Now that it’s been over a year since I received my suit, it’s time to do the third and final part of this series – giving you an idea of how it’s held up over the year.
This suit saw some pretty hard wear during the first six months it was on rotation. It was common for me to wear this three times a week for more than eight hours a day. However, since April it’s been sitting in my closet. This is not because of any problem with the suit but because I made a career move from finance to the clothing industry and now work for a custom suit company. It should be fairly obvious that I wear my company’s product almost exclusively now.
So this is more like a one year/six month follow-up.
The first thing I want to address is a minor quality issue. I ordered my pants with side adjusters.
As you can see, the right adjuster is starting to tear at the seam. While this can be construed as a quality issue, it’s also from my wearing the suit hard. I intentionally was overly forceful when cinching up the adjusters to see how much damage they could take. So, unless you’re planning on pulling to the point of damage, you should be fine. That being said, I found the adjusters to be more ornamental than functional and would opt out of them were I to order this suit again.
Knowing that this post was coming up, I decided to wear my Indochino suit to church last week. Because it was unfamiliar to a lot of people there, it got quite a few compliments and comments. No one would have guessed this cost half as much as other suits I have on rotation.
For the sake of a recap, here are some pictures I took this morning high lighting the fit.
All in all, I would still say this is a great suit and there are very few things I would change from a fit perspective. The chest and the shoulders are maybe a centimeter too large on each side, the cuffs are just a tad short, and the seat on the pants could be brought in more to avoid having it looking too loose and large. Those are all minimal changes though. As you can see from the pictures, the back hangs clean with no rolls or folds, the pitch of the sleeves is clean, and there are no stress marks when the jacket is buttoned up. The pants fit my calves and thighs comfortably and are slim while still allowing movement.
In fact, while under serious scrutiny from the #menswear nerds on sites like Style Forum and Reddit those same criticisms would be made, 99% of people will see nothing but a flattering fit and a modern suit.
Ultimately that’s the point. Men will pay tens of thousands of dollars, wait for months, and stand through multiple fittings in order to receive a completely bespoke suit. This is the holy grail of fit and cloth. With true bespoke you can compensate for things like sunken shoulders, disproportionate back-to-chest ratios, and other body abnormalities. There’s a reason beyond the simple fabric selection that you invest both the time and money into a suit from a master tailor on Savile Row.
But Indochino has never claimed to be fully bespoke. They are a made-to-measure outfit for men who want a suit that will fit well, look great, and not cost an arm and a leg. Their cloth may not be sourced from the best mills in Italy and England, every stitch may not be added by hand from a tailor who’s earned his golden shears, and they might not be the suits that are sourced and bragged about in the circles of the 1% – but when you’re paying anywhere from $450 to $700, you’d be a fool to expect otherwise.
My experience with Indochino has been that you get more than your bang for your buck. The fit, level of customization, fabric selection, and price point are all spot on for the young man who’s just starting to climb his career ladder. If your price point is below $800 and you are careful in your measurement process, you’ll end up with a great suit that will help you establish yourself as a well-dressed, professional man.
