Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette!
In this video, I'll discuss the differences between hand-made, hand-grade, bench-made,
& custom-made.
First, let's start about custom or custom-made.
The term custom just implies that something is customized to your taste.
Unfortunately, it's not a protected term so that can mean anything from choosing the length
of your shirt to basically defining anything you want in your garment.
It does not tell you whether something is machine-made or hand-made, or to what degree
it is hand-made, or how many hours went into it.
It simply implies there's some degree of customization.
As such, it's an umbrella term that is used by all kinds of businesses and usually, the
goal is to make you spend more money.
So keep that in mind when somebody advertises it as custom.
Whenever you meet a custom shirt maker, custom tailor, or custom shoemaker, you should always
ask exactly what it is that they do.
It's important because the term won't tell you and it could be anything from made to
order, made to measure, or true bespoke.
If you don't know what these terms mean, please check out our other video where I discuss
the difference between those terms and explain exactly what they are and what they aren't.
It's important to ask questions so you don't overpay for something that is sold as one
thing but is actually another.
You have to be particularly careful and cautious when somebody calls themselves a custom clothier
because that can be anybody who just did a one week or three-day training on how to measure
somebody to sell shirts or it could be a twenty-five-year experience haberdasher who truly cares about
what you do.
Again, it's very important to ask exactly why they call themselves that and what the
process is the garment has to undergo.
When somebody tells you, they're a custom shirtmaker, but all they do is measure you
and then send those measurements to a factory that makes that shirt, they are just a salesperson
who can use a measuring tape.
Also, if someone is a custom tailor, they will not call themselves a custom clothier
because a tailor is more than a clothier and they want to let you know that's what they
are and that they have the training.
So try to figure out where they learned the craft.
A true custom tailor has learned his craft for
years, he can make a pattern, he can even create a suit from scratch without a machine
altogether.
Now, your alterations tailor may also call themselves a "custom tailor" because they
can sew a dress but at the end of the day, without the training and the skill, you're
not a true custom tailor.
Again, these term's not protected, and people will always use them to their advantage.
Look beyond the words and try to understand what the process really is.
Another term that's often abused is handmade.
All it implies is there is hand labor involved along the way, but that's about it.
Doing something by hand usually takes longer than doing it by machine and therefore, it
costs more.
Overall, handmade does not mean better because you could have bad handwork and good machine
work, however, when it comes to clothing, handmade usually means hand-stitched and that
is a more flexible stitch than a machine stitch, and it looks prettier and is, therefore, more
expensive and more desirable.
Also, think about a shirt collar, if it is sewn by hand, you can sew it on around which
is the shape you'll actually have.
If you sew it on by machine, it is sewn flat, and that's not a shape that your neck actually
has.
So, a handsewn shirt collar is clearly superior to the machine sewn one.
The same is true for a jacket collar; a hand sewn collar is always superior.
However, handmade is one of the most misleading terms because people don't really define what
it is.
Sometimes, they use it to describe a person who sews something with a sewing machine.
Other people only use it to describe sewing stitch per stitch by hand.
Again, you have to ask what exactly handmade means to understand what you get for your
money.
For example, for a tie.
Sometimes, people call it handmade because somebody takes the tie, puts it into a machine
that then sews it together.
Other people only consider ties handmade if it is hand cut and hand sewn.
So, just because you buy a handmade tie doesn't mean that one handmade tie is the same as
another hand made tie.
An honest business will always tell you what exactly went into the process.
When people tell you, it's handmade, but they don't know what went into it, stay clear.
Whenever you say the term handmade, bare in mind, it's a favorite of marketing teams,
and it's simply used to get more money from you.
It's really important to understand what it is and what it's not.
Which brings us to the term machine made.
Whenever you buy clothing, people never see the term machine made advertised simply because
people don't associate high quality with it.
That being said, you can create high-quality garments with a certain amount of machine
work.
It's used in garments because it's less expensive, it's faster, and stitches are more consistent.
So if you know something is machine made, you know you should pay less for it.
Next up, we discuss bench grade, bench made or hand grade.
Basically, it is something that is between machine made and handmade, but the borders
are not really defined.
More often than not, it is a marketing term used to sell you a machine made product for
a higher price.
Therefore, it's important to ask the salesperson what exactly that means.
By definition, bench implies that one person sat there and used some tools and machines
to create the shoe or the garment.
Back in the day, it may be truly meant that somebody on a bench worked on this one product,
and it wasn't an assembly line production but today, you simply don't know what is actually
the case.
Ask about it, ask for pictures of the production and if people really, truly mean that something
is bench made, there should be one person working on it at the time.
So, at the end of the day, with all of those terms, what it means for you is, buyer beware!
Understand what you want, what you can afford, and what is sold to you.
Follow those steps and you'll get a much better value for your clothing, and you also have
a better appreciation of what went into the garment and makes you proud when you wear
it, and it shows!