For many of us Covid 19 is going to affect and influence the way we go about our lives, pursue our hobbies and indulge our passions for sometime to come. For many, bespoke tailoring is a passion, and a couple of months with nothing to dress up for is going to leave us with a pent-up desire to get a beautiful new suit onto the cutting table!
Clearly social distancing is going to have an effect on how we might go about commissioning a new suit, but here at Mullen & Mullen we have been giving it some thought, and preparing the way forward so that ordering your next suit will not only be a simple and enjoyable experience, but even an improved one! Take a look at our “Tradition Meets Digital” measuring process.
For some time (5-10 years) there have been promises of digital measuring solutions that would ensure and guarantee the perfect fitting suit every time! Many customers over the years have mentioned to me (and in some cases used) tailoring companies that used a “Body-Scanner” to take measurements- a business was featured on Dragons Den and attracted a lot of attention at the time. Despite the fanfare and undoubted marketing success the process never really took off and in many cases the suits didn’t really fit in the way a bespoke suit should (at least that is what my customers who tried it before they found M&M told me).
https://www.smeweb.com/2019/09/30/cleancloud-heightens-customer-experience/
https://www.tailormadelondon.com/our-process/
5-10 years as we all know represent eons of progress in the digital sphere, and the fact is that today in 2020, the technology exists not only to take perfectly accurate body measurements digitally, but to do so quickly, conveniently, by yourself (nobody else needs to help by holding a camera etc) and with any type of camera-enabled phone or tablet (the technology is device-agnostic).
So what does this mean? Critics of digital measuring have always (and correctly) pointed out that accurate measurements are only a part of the recipe to a perfectly fitting garment. This is quite true and explains the shortcomings of so many “Digital-Bespoke” solutions and also explains why Mullen & Mullen are uniquely placed to offer the best in “Tradition-Meets-Digital” tailoring.
Accurate measurements are vital in tailoring. But without a skilled and experienced tailor(link to team page M&M) to know what to do with them, they are only so helpful. Knowing that somebody measures 42” at their chest is important. But if you make a garment to 42” in that area the customer will have a skin-tight fit that will be hugely uncomfortable and that he wouldn’t be able to breathe in let alone fasten. So far so obvious- but this explains the failure of so many “digital tailoring solutions”.
One of the skills of the tailor (and what a digital measuring device cannot calculate) is to decide how much over-body allowance to give in each area of the garment to allow for; comfort, fit, style and drape. This allowance will vary hugely depending on build, style, age, preference and between garments for the same customer; your tailor wouldn’t allow you to wear the same fit of jacket in a 3 piece suit as you would in a linen blazer or sports jacket (or he shouldn’t!). This is before we even consider the range of postures, figurations and stances that makes each of us unique (A separate article perhaps). This explains why “Tailors”, who are in fact sales people or digital techies can still turn out a dog’s dinner of a suit from perfectly accurate body measurements.
More importantly, it also explains why Mullen & Mullen and our small team of deeply experienced and expert tailors resoundingly can!
Damien & Dominic Mullen have run M&M for over 15 years since founding it in York in 2004. Damien & Dominic are expert tailors, and between them have spent countless hours in the cutting rooms of West Yorkshire, at the elbow of the most experienced cutters learning, honing and refining their craft. Additionally our team of tailors have all been with us for more than 5 years each and had similar exposure to the cutting rooms, in the case of our colleague Alex Walker, he even served an apprenticeship in the cutting rooms for a number of years before joining us. For 15 years we have personally conducted thousands of fittings (well over 20,000) with our customers and are now uniquely placed to bring that experience to bear to help our customers create perfect suits in a Covid-Conscious manner via our Tradition-Meets-Digital process.
So, in a post Covid 19 World, Mullen & Mullen can be your tailors of choice, by using the latest technology and pairing it with our unparalleled experience and expertise we will deliver our usual tailoring excellence.