Quality of a suit

Building off of the relatively bad impression of Senli and Frye, I got around to thinking about what actually makes a good suit, or a good jacket. From my, i.e. the consumer's, perspective, three dimensions are easily identifiable: 1) the quality of the fabric, 2) the quality of work, and 3) the quality of "fit/style". I'm sure more can be identified and there is a bit of possible overlap between the categories, but for my purposes I believe this approach to be sufficient for the time being.

The quality of the fabric is, I believe, the easier of the group to understand. While not entirely disambiguous, the qualities of fabrics can be relatively objectively assessed via a couple of different viewpoints. On one hand the durability of the fabric is fairly relevant and contributes to the longetivity of the garment. On the other hand some fabrics are woven with methods which involve more labor or are more technically difficult to do, adding a certain scarcity/rarity aspect and raising the perceived value of the fabric in some circles. Also the material of the fabric contributes to the quality with for instance synthetic materials often being less valued based on arguments regarding e.g. breathability of the fabric while cashmere is often considered to be something aspirational based on again the scarcity and fineness. Ultimately this dimension will need to be discussed in the context of the customer and the attributes need to be scaled based on what the customer wants.

The quality of work in turn refers to the technical quality of the labor that goes into making the garment. Some people like to highlight that garments made by hand are better than garments made by machine, but I somehow prefer the more practical stance of using machines where they are better and using hands where they are better. Not being trained in tailoring, I'm of course relatively ill-equipped to assess quality of work very objectively. However, ultimately I think this dimension should also contribute to the longetivity of the garment in addition to linking to the style and fit of the garment.

The final dimension is then of course the fit and style of the garment. No amount of quality fabric and quality worksmanship will help if the fit and style do not match with what the customer wants. This category is most probably the most subjective of the three and is determined the most by what the customer actually wants. This also poses a big problem in e.g. bespoke tailoring as the customer needs to be able to communicate clearly to the tailor what is wanted. Or on the other hand the tailor must be competent enough to present the right questions to get the information from the customer.

The second and third dimensions have fairly much overlap. For instance from the dimension of fit/style, I could say that I aesthetically like a spalla camicia shoulder, but this also directly links to the quality of worksmanship as a spalla camicia shoulder obviously is a fairly well defined technical way of attaching the sleeve to the jacket's torso. Other similar examples can be identified with relative ease.

But this was just to write down some of my thoughts on how I approach the issue of assessing clothes. Also, as a brief update, Mr. Frye has yet to get back to me regarding the email I sent him after receiving my suit and overcoat, so another thing to consider is the quality of customer service, which in the case of Senli and Frye has also been found lacking.

First impressions of Senli and Frye

So having just returned from China and after having ordered a suit and an overcoat from Senli and Frye, I have to admit that I'm very much underwhelmed by many things. Some things to start off with:

• The given specifications weren't followed. To guide the style, I dragged along my last autumn's Sartoria Rossi MTM single-breasted navy blazer. What was produced was a horrible bastardization of a very padded jacket with a fairly roped shoulder. The same problem persisted with the overcoat.
• The collar role of the jacket has been somehow destroyed entirely making it appear very flat and two-dimensional. This is something I would associate with outfits such as A Suit That Fits and similar companies.
• The button holes appear very much machine-made and are very generic.
• The breast pocket was straight and not the curved barchetta type.

I'm not an expert on the fabrics, so can't really evaluate them too well. There is a bit of handwork in the garment, but a bulk appears to have been done by machine. There are many small details which aren't done entirely properly, giving a feeling as if the person who did the work couldn't really be bothered too much.

But the biggest problem is the style and fit, which both fail horribly. And because of this, it doesn't even matter what the technical quality of the work really is, because if a garment doesn't attract you to wear it, it doesn't even need to last.

To my shame I was in a rush in Beijing and forked over the cash too easily. The price for the suit and the overcoat was altogether 14000 RMB, which is very heavily overpriced for what was ultimately delivered. This was my first and most likely only test into Asian tailoring market and that's why I ended up deciding to just go to a bit higher pricepoint than what the average there is.

I did email Mr. Frye, highlighting the dissatisfaction, but he has yet to reply. In the mean while I would advise anyone thinking of doing business with Senli and Frye to perhaps think again. Based on the experience so far, there aren't too many positives.

Homebound

Sitting at a cafe at the airport in Beijing listening to Jimmy Eat World and shortly heading back to Finland. Finally. China has spawned some mixed feelings; I don't really know what to think. Individual people who I met were very nice and polite, but collectively I just don't see the system working for many reasons, which I may elaborate on in the future. The inability to be able to trust people is also annoying. And ultimately I got the feeling that people don't take pride in their work and they lack the artisan spirit. And that's bad.

Oh, and what is it with airport food: the breakfast here was horrible. You would imagine that it wouldn't be too much to just do things well, but no...