Dress Line "Suits"

I would like to introduce one of the main items in our menu: the made-to-order suit. At The Dressing Lab., we have a house style that serves as the foundation for each suit, and from there, we carefully adjust the fit and balance to suit each customer's body shape, preferences, and way of wearing. The result is a personal suit, made with care and attention to detail.

Our house style is inspired by Italian tailoring. I aim to express the softness and lightness often found in Italian suits through the hands of skilled Japanese craftsmen. Like a suit made by an Italian "sarto," our suits have a soft, light, and rounded appearance. At the same time, they are finished with the precision and careful workmanship that Japanese tailoring is known for. One of the great strengths of our craftsmen is their ability to adjust a suit carefully to each customer's measurements, which is an essential part of made-to-order clothing.

Our made-to-order suits are crafted in some of Japan's leading tailoring factories using a full canvas construction. This traditional, high-quality method uses a horsehair canvas that extends through the front body of the jacket. Because the suit is shaped through repeated pressing and resting, it takes time to complete. However, this careful process gives the suit a distinctive three-dimensional shape, a soft rounded form, and excellent shape retention. This is one of the qualities that makes our suits both beautiful and long-lasting.

The advantage of full canvas construction is that it gives the suit structure while helping it retain its shape over many years. Depending on the canvas used, a full canvas suit can sometimes feel stiff or heavy compared with fused or half-canvas construction. For this reason, we select canvas materials that are light, soft, and have excellent recovery. This allows us to create a suit with the three-dimensional character of full canvas construction, while keeping the overall feel light, soft, and comfortable.

"Natural Shoulder" and "Rollino Collar"

Our suits feature a natural and soft shoulder line, created without shoulder pads and shaped mainly with canvas. The shoulder line is not overly sloped, giving the suit a good balance between a light feel and a sharp appearance. Shoulder pads can also feel warmer than expected, especially in warmer seasons. By using canvas instead, the suit feels lighter and offers better breathability, making it more comfortable to wear.

Please also take a look at the beautiful roll of the upper collar. The collar rises naturally from the shoulder line and sits closely around the neck. This not only gives the jacket an elegant appearance, but also improves the fit from the neck to the shoulders. This is achieved through a tailoring technique known as the Rollino collar. In Japanese tailoring, the literal expression for this kind of ironwork can sound a little unusual, but it simply refers to carefully shaping the fabric with an iron. The Rollino collar is not made by simply cutting the fabric into a curved shape. Instead, a straight piece of fabric is shaped into a curved collar through careful ironwork. This creates a three-dimensional collar with excellent recovery, helping the jacket sit beautifully around the neck.

This collar construction is especially helpful for customers who experience a "floating collar," where the jacket collar separates from the neck. This can be caused not only by tailoring quality, but also by the wearer's body shape, such as a prominent chest or a rounded back. By combining the Rollino collar with adjustments to the body of the jacket, we can help reduce this issue. Because the weight of the jacket is distributed more naturally across the shoulders and neck, the suit feels lighter and easier to move in. This helps make the suit comfortable even after wearing it for a full day.

Sleeve Attachment and Armholes

For the sleeve attachment, we use a softer and thinner canvas at the sleeve head, which is the highest point where the sleeve is attached. This helps the sleeve flow naturally from the soft shoulder line. It is a subtle detail, but it contributes to a comfortable fit and a light, elegant appearance.

Although the silhouette looks clean and refined, the shoulders and sleeves include carefully placed ease for movement. This hidden allowance is created mainly through pressing and shaping. From the beginning to the end of the tailoring process, great care is taken to shape the front shoulder area, which allows room for the natural form of the shoulder. Together with the ease built into the sleeve, this helps create a comfortable fit without unnecessary tightness. The armholes are shaped in a slightly oval form and kept as compact as possible, allowing a good range of motion while maintaining a clean fit.

Waist Pockets that Gently Follow the Curve of the Waist

Our suits feature double besom pockets at the waist. Since waist pockets are placed where the waist naturally curves, a stiff pocket can disturb the clean line of the jacket. Our double besom pockets are carefully crafted by hand, so they do not create harsh edges and can follow the curve of the waist softly and naturally. The way the pocket flaps sit without lifting, and the way the pockets blend smoothly into the jacket, are signs of careful tailoring. The sides of the pockets are reinforced with D-tacks, which are stitches shaped like the letter D. Although waist pockets are often overlooked, they are one of the details that show the quality of our suits.

Barchetta Pocket

Let me also introduce the breast pocket. Our made-to-order suits feature a Barchetta pocket. "Barchetta" means "small boat" in Italian. Unlike a straight breast pocket, the Barchetta pocket has a gentle curved shape, with one end rising slightly like the bow of a boat. Carefully made by skilled craftsmen, the lower edge of the pocket forms a beautiful curve that follows the three-dimensional shape of the chest. This detail not only shows fine tailoring, but also gives the jacket a graceful and confident appearance. When paired with a pocket square placed at an angle that follows the line of the Barchetta pocket, its beauty stands out even more.

Forward Pitch & Tapered Sleeves

Now let us look at the sleeves. When the arm is relaxed and hanging naturally, it does not usually fall straight down at the side of the body. In many cases, the arm curves slightly forward, with the palm positioned closer to the front of the thigh. To follow this natural arm position, the sleeves of our suits are tailored with a forward pitch. This allows greater ease of movement toward the front and helps the sleeve fall beautifully when the arm is at rest. Since each customer has a different arm shape and posture, we check the angle and thickness of the arms during fitting and adjust the sleeves accordingly.

The sleeves are also tapered, becoming gradually narrower from the elbow to the cuff. This creates a clean line from the sleeve head through the elbow to the cuff, similar to the tapered silhouette of the trousers. It gives the suit an elegant appearance and helps the cuffs stay in place neatly, even when the wearer is moving.

Buttonhole Stitch and Flower Loop

As one of the details that shows careful tailoring, our lapels feature a buttonhole stitch known in Japanese as hachi-zashi. Hachi-zashi, meaning "eight-stitches," is named after the figure-eight pattern used in the stitching. Rather than attaching the interlining to the outer fabric with glue, this technique uses thread to sew them together delicately. This helps create a soft and natural roll in the lapel. We also add a flower loop behind the lapel, so that when a flower is worn, the stem can be held neatly in place.

Lapel Width and Roll

Regarding the lapels, the width can be adjusted according to the customer's preference and body shape. As a basic recommendation, I often suggest a slightly wider lapel. Depending on the size of the suit, the standard width is around 9 cm. This gives the jacket a classic and dignified impression. The X-shaped line created by the wider lapel and the deep front cut also gives the suit a timeless sense of elegance.

The lapel roll is another important highlight of our suits. Ideally, a lapel should not look sharply folded. Instead, it should roll back softly and naturally. Because the lapel is shaped with hair canvas, buttonhole stitching, and careful ironwork, it can recover beautifully. Even if the lapel becomes slightly flattened in the closet, it can usually be restored by pressing it properly.

Balance Between the Vest and Trousers

When I propose a made-to-order suit, I place great importance on the relationship between the jacket, vest, and trousers. Originally, a suit referred to a three-piece ensemble consisting of a jacket, vest, and trousers. Over time, the vest was often omitted, and the two-piece suit became more common. At The Dressing Lab., however, I would like our customers to experience the elegance of a three-piece suit, which I highly recommend. The value of made-to-order tailoring becomes especially clear in a three-piece suit. It is important to consider the relationship between the jacket's V-zone and button position, the shape of the vest, the length of the vest, and the rise of the trousers. The wearer's body shape also plays an important role. Adjusting all of these elements in balance requires a high-quality made-to-order process and careful fitting skills. I hope you will enjoy the beautiful sense of unity created by the jacket, vest, and trousers in a made-to-order suit from The Dressing Lab.