6 min readUpdated October 2026
It is the first question almost everyone asks, and the honest answer is that there is no single number. Two suits cut from the same pattern can differ in price several times over. Here is what actually moves the figure, so you can judge a quote rather than guess at one.
Cloth is the biggest variable
More of your money goes into cloth than anything else. A hard-wearing Super 110s worsted and a pure cashmere are different propositions entirely, and the gap between them is wider than the gap between most tailors.
Higher Super numbers mean finer fibres — softer and more refined, but also more delicate. For a suit you will wear weekly, Super 110s to 130s is the sweet spot. Paying for Super 180s and then commuting in it five days a week is money poorly spent.
Construction: canvassed or fused
Inside the chest of a jacket is either a layer of canvas or a layer of glue. A canvassed chest is stitched in, moulds to your shape over the first year of wear and holds it. A fused chest is bonded with adhesive and never does.
Full canvas costs more than half canvas, which costs more than fused, because each step adds hours of skilled work. It is the difference you feel at year three, not on day one.
Specification
Working cuff buttonholes, hand-worked lapel buttonholes, pick stitching, contrast linings and monograms are all hand operations. Each is small; together they add up.
None of them make the suit fit better. They are the difference between a garment that is correct and one that is yours.
Quantity
A suit ordered with a second pair of trousers costs far less than two suits, and lasts almost as long — trousers wear out roughly twice as fast as the jacket.
Wedding parties, and shirts ordered five at a time, are quoted better than the same items bought one by one.
How to judge a quote
Ask three questions: what is the cloth and its composition, is the chest canvassed or fused, and how many fittings are included. A tailor who answers all three plainly is quoting honestly.
Be wary of a single headline price with no cloth named. The number is meaningless until you know what it is made of.
Tell us the occasion and we will give you a firm written figure before anything is cut.
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