God, it makes your blood boil. Splashed all over the front of City AM (the free business paper in London), Sartoriani is claiming to be selling “The finest bespoke shirts in the world!”
Where do they get off? Their shirts are not bespoke and I can’t imagine what criteria they have for saying they are the best in the world.
For those who are not familiar with the background to this charade (see previous post), Sartoriani won a case earlier in the year allowing it to use the phrase “bespoke” in its advertising, despite the fact that its suits are made by a machine. That’s right. They are made by a machine, in a factory, on a block altered to a customer’s specifications. That probably sounds like the age-old definition of made-to-measure to you. And it is. Yet they claimed their suits were bespoke because they were “personalised to the customer”.
The association of Savile Row Bespoke, representing tailors on the Row, took Sartoriani to the UK Advertising Standards Authority. It lost. The ASA said it considered bespoke and made-to-measure to be synonymous. It was a loss to menswear everywhere. As I said at the time, “once one company can get away with it, everyone will advertise their made-to-measure service as bespoke, and a refined section of tailoring will lose a crucial communication skill.”
It’s happening now. Sartoriani apparently has bespoke shirts; there’s a picture of someone in “a bespoke suit”; apparently “it’s now easier than ever to make a bespoke suit.” Bespoke, bespoke, bespoke. It’s an assault on the language, eroding the meaning of words in the pursuit of profit.
Who actually thinks that a bespoke suit can be made, “cut and sewn in London”, for £495? And a shirt for £99?
Sartoriani seems to have decided to adopt the old adage “if you’re going to lie, lie big.” Because it has the cheek to lecture people in its advertisement on what bespoke means, maintaining that it is just something that has been altered to a customer’s specifications, “as opposed to off-the-peg or ready-to-wear”.
Not only that, but it proclaims in its headline that is has “the best bespoke shirts in the world,” as mentioned earlier. Does the ASA have anything to say about this? Has Sartoriani commissioned a piece of thorough, independent research that compared its shirts to Charvet and Turnbull & Asser, which concluded that Sartoriani was the finest? Ridiculous.
And the cherry on the cake: Sartoriani advertises itself as “Savile Row – London”. But look carefully. It has an office at 10 Savile Row, and shares some of the basement. Its shop is actually at 24 Old Bond Street, and now 1 Canada Square in Canary Wharf.
It makes your blood boil.
6 Guest Comments »
1.
Simon, I recognize your sentiment. In the Netherlands, alas, there’s a similar tendency. Made to measure shirts are shamelessly called bespoke (well, in Dutch obviously), so are suits which aren’t made on the premises, but just measured there, and made to measure elsewhere. It does irritate the educated buyer that these companies can get away with these blatant lies.
As a wearer of bespoke suits I once had an unpleasant experience in one of these shops: the salesperson asked me to take off my jacket, for he had never seen an actual bespoke suit. I replied that the chances of me agreeing to his request were slim and felt sorry for the man – how embarrassing for a person working in a shop that claims to sell bespoke clothing.
Comment by E. — October 1, 2008 #
2.
Bespoke, and the issue of the true meaning of bespoke, is a very important and critical topic today with the gross level of inferior products we see being produced around the world. The word bespoke has always traditionally stood for an immediate regulated standard of quality. Simon, I strongly feel that the UK Advertising Standards Authority needs to review and overturn their ridiculous position on this matter. I do not understand their reasoning on the subject in the first place. It makes them appear to be largely ill informed themselves on the traditions of English tailoring or worse simply placing pecuniary interests over the proper use of the English language. You said it all in this line “Bespoke, bespoke, bespoke. It’s an assault on the language, eroding the meaning of words in the pursuit of profit.” Unfortunately, this is an assault that has been the case all too often in the recent past, eroding many areas of perceived quality across products. As they say, some people will do anything to make as they say “a buck.” I have seen it happen with furniture where top American stores, renowned for top quality in the past, have recently been known to hawk cheap case goods that anyone familiar with quality furniture, woods and construction recognizes immediately as inferior. We also see it today more than ever in the manipulative language used at auction houses, especially to hype and pawn off hideous and worthless contemporary art to ridiculous people. Unfortunately, reliability and quality have become rare commodities. All too often, we see people come along and pull these stunts. The public are so ignorant in general; they do not realize they are being taken. They do not get it, nor do they care about the misuse of a word (sad but true,) because if something is pushed with language that appears fashionable their ignorance leads them to the people who profit from word association and stupidity. Nonetheless, the core issue of quality does not enter their minds because they do not know what it is in the first place. This has never been the case with bespoke for those of use who find this an issue. I say that a protest need be organized on the misuse (or bastardization) of the word – bespoke. It could be done, need I say, and online if need be. I will support such an effort 100%.
Comment by Nicola Linza — October 1, 2008 #
3.
I agree wholeheartedly with what you’re saying. Whilst they’re undoubtedly wrong, I can’t say I’m surprised by the attitude of the ASA; it seems typical of such organisations nowadays (as you say; I doubt that the ASA has looked into the basis on which Sartoriani claims to be ‘the best’). You say “The ASA said it considered bespoke and made-to-measure to be synonymous. It was a loss to menswear everywhere.” I’m only 18 and own only ready-to-wear (though I do have some items altered), yet it’s obvious to me that bespoke and made-to-measure are no more synonymous than solid and liquid. The decision of the ASA is a loss not only to menswear but to language. I marvel at their arrogance. In addition it seems to me that such attitudes can only get worse and by the time I am able to afford the bespoke clothing, the menswear market will be extremely difficult to assess. I pity those involved in Savile Row Bespoke, it must be difficult enough to convince the populace at large of the quality of their product without having all the meaning taken from words like bespoke which are integral to their identity.
Comment by G. — October 1, 2008 #
4.
Perhaps the members of the Savile Row association should all start to use an agreed phrase such as “true bespoke” or “real bespoke” as often and as gratuitously as possible. Doubtless Sartoriani would complain, but maybe that would bring the ASA more clearly into the disrepute they have deservedly earned for themselves.
Comment by Paul Hardy — October 1, 2008 #
5.
Infuriating. And yet ultimately meaningless. If people were ignorantly buying bespoke suits just for the prestige of the name, what value did they bring to the tailoring industry – an industry that seems to rely heavily on informed, repeat customers?
What was it Mr. Obama said recently about lipstick and pigs?
Comment by Alan Millar — October 2, 2008 #
6.
when i went to collect my “bespoke” tailoring from sartoriani there were a number of problems. 1/ the suit trousers were too short 2/ the suit sleeves were too short 3/ the (flower) stem holders under the button hole had been forgotten 3/ an interior pocket button had been forgotten 4/ the shirt sleeves were too short 5/ the double cuffs had only one set of holes for the links despite my request for 2 – so I was told “we don’t do that” which seems to contradict even their definition of bespoke.
Comment by mark tow — October 2, 2008 #
I’ve always believed that those who at best at anything never have to say it themselves.
They can make a claim to the EU to protect the name “bespoke”. The
Italians did this with cheese from Parma. At first, the Americans laughed at the request. The Italians replied with something about enforcing trademarks for Microsoft, music, etc. The Americans stopped laughing. In fact, the defense of “bespoke” is the enforcement of a trademark, not just a word. Like many other products that are made in a specific and unique manner, the trademark, copyright is a critical marketing element. Bespoke tailors should defend this term at all cost.
So many artisans, craftsmen, farmers, etc. throughout Europe run to the EU court to defend these things, Why doesn’t Savile Row do this, too?
CG, I just spoke to a colleague on this who is the editor of an intellectual property magazine here.
The Parma ham thing is probably a bit of a red herring (sounds delicious). It is to do with geographical indicatives and bespoke wouldn’t really fall into that.
But the competition law in the EU is notoriously harsh compared to the UK, and so the Savile Row Bespoke group may have a good case if it can prove it has lost business as a result of Sartoriani’s advertising. That might be hard to do, but they’d have a good case.
Simon
I appreciate this post. Honestly, I didn’t know the difference between bespoke and made-to-measure, so thank you for pointing that oot.
I’m new to this whole fashion thing, and your blog has been a big help to me.
Very Bad quality and bad customer service – The only thing they are good at is marketing in the FT presenting their brand as a top tailor. I have had very bad experience with their suits and would seriously suggest to go to prada next door and buy a suit for the same price.
catastrophic service and quality – it took months to get my suits and after one year and multiple re-measures the shirts still did not fit at all (yes not a bad fit but no fit at all)- the tailor could not even copy a sample shirt. Customer service is extremely unhelpful – all you get after weeks is meaningless holding statements. Do not go for this company – you will regret it
Italians always claim hand made.
That means their tailor uses hand to sew on machine & rest whole world uses their feet to sew clothes.
Sartoriani now have a presence in Zurich and a web presence in Switzerland http://www.sartoriani.ch with an outrageous promotional video featuring that former contestant from The Apprentice.
The claims they make are infuriating and deceitful. I can’t believe they are legally allowed to pull this of..
I have tried the services from Sartoriani in Zurich. At that time I had not seen this post. I have never experience such a bad work. The suit cannot be used. It looks ridiculous, ready to wear would have been better. The jacket neck is totally open on the sides and the back (more than one inch apart from the neck), the sleeves are too short and the vest (I ordered a 3 piece) is too short, showing even a portion of the shirt.
I am still trying to get my money back, but I only get rude responses from them. They also claim that they cannot fix the suit since, to their eyes, it has a perfect fit.
So, the problem is not only that their suits are not bespoken. Their “made to measure” suits simply do not fit.