3 Piece Grey For A Spring Wedding

Light grey suits are the most popular choice for Spring weddings because it goes so well with any colour--in particular, powdery pastel colours. Grey forms a neutral background that would make any light or bright colour pop. 

You can be sure that whatever your colour scheme is for your wedding day, your grey suit will not clash with it. And a great photography tip for those tricky wedding pictures: It used to be a pain for wedding photographers to pick the right exposure for the bride and groom photographs because of the high contrast between a black suit and a white dress. What would a photographer expose for: The really dark black suit or the really bright white dress? Depending on the photographer's choice of exposure, someone in the picture would either be washed out or look too dark.

Thanks to Photoshop, that problem could be avoided but still requires the photographer to do a bit of prep work before taking the photos.

If you feel inclined to help your photographer out or want to ensure that your pictures are correctly exposed or you just love the colour, try a light grey suit!

Check out this 3 piece grey suit that we made for Nathan:

Nathan's mom made this self-tie bowtie for him!

Thanks Nathan for sharing your suit!

Resurgence of the Wide Lapels

If you're one to pay attention to fashion, there is no doubt that you know in the world of fashion, every style and trend that's ever been thought of in the history of mankind will eventually make its way back into the modern times. 

For the past 5-6 years, the two most popular suit cuts around the world have been the British and the Italian styles. Both styles are characterized by the slimness throughout the entire length of the body, with the Italian style being tighter than its UK counterpart.

You've all seen these styles displayed in the windows of large clothing retail stores: undersized to tight-fitting jackets with shirt cuff-exposing jacket sleeves and almost-too-short skinny trousers that hit at or above the ankles. Most often, you'll see narrow lapels adorn these suit jackets.

Lapels. Lapels is the focus of this blog entry. 

There has been a resurgence of the wider lapels visible on catwalks, recent tv shows, blockbusters and magazines. For the first time in many years, I'm being asked by customers to design a suit for them that features lapels that are wider than 2.5" or 2.75". 

The above pictures showcase a custom navy suit that we recently made for a really good-looking young man who has been our loyal customer for years. Notice the width of the lapels? Those are 3.75" wide! I'll call our model, Andrew, since he wishes to remain anonymous due to professional reasons.

During Andrew's earlier visits, he would request simple clean-looking suits in various colours but all of them had the same skinny lapels. With his model-like features and towering height, we knew he would carry our suits well. Our business is to make people look good but Andrew made our suits LOOK REALLY GOOD.

Time passed and we saw Andrew again recently. He said he wanted some new suits made but with wider lapels. "How wide?" I asked. "This wide," he replied. His thumb and index finger indicated four inches of width. 

I smiled. "Wow. That's really wide. Um, why don't we try 3.75" or even 3.5" first?" We discussed this topic for quite some time. There was a lot of uncertainty because he hadn't seen himself in a wide-lapel suit before. He'd only seen them on actors on tv.

I didn't think it would be an issue. I knew it wouldn't be an issue for Andrew to wear wide lapels. He is really tall and has 20" wide shoulders. That's a really broad shoulder width. Most men have shoulders anywhere between 17" to 21". 

Here's a good way to figure out the maximum lapel width for yourself before you end up looking goofy: Your lapel tip generally shouldn't cross the imaginary halfway line of your shoulder. Check out the diagram below to better understand what I mean.

I just want to remind everyone that style is very personal. I simply inform people of what is currently the most popular trend according to the fashion industry and what my customers commonly ask for. But if you have a preferred style, say you like the skinny lapels, by all means, rock it and keep rocking it!

So there you have it. Wide lapels aren't out of style anymore. They have come back and is starting to make their way back into men's wardrobes! 

Perhaps try out a new style?

Best Year-Round Suit

Betty was looking for a versatile, easy-to-maintain, medium weight, non-wrinkly and comfortable grey suit to wear for any occasion all year round. 

Voila! We paired her up with an easy-to-wear budget friendly "Wool (70%) + Polyester (30%)" medium grey suit. With a wool-polyester suit, you get everything you want in a suit:

1. The breathable and moisture-wicking properties of wool

2. Medium weight wool that doesn't feel heavy

3. The texture of fine wool that's soft to the touch

4. Lowered cost due to the added synthetic material

5. The durability of polyester

6. The non-wrinkling property of polyester

7. Ease of ironing at home if necessary (but we always recommend taking it to a professional for pressing)

Check out what we built for Betty:

I really love these high-shine dress shoes by John Vluefog. The gold trim adds so much elegance to it.

Thanks Betty for sharing your suit!

Ladies' Jackets - Handstitched By Our Shanghai High-Fashion Tailor

At Balsam Custom Tailors, we employ only the most professional and skilled tailors and seamstresses. Most of our very talented team members have had many decades of experience in making custom garments and working for designer labels. 

The following are a collection of pictures that document some of the jackets in their in-progress stage and the finished stage. All of them are made by our Shanghai Master Tailor :)   Pay attention to the fine details in the shoulders, lapels, jetted flap pockets, contour seams in the back... all are things that help determine the quality of a jacket i.e. Springy shoulders require more work because of extra internal parts that are built-in to produce that effect.

Jacket No.1 - Leopard Print Cotton

Jacket No.2 - Padded Lace Material 

Jacket No.3 - Padded Lace Material

Our Neighbour, James!

James works one store over. He's one of the trusty bike mechanics who I see test-drive their clients' bikes around the block every so often.

It was a nice surprise to see a familiar face walk in.

"I need a suit for my friend's wedding," said James with a big smile.

"Oooooh," I shot out of my chair wide-eyed and grinning. "This is going to be fun!" I thought. The reason is because I've never seen James in anything other then his very casual work clothes or without grease on his hands. Haha!! I knew it would be a total transformation.

Because of James' naturally thin body frame, I knew immediately he would look perfect in a slim fit suit.

Lo and behold, the black suit we made for him was indeed the perfect style and fit on him! I also really dig his high-shine shoes.

We were all pretty excited... Actually, it was impossible to contain our excitement. We were happy. James was happy. He was soooo happy that he ran over to the bike shop to show his colleagues, haha:

I love my job. I love seeing the smiles on people's faces when I first show them their suits and then watching the smiles grow even bigger once they try on their suits.

Thank you for modeling for us, James! You look so awesome in that black skinny suit. Speaking of awesome, I have this to show you all. James showed it to me on his phone and it made me laugh:

On certain phones, voice messages can be transcribed into texts. The quality of the texts is dependent on the caller, the background noise and the microphone.

James showed me a message that someone at Balsam Tailors left on his phone. What shows is that "awesome Taylor" called. Obviously it was "Balsam Tailors". Imagine how confused James was when he got this message. :P

Charcoal Suit & Cognac Shoes

There is always a story to every suit we make. I like Dale's.

He came in one day with an off-the-rack suit that had details he really liked and didn't like. He couldn't decided if it was the right suit for him. I asked him to put it on so I could make an assessment.

It was a medium grey suit that was fitted through the waist, hips and tailored through the thighs. He liked the overall look of it. I immediately noted that some adjustments were need in order for the suit to fit perfectly. With the alteration cost plus the purchasing cost, his suit would run him close to a price that would be the equivalent of one of our custom suits.

Having made that calculation, we decided that a custom suit would be a smarter choice: Firstly, a custom suit would be cut to fit his unique body shape and secondly, he could pick the details he wanted on his suit that he liked from the other suit he brought in. You know what the best part about this story is? ... Dale's new custom suit would cost him less than the store-bought suit with the alterations! :)

Take a look at Dale's suit up at the top. He picked a rich dark grey that is very popular with the gents. When he came in to try on the suit, he happened to be wearing this season's most popular shoe colour: cognac. They pair up quite nicely, don't they? :)

Warning: Balsam Suits May Induce Uncontrollable Happiness... And The Feeling Of Nakedness Apparently.

When Graeme came in to pick up his suit, it became a smiling contest. It was GRAEME VS ANDA & CINDY. I honestly don't think I've seen a more ecstatic customer than this guy. I mean, he was REALLY happy. Not just happy. Like truly insanely HAPPY! Haha! I watched the way his lips stretched across his face from the moment he put on his pants up until the moment he slipped on the jacket to when he looked into the mirror. It went from ear to ear. No exaggeration! And I will quote him: "WOW! It feels so good! It's so fitted and light. It's like I'M NAKED."

HAHA!! Well, I'm glad our suits make you feel so naked, Graeme! ;)

When I asked if he wanted to be featured on our blog, he... Well, you can see for yourself how it unfolded:

Can you show me those pearly whites, Graeme:

Let's have a look at that back side:

I'm going to do a close-up, if you don't mind:

Show me your million dollar pose, please:

 Can you demonstrate to me how you're feeling right now:

So, overall, how would you rate this suit:

So, as you can see, feeling naked makes you THIS happy. 

Thanks so much, Graeme, for letting us take pictures of you and putting smiles on our faces! 

Epilogue: Graeme didn't want to take his suit off. Oh trust me. He really didn't.  He said proudly, "I'm going to wear it right now to show my girlfriend." He slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked out the door...with a smile still plastered on his face. 

So who won the smiling contest? Not sure, really. Because Anda and I were definitely smiling even after he left. :D