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The Faux-Bespoke Suit: A Buyer’s Guide

Makers of affordable ready-made menswear such as Suitsupply, Ring Jacket and Banana Republic have found ways to add bespoke touches to off-the-rack jackets. Here’s how to recognize real custom details on lapels, pockets and buttonholes the next time you’re shopping vs these imposters

ENLARGE

ILLUSTRATION: PATRICK LEGER

By DARRELL HARTMAN

JAKE MUESER always prided himself on his sharp sartorial eye. “Six years ago, I could identify a custom suit from a block away,” said Mr. Mueser, the owner and creative director of J. Mueser, a menswear shop in Manhattan’s West Village. These days, however, when less-costly suits increasingly sport Savile Row-worthy features—from working buttonholes and visible stitching to labor-intensive interlinings—he needs to take a closer look. “Men are thinking about tailoring in a more serious way,” Mr. Mueser said. “And brands are increasingly offering hand-finished details in pieces.

This trickle-down bespoke tailoring isn’t an indication that demanding dandies are on the rise and heading for the mall like an unusually spiffy band of “The Walking Dead.” Rather, evolving construction methods have made it easier for brands like Suitsupply, Ring Jacket and Banana Republic to incorporate these extras into jackets costing $230 to $2,900—well below the typical starting price of $5,000 for a high-end bespoke jacket.

Topstitching in subtle contrast colors and bright-hued jacket linings telegraph a custom look, but the new higher-quality tailoring extends beyond such surface details. One big development, for example, has been in a jacket’s interlining, key to the way the garment fits. For years, a “fused” or glued-on layer—with its unwelcome rigidity and tendency to look lumpen after repeated cleanings—was the default undergirding for affordable blazers. Costly Savile Row suits, on the other hand, have a full-canvas underlining that’s hand-stitched to the wool shell from shoulder to hem, providing a pliable silhouette that ensures a tailored fit.

The faux compromise is a half-canvas interlining that’s attached to the jacket’s wool shell from the shoulder to waistline. New machinery makes it easier to stitch, instead of fuse, the half-canvas to the shell. “A stitched half-canvas provides a more personalized fit,” said Nish de Gruiter, vice president of Suitsupply USA, an Amsterdam-based menswear company.

Lapels, buttonholes and pockets are also talking points, especially if you’re checking out Freemans Sporting Club’s online “Made-to-Order” program that lets guys choose the level of customization, from fabric selection to type of canvas interlining, they desire.

Anatomy of the Faux-Bespoke Suit

Four Savile Row-worthy details to watch out for

The Lapel Roll |Suit snobs want a lapel that smoothly conforms to the body, traditionally an effect only hand-tailoring could achieve. “Factory-made jackets go through a basting machine and end up with a stiff, flattened or misshapen lapel,” Mr. Mueser explained. “With hand-canvassed lapels, a tailor adds a kind of ease into the lapel as he stitches and smooths it.” Japanese menswear label Ring Jacket, whose jackets start at $1,200, has found a way to approximate artisanal handiwork affordably. It uses state-of-the-art lapel-padding machines that devotees claim convincingly replicate the human tailor’s touch.

Pickstitching | Look closely at a Savile Row suit and you’ll see a neat row of hand-stitches on the edge of the pockets, lapels and hem. Lately, however, this bespoke finishing technique is showing up a lot in semi-bespoke menswear, said Jeffrey Hilliard of the Armoury, which has stores in New York and Hong Kong, because machines have gotten better at replicating it. J. Crew’s $450 Ludlow suit jacket features pickstitching on the lapels and pockets. “If the row of stitching looks too uniform, it was done by machine,” Mr. Hilliard added. If it isn’t done correctly, you’ll see uneven puckering.

Working Buttonholes | Also known as “surgeon’s cuffs,” because they let 19th-century doctors roll up their jacket sleeves, working buttonholes used to be a sign of elite customization but are now more readily available on demand. “We have more of our suppliers prepare sleeves for working buttonholes,” said Keith Carlisle, men’s divisional merchandise manager at Dallas luxury retailer Stanley Korshak. (The store charges $125 for the service, which is done by hand.) “Most guys want them,” agreed Freemans Sporting Club’s Kent Kitsoe, “the way you might want a silver Rolex Daytona.”

The Specialized Inner Pocket | Which Savile Row embellishment is least easily replicated? It might just be the customized pocket. At Alfred Dunhill’s Madison Avenue flagship in New York, a bespoke customer ordered (and received) a cigar-shaped pocket; the brand also made a suit for Neil Patrick Harris with a pocket to fit his cue cards. While such peculiarities aren’t likely to become standard anytime soon, somewhat specialized pockets are in play: off-the-rack Isaia jackets ($2,595) come with extra inside pockets—one for eyewear, another for a smartphone. Specificity, after all, is what customization is about.