Taking Proper Suit for a Spin

As we continue to work with Proper Suit on the official OTC suit, our Editor-in-Chief Chris Hogan took the recently delivered set of duds for a spin around town.

This is a quick teaser for the full review which will be coming next month.  What we endeavor to accomplish here is explain what to expect from Proper Suit once you take the plunge.

First off, OTC’s suit both met and exceeded our expectations.  The initial review of key components, including fit, construction, fabric, overall quality and attention to detail impressed us on every count.  (By the way, that wrinkly arm in the picture fits wonderfully – just needs some steam.)

It’s important to remember when choosing to go with a brand like Proper Suit, you are opting to order custom tailored clothing with certain constraints.  Among online clothiers, Proper Suit is unique in that Richard and McGregor will personally take your measurements prior to your placing a first order.  It’s extensive, thorough and designed to ensure that your fit is as accurate as possible.  It is not, however, the same as having a custom suit made for you by a tailor who will update your measurements several times throughout the process.  That is an altogether different, and more expensive option.

Making a custom suit is an art, not a science – don’t confuse the two.  Understand the process and set realistic, firm expectations.

Those initial measurements will form the basis for your Proper Suit suit pattern.  It’s a point in time translated to a tailor who will in turn translate them into a suit of clothing.  So, when you open that box for the first time, this should be your expectation:  it should fit very well, but will likely need some tweaking.

That’s exactly the case with the OTC suit; it fit almost perfectly but will need to be let out a touch on the sides.  Other than that, it’s spot on and that’s pretty darn impressive.  And this gets us to the issue of realistic expectations.  It absolutely met ours.  We were not expecting a perfect suit from a single fitting several weeks prior.  We were expecting a suit that was almost perfect and received just that.

The cost for the tailoring adjustments will be reflected on our next order as a credit and we will indeed be placing a next order.  Once those adjustments are made to the Proper Suit pattern, we should have something that does indeed fit perfectly, right out of the box.

Stay tuned for the full review which will go into the details, look and what goes into a Proper Suit and show you the finished product.