Charles. Anderson & Sheppard make all of the Prince's tailoring, but whereas normally the tailors go up to the Palace, here his visit marked a special occasion for the Tailor's.

Every customer of a bespoke tailor has his own pattern made the first time he orders a garment, and it is adjusted minutely throughout the process (and during the creation of all future orders) to ensure that it provides the very best fit possible. Hence why every bespoke suit truly is unique, it is made exclusively for one person's taste and for one person's body.