Written By Eric Holmes
"An aficionado who wears his clothes in the most "sartorial workwear" way; read and write all sorts of the finer things in life from menswear, coffee, spirits, traveling and all things vintage. Legend has it he may be the most well-dressed guy in the valley."
Why Made-to-Order is the Future of Fashion
You’ve grown accustomed to fast fashion whether you know it or not. And in some ways, it isn’t your fault. Fast fashion is the phenomenon whereby inexpensive clothing is massively produced by market retailers in response to the latest trends. These market retailers are well-known – think H&M and UNIQLO – and their clothing often doesn’t last more than a couple of seasons (if that). That said, there’s currently a new push in the fashion industry towards made-to-order fashion that may change what industry looks like all together.
It’s more inclusive
The 3 Tiers of Made-To-Order (MTO)
"Bespoke" - Craftsman Clothing thoughtfully decided between all the pieces the generations have worn in the past decades, and include them into our #styleicon series. These are meant to last in style from your great grandfather's time till your grand grandson's. However, Craftsman is merely a dream curator that helps customers to bring your wild ideas to life, you are the ultimate designers. And with bespoke, you can tell or illustrate us your ideas and we can make it to your body.
“Made-to-measure” - If you’re not a conventional size (which categorizes a lot of people), then this is your ideal way to shop. If you’re tall or short, petite or plus-sized, it’s incredibly hard and immensely frustrating to shop when you continually find that clothes don’t fit you correctly. With made-to-measure, you’ll have the opportunity to personalize your clothes to truly fit your body. Gone are the days that tailoring is for special items in your closet or available only to elite classes. You’ll get to have correctly sized garments that make you look and feel great.
"Made-to-order" - Thousands of brands are doing up-cycled materials (including us, using our residual suede from jackets for suede patches) to join the latest #sustainablefashion trend. The intention is great because with the transparency of the internet, customers are getting smarter and we all know how much pollution the fashion industry brings as a whole. That said, it is not the ideal way to sustain it. Made-to-order is our solution for lowering the excess our industry produces, only ethically make what's needed. No more. To your taste. To your sizes.
It improves quality
Fast fashion and made-to-order are opposites for all intents and purposes. While fast fashion aims to make clothes as inexpensive as possible and get them on the market quickly for buyers as trends go in and out, made-to-order appeals to a customer because it’s exactly what they’re seeking. It’s a style, color, and size that they personally selected.
What’s more is that made-to-order puts less pressure on the brands to produce something quickly while keeping costs down, which typically produces a cheap product in the case of fast fashion. Rather, made-to-order brands are able to keep their overhead costs down because they don’t have unnecessary costs to begin with. They don’t order stock they won’t sell, revisions are easy to implement without throwing away items, and fewer personnel and less warehouse space necessary. Thus, all of these resources that would have previously been invested in those factors can now be reallocated to adding quality to your product.
It’s more sustainable
Fast fashion has been highlighted in the past few years as an example of society’s “disposable” culture. When it comes to consumers and how they operate, most are entirely okay with the idea of purchasing something with the thought of discarding it soon after. In fact, this is the norm. Made-to-order brings more thought back into what one purchases—primarily because it is not only a more significant investment but also because it is so perfectly tailored to you. It allows brands to move away from the need to stock their stores with the potential of overstocking and having leftover stock if customers do not purchase all of it.
How you can benefit from made-to-order brands
As a consumer, made-to-order products are simply a more responsible choice than fast fashion. They’re high quality and created to endure daily wear and laundering, which means the products that you invest in will last you that much longer. Thus us at CRAFTSMAN CO. allows you to order leather jackets to your specifications (think color and sizing) and have it produced with beautiful handiwork and superior materials. Our sister brand CORTINA does the same for items like chino, shirts, and blazers. And if you’re thinking, “What’s in it for them?” We make only the leather jackets that are ordered thus we are able to keep our overhead costs low. That means we are actually focused on providing you quality with every single order.
Crafted for you.
