Suited and Booted: A Made to Measure Suit by Beggars Run
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I wrote all about my getting my dress on a previous blog post here, however I had a lot of questions about Jack’s suit. Whilst I could answer them, I thought it better I hand the reigns over to him to talk you through how he found getting a suit made and staying true to his relaxed style. Without further ado, I’ll hand over the blog, for one time only, to Jack…
When I started looking for a suit for my wedding I quickly came to the conclusion that there were only really two ways to go with it. The first being a Saville row, bespoke suit, which were extremely expensive. The second being an off the peg cheap(er) suit from a high street retailer. I bought a few suits from the high street using Paypal credit, so I could try them and send them back if they were not right without having a sizeable chunk of my bank balance missing for a week or so. This incidentally is exactly what ended up happening. I tried them on, they didn’t fit right, they were ok but they were not what I wanted to wear on my wedding day. I’ll admit I was struggling.
The date of the wedding was getting closer, it got to 7 weeks to go until I managed to find exactly what I was looking for. I had a picture in my head of a green herringbone tweed suit. We were getting married in autumn so it was for me going to be burgundy or dark green. After spending many weeks looking for a suit, I decided it was time to seek help from my future wife and on our first look online we found Beggars Run. I had a quick scroll through the suits and about half way down the page I saw a green tweed suit. The best thing about this suit was that it wasn’t cut like something you’d wear on a shooting weekend, it was a good looking suit in a modern style. Their website says suit take between 6-8 weeks from purchase to delivery, and as I mentioned it was 7 weeks until the wedding, so I quickly hit purchase, alongside an email saying ‘help me, I need this suit on this date’. They replied the next day and said they could do that, but it would cost me a little extra for the short notice, at that stage I was more than happy to get it started.
They tried to arrange for me to come into Shoreditch for a fitting but I had just started working on a job (I work in props for TV) and my days were full and not very flexible.
Instead we arranged a Skype call to take my measurements, at the time I was at the time working in prep for a show in a warehouse in North-West London all ready for the call with my newly purchased tape measure. A friend of mine set about measuring certain parts of my body, something only a close friend would actually help you with, luckily the person helping me was just that. Eventually, my measurements were with the tailors and the suit was at last starting its journey to completion.
Three weeks later and 3 weeks until the wedding, they called me and let me know that it was made and ready for my first fitting. One Saturday morning I took an Uber (they don’t have them in Lincoln so whenever I can, I will) to their shop on Charlotte Road in Shoreditch. It’s an unassuming, almost camouflaged shop on the end of the road with a small sign and a bell. I rang the bell and was welcomed in.
As soon as I saw the suit I knew I had made a very good choice. It was dark green with just a hint of, gold / mustard sewn into it, which in natural light gave it a bit more texture and depth of colour. When I tried it on it felt great, the jacket was heavy enough to know it’s good quality but not so much that it wasn’t comfortable. The trouser were cut a little straighter than I would normally have chosen but I am growing in more ways than one out of my former skinny trouser obsession. It turns out that measuring yourself in a warehouse in North-West London isn’t the most accurate way to get a bespoke suit made however, we got pretty damn close. Meaning all that needed to be done was a slight adjustment on the trousers and tiny tweak to the length of the sleeves. I was very impressed that they had gotten so close with so little information and now my suit was very close to be finished as the wedding was drawing nearer by the day.
It was the weekend before the wedding and I got the confirmation that the suit was ready for me to come and try and hopefully take home with me. I only visited the tailors twice and the second time I put the suit on it fitted perfectly. I really do mean perfectly. It was comfortable and even if I do say so myself, looked really cool. I was incredibly happy with it and the guy who served me, I’m useless with names, agreed that it was perfect. They are not in the business of letting suits leave them that are not perfect as you would imagine. He also told me that had I purchased a suit from a Saville Row style tailor I would not only have paid perhaps 10 times the price but would also have had to visit perhaps 10 more times in order for it to be correct. I went from a man struggling to find anything that he even liked the look of, to a man who had the exact thing he had been looking for. Yes I spent a little more than I had intended but the suit I had ended up with was great and because its a custom suit it can be taken in and out should I change weight and size as I grow older.
I could not recommend visiting Beggars Run more, they were very easy to deal with and the suits that they create are incredible. When you visit their shop and you should do this if you can, the amount of different fabrics and designs they have on offer is amazing and made me want to go back again and again for multiple suits in the future. Turns out three people at my wedding had Beggars Run suits on, all made for their wedding meaning you can wear them time and time again.
So finally to talk about money. I spent £699 on my suit with an extra cost of £100 in order to get it ready for my wedding day which ended up being money well spent. I added a white ‘Artist Stripe’ Paul Smith shirt which was £210, Sunspel’s Made in England bamboo underwear and socks because why not on your wedding day and finally a pair of Scarosso Giacomo Marron Chelsea for £225. I ended up spending a little over a thousand pounds but I will say, that not only was everything really comfortable and looked great, I’ve also been able to wear most of it again multiple times since the wedding so bring my cost per wear right down. A phrase I would have never used before I met Charlotte….
