What does the term Bespoke mean?

Bespoke: A new pattern is created for each individual wearer. No modification or use of base patterns, as that could lead the tailor to miss some of the small nuances of the wearer’s body. More than just measurements are needed to achieve this (what is the slope of the shoulder, the arch of the back, etc.).

What does Made to Measure mean?

Made to Measure (MTM) – Consider the individual patterns for a size 42 jacket … A MTM company takes these patterns and modifies them if your measurements are outside the range of what the 42 jacket was built to. e.g. The master tailor / house cutter will modify standardized patterns to take your body shape differences into account, like jacket length and shoulder width. Note that not all MTM companies do the same amount of modification – some have different thresholds for when to actually make adjustments to the original pattern, some skip important things like shoulder-padding, or armhole size. A good rough gauge is to see how many measurements they take. Some MTM outfits only run with 5-7 … not a good sign. (Note that the accessibility of Computer-Aided-Design, CAD, has made it easier for MTM companies to close the gap between Bespoke on this point.)