Pick Stitching - A Sign Of Quality Men's Suits_ Mens Clothing Build - Suit Fabric - Fashion
Advice
Hi.
I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today I'm going to be talking about suit details.
And can you tell quality by the little bit of stitching on the lapels and near the button
holes?
And this was a question asked of me.
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The question I received.
I read most of the seven deadly style sins.
Thatís my free eBook, by the way.
Itís been very helpful.
The only questions I still have at this time are, is stitching around the edges of the
lapel a sign of visual quality when it comes to a jacket?
Whether itís cheap or expensive or this is just a preference.
Number two, is stitching that appears around the buttons of the jacket cuffs that makes
it look like thereís actual button holes for all four buttons a sign of a quality jacket.
Okay.
So, what the gentleman asks specifically, no, those are not signs of a quality jacket.
They are also not signs of a bad quality jacket.
Theyíre just small signs.
And itís kind of like whenever youíre looking at quality clothing, thereís not one factor
that it is normally going to determine if itís a going a good quality jacket.
There are actually many factors.
And if it violates one of those factors, it could immediately be discounted as a poor
quality.
I mean, if a jacket is made from a hundred percent polyester, then most of the time Iím
going to discount that as a low quality jacket.
However, perhaps youíre going for a performance jacket.
Iíve seen one out there which is designed specifically to be right in dawn and to behave
and crumple it up and ñ for it to pop right back.
So, in that case, I guess it is a quality jacket because thatís what the people looking
to put this together were going for.
But in most cases, the little things like those ñ heís talking about the pick stitching
right here on the jacket lapels.
And heís also talking about some of the coloring, the stitching around the button holes.
And I donít know if you can see this.
Weíll try to zoom in.
But I actually have got my jacket, so itís got working button holes.
Now, working button holes are normally a sign of quality because it means that the jacket
sleeve length can just barely be adjusted.
It can be adjusted but not much.
And so, it normally signals that this jacket sleeve was made for the man.
It was actually made to his size.
It wasnít bought off the rack and then adjust it.
And usually, if you buy a jacket off the rack, you can just adjust the sleeves up to two
inches sometimes.
But with this jacket, the most you would be able to adjust that, I would say, maybe half
an inch, anything more than three inches is going to lose some of the proportions and
not look right.
So in that case, working button holes are often a sign of quality, but theyíre not
a determining factor because you can get something.
And quality, again, is very subjective.
You can have somebody on the side of the row who makes handmade suits that range in the
$4,000 range.
And he will say a made-to-measure suit that perhaps only cost, you know, $400 to $500.
Thatís not only a sign of quality.
It is one sign though.
The other signs are going to be, you know, the fit of the jacket.
Does it actually fit to wear?
Is it designed for his body type?
And again, this is, you know, if the jacket is made for the person.
Another thing is going to be the fabric.
What is the quality of the fabric?
And this is something thatís hard for a lot of men to be able to determine.
You can tell a really bad fabric from a good fabric.
But to be able to tell a good fabric from a great fabric, that requires a trained eye,
and oftentimes, youíre going to have to send it to a lab.
Well, they will actually do a chemical and burn test to determine the percentage makeup
of wool versus polyester versus other blends that they can put in there.
But ñ so when it comes to fabric, you normally want to go for at least something is going
to be in the super 100s.
I think thatís a good quality fabric.
Although, you know, super 120, super 130, super 140s, these super numbers to even make
it more confusing, there isnít a set system.
So, every company, one company super 120, can equal another company super 130.
Yeah.
They just ñ it doesnít mesh exactly.
The other thing is going to be built.
And this is ñ so if I look at a jacket, Iíll look at the shoulders, maybe ñ I donít really
do this ñ well, if Iím looking something at the store.
But if I have the jacket and I have permission, I can cut it open and I can look at the inside
of the jacket and I can look at where itís hand-sewn, if itís got a floating canvas,
if it has a half canvas, if it has a lot of machine work, has it been fused on the inside.
So there are all these things that I can look at as a professional to determine the high
level of the quality of the jacket.
But most people are not going to be able to do this.
So how are you going to be able to determine if this is a quality jacket?
One, look at whoís selling you the jacket.
So, you want to trust the person that youíre buying from.
And thatís the great thing about most box stores, is it for them, itís not worth ripping
you off and selling you something low, you know.
Well, they ñ youíre often going to get what you pay for, but realize that, okay, if you
go to Nordstrom, you go to Neiman Marcus.
Youíre going to get a different level of quality than if you shop for a suit or a jacket
at Sears.
Just ñ they buy from different people, whole different world.
And so, in that case, youíre spending more money, youíre getting higher quality.
But if you go to a menís wear store, a specific one, you know, the Menís Wearhouse, JoS A.
Banks, those are entry level.
There are usually most medium-sized towns.
They have actually a specialty men store and maybe itís owned by a local merchant.
Those are where youíre going to find even better quality.
And often, I think get a better deal.
The best deal that you can find in my opinion is travelling to either London, Milan, Hong
Kong or Bangkok.
And finding a great tailor that you can work with, who can build you something from scratch.
Now, Bangkok, Hong Kong, youíre going to have to be much more careful.
But London, Milan, youíre going to have a lot more ñ youíre going to have a lot more
play.
You know, you can trust many of the guys there versus in Bangkok and Hong Kong.
Youíve got to be careful.
They will just ñ they will cheap the shirt right off your back.
But ñ okay.
So, to answer the question again, these little details are not determining factors of quality.
Quality is much ñ thereís much more to it.
And so, I wish I could give you a, you know, give you an easy answer on that, but thatís
the best I can do.
Take care.
This has been Antonio Centeno with Real Men Real Style.
Bye-bye.