Has anyone ordered a custom suit from Indochino before? Advice ?
 

Hi RS,

I just booked an appointment with Indochino downtown and this is my first time getting a custom suit or a suit from Indochino.

Has anyone gotten a suit from them before?

I was just wondering if there is anything I should know about before I go in.

The only issue I think i'll have is that my weight is fluctuating right now.
Currently, the last week i've been around 160lbs, but I was 167lbs a few weeks ago. I attribute this to not eating enough as I've been going to the gym three days a week. I just weighed myself now and i'm 163lbs now, this is due to consciously eating more and using protein to supplement my food intake.

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone had any advice in regards to the suit fitting process or what to ask for specifically.

I don't have a suit that really fits me at the moment, so i'm probably going to go for a charcoal suit? Maybe even a dark blue or navy. I'm not sure.

Thanks

Charcoal is nice, it's a colour that goes well with lots of things. I personally think its a versatile choice for your first custom suit.

Tell the person taking your measurements about your weight issues. They can add a little more room here or there to allow for weight fluctuations. I told them to add a little more because I like the fitted look without the suit being so damn tight like so many guys like nowadays.

There's not much else to say since it's a pretty straight forward process. Turnaround time is probably 4-5 weeks right now due to backlog from their Asian suit makers taking time off for Chinese New Years and because you're competing with grad season.

You can't go wrong with charcoal, black, or navy blue.

Friend got a suit there and turnaround time for him was 4.5 weeks. It didn't fit as well as he hoped, so they gave him an alteration credit and he went and got it altered here locally.

If you go through with it, please give us feedback on your experience and results. I am really curious about this as well and have gotten a lot of mixed reviews.

If you search the fashion forum you'll get some hits. I read those and went to Raffionatto instead. Some people voiced concern about indochino's quality.

Done that once with my co worker when they were doing this event in downtown renting a location with bunch of people to measure you and you get to see all the samples and select on the spot.

Long story short, the people they hired to measure were inexperienced kids and we both ended up returning out suits as they were way off. I do have some friends with positive experience so I guess it's a hit and miss largely depending on who you get. Certainly one of the cheapest custom suits out there but if you have higher budget, I'd go with more expensive options. Zegna in the pacific center sometimes have promotion events, and in my experience, their staff was way more experienced than some of those we met at indochino who probably received like 20 min training on how to measure prior to the event. You get what you pay.

I went with some of my coworkers when Indochino setup their first pop up shop event in Vancouver a couple years ago, mine and 2 others turned out pretty good, I'm still wearing mine to this day and I wear a suit every day to the office, so with the number of suits I have, I probably wear it once every 2-3 weeks.

One of my coworker's suit was really off, the jacket and sleeve lengths were really off, I think what happened was that for the pop up shop, they just hired a bunch of temp workers and gave them a brief training on how to take measurements, apparently the one my coworker got didn't really pay attention I guess, but he got his remade and it turned out fine, just annoying it took so long due to the remake. Given that you are going to their permanent location, I would imagine they would have someone experience there taking your measurements instead of the pop up shop inexperienced temp workers.

If you want a custom suit, try minichiello's in north vancouver.

They actually do multiple fittings and not just measure once and your suit is ready.

It's all tailored in Vancouver so it'll be more expensive than indochino.

I'm the Vancouver rep for EPH Apparel. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about made-to-measure :)

IMO I would go to an actual tailor shop, simply because the person making your suit is usually the same person (or group of people) measuring it.

It won't cost much more than Indochino and you don't have to deal with the hassle of mailing things back and forth if it doesn't fit.

That being said, I have heard good things about them, but personally I also fluctuate in weight and like a little more room in my suits, so the best option for me would be a brick-and-mortar store rather than online.

they're definitely not bad, especially for the money.

Just expect that the first run will be off, and by the second adjustment it should be fine. the only setback is the turnaround. the whole process for me took about 7 weeks (from first order to receipt of final revised order).

There are mixed reviews for sure, I've personally had very positive experiences with them from service to the suits. I currently own three and I like them more than other suits in my wardrobe. Go in there knowing the kind of fit you would like along with the available options, it'll make the experience quicker and the suit will be a reflection of you VS something that was made based on someone else's suggestions.

If this is your first suit, I suggest navy or charcoal (which I personally feel are your most versatile suits)

Thanks, you got PM.

interested in this as well. Wouldn't mind a grey or navy blue suit.

bought a custom suit from Indochina quite a few years back. Price was good but you can see some threads on the insides that are loose and showing through different layers of the materials. For the price, I cant complain.

What's the pricing like? I was thinking of checking it out later in the summer

interested to know, I usually get suits/shirts made when I travel to HK.

I received a MTM suit as a graduation gift and visited all the tailors in Vancouver before settling on Blair Shapera. The price point is not the same as Indochino so it's probably not a fair comparison, but if you sat down with all the "reputable" tailors in town, I would be surprised if you chose anybody other than him. He is fantastically knowledgeable, a real perfectionist with an eye for detail, and extremely accommodating - all the characteristics I was looking for.

You only need to spend a short bit of time with him to understand that he really loves what he does and is very proud of his work. He can do anything under the sun but really works hard to educate you and help you make smart decisions about things that are versatile and really work for you, rather than just fitting the image that you think you want.

His suits start at $695, which I appreciate is a lot more than Indochino. I have had a few friends who have ordered from Indochino and honestly their experience was enough to reinforce that they were not an option that I was considering. It's not that they can't make a nice suit, but a made to measure suit is AT LEAST 50% all about good measuring and that's where I think they really fall down.

The best testament I can say is that I am not a rich guy and my suit at $945 is the most expensive suit I have ever bought by a big margin because the wool I chose was much more expensive. However, I wear a suit every day and already in my time with this suit, I am already saving for the next suit because I am so impressed with the caliber of work that Blair does. I also ordered some custom shirts and think they are very good at $145 but if I had to choose wearing off the rack shirts at $60 + $25 to tailor the sleeves to afford another suit, I would do that as I think the suit is really where he shines.

Just my $0.02, hope it's helpful.

Mark

Bought a grey suit last year and couldn't be happier.

Sam was great to deal with.

Fit wise, the first try was absolute shit, too tight jacket, too short & tight pants. Sam noted all the adjustments (ie. re-make of suit) and in about 3.5 weeks I got my replacement.

Second time, fit was 98%, had a couple minor tweaks that was done at the local tailor.

I also bought a Ted Baker suit a year prior, and comparing the two I prefer the Indochino.

I will be going back - unless EPH Apparel can convince me otherwise ;)

My buddies have had similar experiences for sure, I will say Indochino is good at continuing to try to get it right. But at the end of the day, they seem to make at least 2 suits (they literally made 3 for one of my friends to get it right) for a lot of people. To me that suggests that we are overpaying a lot if you are only getting 1 since they seem to be able to afford/budget for producing 2.

Blair's suits are made in Montreal, I believe the same is true of Dunn's. I never ordered one from Dunn's but the one I ordered from Blair required 2 separate fittings to make it perfect, but the suit was incredibly close right out of the gate, I was amazed. The first fitting was literally hemming the pants and adjusting the jacket 1/4", the second fitting was a slight tweak to the hem and I was done.

Mark

if you're getting a suit, you really should pay up a little more and get a decently made one. a suit should last you 5 years or so with moderate wear - spend a little more to get one that you actually enjoy wearing.

most people i've heard (i've bought one, never again) say they just fit a bit off.

If you're willing to spend $400 on something that doesn't fit right, then spend a little bit more and get something like Suitsupply. Better fabrics and half-canvas construction for about $600.

Or, you could just find something off-the-rack like Samuelsohn at the Bay for 600-700 which will be beyond anything you'll get at Indochino. Save 100-200 for tailoring and you'll get fully canvassed construction, Italian fabric which will last you for years.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo mainstream

Samuelsohn mtm goes on sale a couple times a year at Harry Rosen. If your price range is ~$1200, it's about the cheapest you'll find for fully canvassed suiting. I'm not even sure that there are too many places that will do fully canvassed suits locally.

i have many friends that had bad experience with indochino, most of them were complaining about the fitment of the suits and the fabric quality.