Archive for January, 2010

One of the frequent advice that I gave to my fellow in terms of suit acquisition was when you can afford it get it tailored. Now comes to think of it may not always a sensible advice when it comes to those who lives in Jakarta or Indonesia in general, because tailored suit not necessarily more expensive then of the rack suit and not necessarily better. In that sense, there is no easy answer, and at the end it lies on your budget, your situation, preference and how sophisticated you are in terms of your sartorial decency. Lets examine our option.

Say if you are a college graduate, you need suit because you are going to apply job, head to interview and of course make an impression on whoever wants to hire you. There will be time range of 2-3 month between your graduation and interviews, and since you don’t have your own income, the good bet is that your budget will be limited too say between IDR1-1.5mio for a suit. Take all this into account, and here what I thought.

With IDR1.5mio you can get a decent quality material tailored suit. But as I have mentioned in many of my earlier posts, having a suit is all bout having a fit. And finding a tailor with that budget range and suits you is a challenge. Additionally, since this is your first suit, I sincerely doubt that you know what you want and what to expect. Hence plenty opportunity for things to go wrong.

Your old man, naturally should come into rescue, with his age and experience, he should by now ready to guide you to enter the period of sartorial adulthood. And by that recommended 1-2 two tailors that he has been using all this time. This is great, since then you can avoided trial and error, and you have to trust your old man judgment. His tailor of choice may not be readily suitable to your taste, but good thing about tailor made suit, that  if its not satisfactory at the first fit, you can ask for an adjustment. And three months is quite plenty of time to do so. As long as your the tailor willing to listen, and you are willing to contribute. And if this is your case, its pretty much settled for the time being.

Unfortunately not everyone that lucky, in fact most of our old man probably have little or no conscience of the sartorial decency. In which case, you should look at the ready, off the rack suit.

There are plenty of brand within that budget range that you can choose. My primary choice will be Zara and G2000. Some other brands like Carthago and Arnon Brook can also be found in your average Department Store (Sogo, Metro and Centro) and they offer various cut and materials.  I urge you try window shop and try every possibilities, you’ll surprise on the difference that each brand can offer in terms of fit and materials.

With this “budget” brand of course, you don’t have much say in the quality. These suits are machine made, and the materials are average,  in-depth bespoke details like working cuff buttons, stitched canvas, and hand stitched inter lining us out of questions. That said, with proper care, the suit may last for years before it ruined itself from weather and usage.

Hence when buying this suit, only consider three things. The first the type of suit that will flatter your figure (two-button or three-button, side  vented or centre vented), the material (make sure that its comfortable for you to wear it for a full day, and doesn’t make you itch) and lastly the fit (make sure than you can move, stand and sit comfortably in it.

Now you have to trust me on these thing, as much as you think the suit fits you well, it is not, unless you have a body like a pro model or a mannequin, there is going some room for improvement, maybe on the sleeve lengths or waist fit.  To that affect, bring it to any decent tailor that you can find, and have it adjusted, it will cost you few hundred thousands extra, but its worth it. It’s also a good way for you to find your own future tailor.

Now that I have provided you with a reference of a good tailor, its now come to your discretion on what sort of details that you want to have when you come to the tailor and have your suit made. Generally, I will strongly advise you to visit dept store and designers boutique to see and feel what your preference going to be. The cut, the materials, the label, the lapel width, lapel type, pockets, buttons and every details that comes with the suit.

Usually, the tailor will have to ask you some obvious, such as the fabric choice,  suit type (single breasted, double breasted) some will go as far to ask what sort of buttons that you want (for some reasons, many Indonesian high end tailor, like to offer customer with fancy metal, emblem buttons, and for some reasons, many customers opted that rather then conventional mother of pearl).

But other than that beware, the suit that you would  get may not exactly what you have imagined. Hence, the list:

• Lapel, the choice can be peak or notched. For ordinary business requirement, choose peak lapel
• Lapel wide, in Asia (including Indonesia) the tendency for the tailor is to use wide lapel.  If you like prefer narrower one, like I do, ask him to do so
• Sleeve buttons,  four buttons only
• Vent, this is the tail of your suit, side vents for English style, single vents for American, no vents for Italian. My preference ? side vents, it helps you when you sit, and leaves the suit form intact.
• Number of buttons, two or three, but never four, and used one only for tux
• Shoulder Pad, generally it depends on your figure, if your shoulder sloppy you could as for full pad, but if your should big enough, ask for less pad, this will help accentuate your figure rather naturally
• Sleeve length, tell him that you want the suit shorter than the shirt sleeve, as such when you standing, and both of your arms on the side, 1 cm of your shirt sleeve will leaved exposed
• Same things goes with your shirt collar
• The trousers, can be pleated or not. If you on average build, you can opt for non pleated, it enhanced the slim posture
• Trouser can be cuffed or not. In general choose no cuff.
• Belt loop. Some opted for looples waist, hence enhancing the clean and slim line of the trouser. Surely you can gain or loose weight in a time, in which case you can add side adjuster instead.
• Breast pocket. In my experience, due to tendency to make a relatively wide lapel, it sometimes resulting the lapel covering the breast pocket. I prefer the line of breast pocket is visible and slightly touched on the corner by a lapel, but again, you may need to ask for it.
• If you have a picture of your wanna be suit, show it and leave it, it’s good that your tailor have other reference other than his note.

When its finally ready for first fitting, wear a shirt that you normally wear with your sit, buttoned the upper most button (if two-button) or two upper most (if three-button) of your suit jacker and examine the following details:

• Sleeve length should felt 1 cm shorter that your shirt sleeve
• Your lapel should felt 1 cm shorter that your collar
• Your trousers behind should felt straight above your shoe heel, while the front part will wrinkled slightly covering your shoe lace.
• Ensure that the lapel falls flat on your chest, and the back side felt close with the shirt collar with no gap in between
• The jacket waist drape nicely around your own, and minimum stretch
• Your shoulder doesn’t bulge
• When you move you arms within reasonable range the remainging of the jackets will stays.
• The jacket length should be suffice to cover your arse, but no to long.
• Ensure that other details follow your original requirement
• Finally, take some moment, to try walk, sit and stand still. In any of these body position, you should feel the utmost convenient. After all what is the purpose of the tailor made clothes if it’s not comfy.

If you think I missed anything on this list, feel free to add.

My acquaintances with the brand started some 8 months ago, on one of my many visit to Garden City I stumbled upon one small stall at the Suntec City Mall who sell ties, cuff link, and tie set. More interested on the bargain (S$30 for 3) than on the design, I found my self spent the next 20 minutes browsing on the array of ties and cufflink. I finally settled on one solid dark maroon in thin diagonal strip, one white-sky blue diagonal strip, and one small patterned grey-white combination, additionally I bought my self a beautiful yet simple stainless squared cuff link.

I didn’t think much of the ties at that time. But back in Jakarta, I found the three ties that I acquired back then were very versatile indeed. The pattern and the design I found very youngish yet embedded with some conservative value which makes it very versatile. Additionally the build was very much decent. Remember the old maxim, that you know a good tie when you make a good knot out of it ? That’s exactly what Meticulous tie is all about. Soon after that purchase I found a new joy of trying various tie knot using it.

So, during my visit in Singapore last week, I didn’t have anything particular to seek, but the ties from Meticulous. Easy enough to search I found the stall on the 1st floor of the Suntec City, and though this time I know what to look for, I still found my self spending more than 20min browsing around the options.

The girl who attended the stall was very helpful, not only that she eager to help me navigate the stall she also offer valuable suggestions on some combination that I might like. After some thinking and consideration, weighing the option that I have, I finally satisfied with my pick of solid red in thin diagonal stripes, combination blue diagonal, small patterned white-dark blue combination and dark grey with white dot pattern. All cost me only $50 in total and all would be perfectly matched with either of my favorite navy blue or mid grey suit.

Solid red thin diagonal stripes, good for corporate events !!!

The pictures below shows my recent acquisition of these beautiful ties. As you can see, the patterns are reasonably conservative, yet you can match it with almost everything and will surely resulted in kind of youngish appearances. Other than silk (or claimed to be so) some of the ties also available in polyester depending on the design. The label on the back of the tie also claimed to be handmade, but I honestly questioned this. Nonetheless with some 8 ties already hanging in my wardrobe, do I still need to give my testimonial on the quality of the tie ?

An array of my new versatile ties, excellent to be combined with navy blue and grey suits

It said "hand made", what do you think ?

Anyway some 8 months ago I came back from Singapore with 3 sets of tie in my luggage regretted why I didn’t get some more for my self. This month I came back from Singapore with 5 sets of tie, yet I still have the tingling feeling of regret on why I didn’t bought few more as gift for my good friends ?

It comes with a simple yet stylish cartoon box like this

So folks next time you go to Singapore, take my advice, visit Suntec City Mall and try some of the ties from Meticulous. With S$10 each (if you buy at least three) you can get a quality build, nicely designed, and all seasons versatile ties that wont break your bank account. Meticulous Stall can be observed at Suntec City Mall, 1st floor. If you have difficulties in finding it you can call Sook Ling for her assistance at +65 82040074

Right, by default I should have said happy new year to you all my dear readers and post a writing about my past achievement and future commitment. But alas, I’m not yet on that level of narcissism nor pretend to my self that all of you care about what I have or have not achieved in the past one year.

So let me get this straight. Firstly, I would like to apologize because I haven’t been post anything in the last week or so, primarily because I have been away overseas, for some holiday and quality time with people that I care.

Secondly, that goes without saying, that my holiday hasn’t been dull, boring or anything like it. Not at all. In fact I’m about to show you some little souvenirs that I’ve obtained during my holiday, things that you might want to consider to obtain when you visit Singapore.

Thirdly, while I’m away and feasting my sight on deluxe good in abundant in the whole length of Orchard Road, I’m toying with an idea of developing several items that I would like but could not acquired. These of course will required some considerable research and trial/error but the result I trust will be worthwhile. In any case, I will inform you when the projects finally realized.

Fourthly, some new things to expect in weeks to come. The arrival of my made to measure Mario Minardi, a tailoring of my black suit, a letter head projects and some delicious recipe to be shared, including some that involved some spices that I acquired in Singapore.

Afraid not, I will assure you what about to come will broaden your perspective. Till the next post, I bid you good night and good luck.