Tailor4Less Review: Part 3 of 3

To start off, I will mention that I received an email from the CEO of Tailor4Less.com regarding my earlier T4L reviews. He basically thanks me for testing them and writing a detailed review. He also assures me that T4L is working towards correcting some of the issues I had pointed out (he wasn't specific which ones) and said he looked forward to my review of their shirts.

In Part 1, I erroneously stated that T4L doesn't claim to sell top quality fabrics. I later found that the claim is made in large print on the "Our Fabrics" page (see below). As I described in Part 2, we know that their fabrics are far from being "premium".

A gross overstatement of the quality of T4L's fabrics.

I took all of my detailed measurements with the help of my fiancee (we watched all the videos, read the instructions, and took all the measurements two or three times just to be certain). The measuring took quite a bit longer than the website suggests, but there was nothing difficult about the process. 

I ordered two shirts, one in the "Manchester" fabric (light blue) and another in the "Mayfield" fabric (white). Both are 100% cotton. "Easy care" cotton is available, but costs a few dollars more. I own several cotton shirts that don't have these easy care features, so I didn't think it would be necessary. Of course, they have to be ironed after one or two wear-wash-dry cycles, but this is accomplished pretty quickly with my electric steam iron. 

T4L sent me an automated confirmation email right after ordering on 17 February 2013. A second email was sent when the shirts were shipped on 04 March, with an estimated delivery date of 09 March. I was pleasantly surprised to receive the shirts on 06 March. Shipping estimates are often too optimistic, particularly for international shipping, so it was nice to see that T4L at least gets your order to you quickly; in my case, just 17 days. 

The first thing I did was open the package to try on the shirts to see if they need tailoring. The fabrics felt a little thin, but not coarse, and overall seemed appropriate for a dress shirt. They had a bit of a strange smell, but I figured that there would be no issue after I laundered them. Unfortunately, the collar stays are sewn in, very thin, and rather flimsy. I didn't like that the top button and placket don't lie nice and flat when the collar's done up. However, this is partially hidden by a necktie, or is no issue at all if you go without the tie and leave the top button open. There are no garment care labels, but the package did come with garment care instructions (along with a coupon code for 10% off more stuff). Instructions are essentially to wash with like colours, dry with low heat, and iron with high heat. Basically, the identical instructions on all 100% cotton shirts that are not pre-shrunk and/or treated to be wrinkle-resistant. 

The fit was great, but not perfect. The shoulder seams aligned with my shoulders just right and the shirts were slim through the arms and torso. The collars were noticeably too large in the neck. This was partly my fault because I gave T4L a size about 6 mm (1/4") larger than it should've been just in case they screwed up and went too small, but also partly T4L's fault because they exceeded the measurement I gave them by about 6 mm (1/4"). The neck is not something that can be altered easily (and certainly not for the $15 USD credit T4L offers per shirt). The sleeves were a touch too long, but not enough to be concerned with altering them. On the other hand, the body length of the shirt was at least 25 mm (1") longer than is even reasonable for a dress shirt. The bottom of the shirt should not go past the crotch. Having more fabric to tuck in helps keep your shirt inside your pant waist, but it's hard to keep the shirt from bunching up around your seat and thighs if it is too long. I decided that the overall shirt length was something I could tolerate and the neck was partly my fault and couldn't be rectified anyway. It doesn't look too bad; there was just a bit more room around the neck than there should be. Pursuing the alteration credit seemed like it would be a hassle not worth my effort, so I decided to go ahead and wash the shirts.

I followed the washing directions exactly, but was very unhappy with the results. Remember that at this point, all I did was try on the shirts and then run them through a washer and dryer cycle. I noted threads coming loose at some seams, buttons, and buttonholes. A sure sign of very cheap construction is when your threads start coming loose after a single laundering. Next, I discovered that the damned things had shrunk despite being washed in cold water and dried at the low heat setting of the dryer. The sleeves were now perfect and the shoulders were a bit narrow. The overall length shrank, but still extends a little past my crotch. I couldn't measure any change in the collar size. Most disappointing of all was the complete lack of wrinkle-resistance. I own 100% cotton shirts that are NOT labeled wrinkle-resistant, but even if I go months without ironing one to let it get very badly wrinkled, I can probably iron it all out in 15 to 20 minutes. These shirts were very badly wrinkled after just a single wash and dry cycle. I spent 45 minutes ironing each of them! I even tried using more steam and increasing the temperature beyond the cotton setting into the range for ironing linen. After all that ironing, the shirts looked a lot better than when I first started, but they were still noticeably wrinkled.

Overall, the shirts were a terrible deal. They are undoubtedly going to wear out faster than anything else I own, even my $20 cotton dress shirt from Costco. They wrinkle far too easily and the time and effort needed to iron them is excessive. The time I waste ironing the shirts twice is worth more than I paid for them. 

It appears that T4L, in an effort to provide made-to-measure clothing at the most affordable prices, has resorted to shady practices bordering on fraud in order to make a significant profit while undercutting those competitors producing higher quality garments. They use to their advantage the fact that most consumers have little idea what makes a quality garment. T4L rightly focuses on fit, but then downplays the important roles of quality fabric and construction. To summarize my review, here's how T4L stacks up:

Pros

• The information that T4L does give about their fabrics appears to be accurate
• Measurements are easily obtained with the aid of T4L's videos
• T4L has a perfect-fit guarantee
• Shipping times are fast and the estimates appear to be accurate or perhaps even slightly conservative
• Garments fit pretty well (this was my experience anyway, some folks on styleforum had issues)

Cons

• No return policy
• While they "guarantee" that the fit is perfect, it is the only thing they guarantee...you can be denied a refund if the garment's construction or material is substandard
• Their perfect fit "guarantee" makes a mockery of the word
• There is a very short window of opportunity to claim an issue with the fit
• A remake can be done, but the customer is held responsible for the costs of all additional shipping, even if T4L made the errors to begin with.
• Insufficient alteration credit. No tailor in the developed world will offer his or her services to make more than just very simple alterations on garments using T4L's maximum allowance
• Garments do not have the proper garment tags which are a legal requirement in the developed world
• Clothes shrink even when you follow T4L's instructions
• T4L lies about the quality of their fabrics, claiming that they use "premium materials"
• Their fabrics are cheap and thin, more typical of low-end clothing
• In addition to outright lying, T4L is deceptive about their fabrics by withholding information. T4L gives only incomplete information about their fabrics
• e.g. country of origin
• Garments are poorly constructed
• e.g. flimsy, sewn-in collar stays; threads coming loose after the first laundering; etc.

For more information about T4L (the stuff they don't want you to know), go to http://tailor4less-reviews.com.

Tailor4Less Review: Part 2 of 3

If you missed Part 1, click here.

I was disappointed that Tailor4Less offers samples of most of their suit and coat fabrics, but not their shirt fabrics. I ordered seven suit fabric samples on 30 January 2013. They arrived about a week later. The samples I ordered were:

Don't mind the missing corners. I cut those myself to do burn testing.

The "Submerged" fabric was a few shades darker than the website suggested. Unfortunately, I can't show you what it looked like on the website because T4L stopped offering this fabric at some point between when I ordered the sample and when I began writing this blog post. Perhaps that's a good thing. If you continue reading, you'll see that "Submerged" was a rather underwhelming fabric.

I wrote down details from the website on the labels that came attached to the samples. Fabric brightness was either "average" or "glossy touch". The glossy touch fabric was shinier than the others, so that description seems reasonable. You'll just have to believe me that it's shinier. I'm not much of a photographer and my camera's pretty old. Here is the first photo again, but taken with much more light:

I have no way of verifying the S numbers since I can't measure the thickness of the fibres. By the way, S numbers apply only to wool or blends containing at least 45% wool. T4L still described the two cotton fabrics as 100s. 

Fabric weights in g/m² were given for only three of the fabrics. I don't have access to anything that can measure small weights accurately, so I can't verify the weights by anything other than how the samples feel between my fingers. "Stripped Blue" felt lightest followed by "Kolding". "Auckland" was velvet and easily felt heaviest, followed by "Midnight Blue". By no means an accurate test, but at least it's consistent with the website's descriptions. The fabrics also felt pretty thin, which is consistent with their low-weights. 

The "season" is supposed to give an indication of how warm the fabric will keep you. Winter and summer are self explanatory. All-season (a.k.a. three-season) is supposed to be meant for spring, fall, and cooler periods of summer in the North or warmer periods of winter in the South. I think that their idea of a "Winter" or "All season" fabric probably applies to Shanghai or Barcelona (where T4L appears to have offices). The heaviest reported fabric weight of 280 g/m² (8.3 oz/yd²) is still pretty light and probably isn't warm enough for spring or fall in most of Canada or the northern States. 340 g/m² (10 oz/yd²) is probably the lightest I would consider for a three-season fabric in Canada. The thin, light fabrics I got from T4L are practically tropical wools. They look fine, but you'll probably feel cold even in mildly cool weather around here.

Apart from being lightweight, most of the fabrics looked and felt fine. That is to say they felt adequate, reasonable for a bargain suit, etc. Nothing felt luxurious, but then I had no expectations of luxury from a company that has "4less" in its name. The only fabric I thought wasn't acceptable was "Submerged", which felt stiff and coarse. I have $20 cotton dress shirts that feel much nicer. I pinched and crumpled the fabrics to get an idea of their wrinkle-resistance. Wool has some natural wrinkle-resistance. Terylene (a type of polyester) is also wrinkle-resistant. Cotton is more prone to wrinkling than wool, but some cotton fabrics today have reasonable wrinkle resistance too. Once again, "Submerged" was the poorest performer, wrinkling very easily. The wool and wool blend fabrics had good wrinkle resistance, and the other cotton fabric, "Auckland", also did pretty well.

To check if the fabric compositions on the labels were true, I conducted a burn test. Cotton smells like burning paper when it burns, burns with a fairly steady flame, and leaves behind a soft, grey ash. Wool smells like burning hair (though the sulfur odour isn't so strong), burns with a flickering flame, and leaves behind a hard, brittle, black ash. The polyester here is present only as part of a wool blend, so I was looking for melting because the other burn characteristics (odour and ash) of the material would be masked. All of the fabrics burned as expected, so I have no reason to believe T4L is lying about the kinds of fibres in their fabrics.

The fabric samples confirmed that T4L, for the most part, sells fabrics of quality comparable with the lower end of men's clothing. The value of their suits is probably more in the tailoring and convenience of online shopping rather than in the fabric (keep in mind these suits are really cheap). If you're a real miser or simply need a suit but can't afford one, T4L looks like a reasonable option. You can get a 100% wool suit for $240, tailored to fit you better than a regular suit off the rack and with the details of your choosing. Your suit might be a little thin and lack durability because of the lightweight wool they use, but it'd be wool nonetheless and wouldn't have the cheap, somewhat shiny appearance of polyester. If you don't mind the look of polyester and don't need much when it comes to alterations, then you might as well go for that instead. A cheap polyester suit from a bottom-end menswear retailer will be under $200 and it'll probably be a heavier fabric (warmer and more durable, just don't dry-clean too often). If off the rack fits you well enough and you have the patience to find a department store suit on sale for less than $300, you'll probably be better off going that route.

Now shirts are a slightly different story. Shirts are comparatively easy to construct, so even a $20 shirt won't fall apart at the seams on you. You might have to sew on a button or two, but that's easy enough. To take in a shirt from the sides would cost around $25 here, plus another $25 to narrow the sleeves. Assuming that T4L sells shirts using the same kind of fabrics, buttons, etc. as you'll find in the $20 button-down from Costco, you still come out ahead by choosing T4L if you're of slender build (unless you like your shirts billowy).

Overall, I've been unimpressed by T4L and have decided that I will never buy a suit, jacket, waistcoat, overcoat, or trousers from them. However, I had a credit to use (for buying the fabric samples) and thought I might as well try a shirt. As I mentioned above, shirts are relatively expensive for me to have altered to fit and are probably harder for T4L to screw up, so I decided to hand over another $47 for a fitted blue dress shirt. The shirt that I ordered will be reviewed in part 3.

Update: Links to Part 1 and Part 3.

Tailor4Less Review: Part 1 of 3

In the past few years, a huge number of online made-to-measure clothing stores have popped up. They all have a similar business model.

1. Use a computer algorithm to get tailored clothing measurements from a few simple body measurements.
2. Utilize programmable machines to cut the fabric to the right measurements for the customer.
3. Utilize cheap labor to assemble the clothing.
4. Ship to the customer.

The made-to-measure model is appealing to me because I'm not the standard shape and I don't have a lot of money to spend on formal clothing. I have broad shoulders for my otherwise very slender build. I have to choose clothes that fit my shoulders properly, but that usually means that the neck is fine, the sleeves are too short, and the rest is baggy like a woman's blouse. I priced it out once; fixing all that on a shirt using a local tailor would cost $30 - $60. So I did some research on some of these made-to-measure services.

Basically, when you order made-to-measure, you're supposed to end up with a suit (or shirt, trousers, etc.) that costs the same as a regular suit off the rack, but fits better and saves you the cost and hassle of alterations. You also get to customize little details like how you want the lapels and pockets to look. Some websites claim to sell bespoke clothing, though this is a lie. Bespoke clothing is custom clothing that is handmade by a master tailor with you as the model (rather than some "standard"). There are intermediate fittings involved to ensure that the finished product is perfect. Made-to-measure clothing on the other hand starts with a standard pattern. Before the fabric is cut, some of the standard measurements are tweaked a little based on a few of the customer's body measurements. There are no fittings involved, but the final product should fit relatively well.

The main drawbacks of these online made-to-measure services are that you lose the in-store experience. You can't feel fabrics or look at various outfit combinations like in a regular store. If you're not knowledgeable about men's fashion, the staff at menswear stores can be helpful. Furthermore, a large number of these online stores don't have a phone number you can call. Not having a phone number can make things difficult and frustrating for unsatisfied customers. It's a bit sketchy for a company not to stand behind it's product with a good system for customer service.

Tailor4Less (T4L) is one that stood out because they seem to offer some of the lowest prices and appear to be pretty popular. Most reviews are favourable, though there are a few scathing ones. Unfortunately, I can't find any positive reviews concerning their customer service. This is alarming because good customer service is important to any successful business. Some of the most valuable reviews are from people who had their problems resolved by good customer service. Most detailed reviews seem to agree that the overall fit is not truly perfect, but respectable considering the price. Of the complaints that I've found, they're usually regarding the quality of the fabric or construction. Have a look at some reviews for yourself:

http://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/tailor4less.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GniNx0gUOqQ
http://www.styleforum.net/t/101870/comparison-of-four-online-mtm-shirt-makers
http://www.guystyleguide.com/blog/2012/01/product-review-tailor4less/
http://sartoriallysincere.blogspot.ca/2010/12/online-suit-review-tailor4lesscom.html

When researching a business, it's important to keep in mind that a few angry customers doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad company to deal with. Anyone who's dealt with customers before can tell you that some people are simply irrational. I suspect that the majority of dissatisfied customers were people expecting too much, hoping to get something for nothing. Regarding fabric, T4L doesn't claim to sell top-quality fabrics (though it looks like the website might be deliberately misleading). Don't look at the S number alone, as this is only one important thing to consider when choosing a fabric. Pay attention to thread count, fabric weight, and fabric composition. You'll see that most of the fabrics offered by T4L are representative of typical inexpensive clothing. Regarding construction, T4L doesn't explicitly tell you, but it's safe to say that for the price they're asking, you're getting the cheapest construction available. The means no canvassing, no collar stays (or cheap flimsy ones), etc. Don't expect more for these modest prices. Nobody's going to waste high quality fabrics or extra labour for careful handmade construction on clothes this cheap.

That said, a few disappointed customers have put together a website dedicated to warning people. T4L doesn't have a phone number, so if they choose to ignore you, you have no way of getting any customer service. Some people report that T4L will get bad reviews deleted, which can be done even on websites like TrustPilot if you don't agree to the terms to allow them to verify that you're an actual T4L customer.
T4L also appears to be a cooperative of companies based all over the world. The website's registered in France, owned and managed by a company in Switzerland, yet protected and operated in accordance with Spanish law. T4L appears to have two headquarters, one in Barcelona, Spain and the other in Shanghai, China. It seems that all this allows them to get away with shady business practices like:

1. No refund policy.
2. No clothing labels. In many countries, including Canada, the law requires garments to have labels disclosing the fabric's composition, country of origin, and care instructions.

Actual satisfaction considerably less than 100%. Garments can be remade after you pay for the extra shipping costs.

In conclusion, my research indicated that the principle of caveat emptor is more applicable than usual when dealing with T4L. However, I was still intrigued. After all, I will need appropriate, well-fitting business wear when I'm finished school and can't just go spend all my money on one suit. I decided to proceed cautiously and order some fabric samples, so there will be a sequel to this review.

Update: Links to Part 2 and Part 3