How long should a jacket sleeve be? How high should the trousers sit? Bernhard Roetzel explains the basic rules of a good fit, from off-the-peg sizing to the belly cut and the right trouser length.
The first fitting is pure tension, for customer and tailor alike. Bernhard Roetzel sits in on a fitting with Markus Schnurr in a Stuttgart flat and describes what happens when the half-finished suit is on the body for the first time.
Jacket, suit, coat or trousers? For a first bespoke commission Bernhard Roetzel recommends a jacket, with arguments on cloth choice, versatility, and whether you go to a tailor for a special occasion or to fill a gap in the wardrobe.
A famous house or an affordable newcomer? Bernhard Roetzel explains what first-time clients should look for when choosing a bespoke tailor, why price says little about quality, and how much the maker's own appearance really matters.
Luca Rubinacci, third generation of the Neapolitan house Rubinacci, runs his atelier in Milan. A crumpled Borsalino, 342,000 Instagram followers and an apprenticeship at Kilgour on Savile Row: a portrait of the style icon of bespoke culture.
In late summer 2023 Feine Herr visited Musella Dembech in Milan. Francesco Musella, born 1941, started his apprenticeship at the age of nine in Caserta. With his son Gianfrancesco he runs one of the ateliers Simon Crompton has championed for over a decade.
Bernhard Roetzel visits Enis Inci and Rovschan Gambarov at Sartoria Napoletana in Istanbul's Nişantaşı district, a classic menswear shop with green wallpaper and an English feel, run by two men with deep Italian connections.
Bernhard Roetzel collects his bespoke suit from Dawid Kukliński in Berlin, cut from a mid-grey Holland & Sherry covert in the now-discontinued Dakota bundle, a cloth he had wanted to wear for more than twenty years.
Munich-born master tailor Kathrin Emmer has been cutting bespoke suits in Potsdam for twenty years, for clients from across Germany. A visit to her studio in a quiet detached house near Griebnitzsee, the doorbell sign reads simply Emmer.
Bernhard Roetzel first heard of Liverano & Liverano in 1999 and visited the Florentine atelier shortly afterwards. On Antonio Liverano, the unpadded sloping shoulders and a style that stays out of the way of time.
From 31 July to 5 August 2023 the World Federation of Master Tailors held its biennial congress in Biella. Bernhard Roetzel talks to Alfredo de Giglio about the WFMT, founded in Brussels in 1865, and the state of the craft today.
Does a bespoke suit really fit perfectly and last forever? Bernhard Roetzel addresses the most common myths about custom clothing, from the idea of perfect fit to the timeless look and how long a Savile Row suit really holds up.
