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WANT A BESPOKE SUIT FROM SAVILE ROW? BRING £3,657

By Sean C. Kelly

LONDON — Gordon Alsleben, head cutter and master tailor at H. Huntsman & Sons, is discreetly checking me over as we chat in a fitting room at this establishment on London’s world-famous Savile Row. I suspect Alsleben is probably realizing the true extent of the task ahead as he sizes up my expansive bulk.

I’ve just called in for my first suit fitting at Huntsman, a company established in 1849 and relocated to this legendary site for bespoke tailoring in 1919.

Huntsman is one of about 20 bespoke (a derivation of “bespoken for,” or custom-made) tailors on this street that has been a fashion destination for the great and the good for some 200 years. Now, though, Savile Row faces challenges from the made-to-measure (factory-made) sector, the arrival of an Abercrombie & Fitch and a proposed rezoning to allow more retail and offices.

Huntsman is the epitome of great bespoke tailoring. Its jackets in particular are a fusion between a riding and a dinner jacket. Over a cup of coffee, I’ve already chatted through my preferences with Peter Smith, the genial general manager, in the front-of-house “study” (complete with two mounted stag heads, a mirror-topped fireplace, leather sofas and a large coffee table). Smith has just returned from one of four fitting trips Huntsman staff make every year to New York.

I’ve settled on a medium-weight (12-ounce), single-breasted, one-button worsted suit for year-round use in European climates, to be cut from one of the company’s 7,000 fabrics. Also under discussion is a sports jacket. Like the suit, this is to be made in the workshop, which is open to view at the rear of the store. The jacket will be cut from a 198-foot (60-meter) bolt of one of Huntsman’s five exclusive and never-repeated Scottish tweeds produced annually.

Both items will feature two-hole buttons. The suit will contain inside pockets sized for a BlackBerry and a reporter’s notebook. The green overcheck jacket will have a green-hue iridescent lining — one of about 90 lining choices. This will pick out the overcheck and offer a bit of “added verve.”

These things decided, it’s on to one of three wood-paneled and mirrored fitting rooms, where my vital statistics are taken. Alsleben, who started tailoring at 16, examines my relaxed standing posture. Satisfied, he jots a few notes down onto his measure card. After considerable coaxing (he normally keeps these notes to himself), he gives me his “stance” assessment — tempered, I’m sure, with some euphemisms.

“Full-chested, open legs, left one slightly out, slim backside but wide hips,” he says in summary as I quickly twist my leg in, stand a little straighter and fold my arms defensively across my chest. Each of the “cutting” comments he uses to supplement his measurements will help give me the desired “balance,” as he puts it, that results from bespoke tailoring.

“What makes Savile Row unique is that tailors here have acquired skills that have been passed down here through the generations,” Alsleben says as he measures me up about 30 different ways for every future fashion possibility. “You can’t simply reproduce those skills. The aim is to create a suit that not only looks good on you but has a balance that makes you forget you are wearing it.”

This is the first of four fittings, each of which lasts from 15 minutes to an hour, that a new client usually gets over a 12-week period. After all, alterations of mere millimeters make a world of difference. The 60-80 hours of cutting, sewing and fitting per suit is coordinated by Gabriela Krizanova, Alsleben’s assistant (his “memory manager,” he calls her), one of his 41 colleagues.

Discretion is the maxim. My measurements will (thankfully) remain between my tailor and myself. The Huntsman label is prominent, if you know where to look: It’s modestly sewn on the inside pocket. Clients? Well, if you don’t tell, they won’t … until you die. Some of the patterns hanging in the fitting rooms are marked from a Who’s Who A-list of names that includes President Ronald Reagan, actors Gregory Peck, Sir Peter Ustinov and Sir Laurence Olivier, and actress Katharine Hepburn.

My chosen suit and jacket would undoubtedly be iconic fashion statements that would last me a lifetime. There’s just the small matter of the bill. That comes to £3,657 for the two-piece bespoke suit and a further £2,752 for the jacket, for a total of £6,409 ($11,730), including tax. My job? I need only to “cut” the check. Unfortunately, the reality is that my job is already done. With my research for the story complete, financial constraints require that I take the deal no further, and my dalliance with Savile Row comes to an end. Unless, that is, I wish to pay a visit to Abercrombie & Fitch.