In US you will often hear ‘custom made’ or ‘tailor made’. In Italy, the word is ‘sartoria’. In France, it’s known as ‘tailleur’. In England we call it ‘bespoke’ and ‘made to measure’.

Nowadays these two words are often used interchangeably and seemingly became synonyms.
Strictly speaking the process is different, below you will find out how.

A tailor will take 25-30 measurements and create a paper pattern. The pattern is chalked on the cloth from the paper and cut by hand. The cloth is basted to create the garment.
At your 1st fitting, you will be asked to try on the basted construction – it is for a cutter to verify the design and make some corrections. At this point either further changes to the pattern will be made, or the tailors will go ahead with stitching the garment.
At the 2nd fitting you will judge the result and provide feedback, further fittings may be needed based on your comments. At the final fitting minor alterations may still be required. You will need anything between 3-5 fittings and 8-20 weeks to receive the finished garment.

Made to Measure involves adapting an existing cut. There is a great variability in how flexible each Made to Measure tailoring service is. Overwhelming majority of famous brands will only make very basic modifications to their House Cut to make your garment and very often it is an existing garment that is being altered to fit you better at the waist and perhaps sleeve length, which is very limiting.
Before choosing a Made to Measure tailoring service - ask how far the cut can be adapted to your body shape. Some of the questions you can ask to understand how far the garment can be tailored: Can shoulder width and angles be changed? Can the sleeve angle be changed prior to garment being made to avoid creasing at the bicep? Can the chest on front be increased/reduced? Can wrinkling at the neck be removed prior to the garment being made?

Call it what you want - it is the result that counts. Here is our process:

We use our House block closest to your size to gauge your posture profile and accurate measurements. The key in our process is - we make cut adjustments BEFORE the garment is made. We account for all the necessary adjustments PRIOR to cutting your garment by assessing how our House Block must change to fit your silhouette.
We will perform a thorough assessment of your posture and apply 60+ unique pattern alterations on the jacket and 25+ for trousers to create your individual pattern. Your pattern is created with a combination of linear measurements and posture analysis that is done using our House Block. Our House Block is modified in its entirety, all adjustments needed to the fit are made PRIOR to the garment being laser cut.

We will pin our House Block on you to give you a feel of the way the garment is going to be tailored and fitted to your body. You are welcome to give feedback on how you would like yours made.
Using advancements in technology your personal blueprint is created on a computer and laser cut with precision directly on the cloth. Our tailors will hand make the rest.

Are alterations needed AFTER the garment is tailor made?
Our process is quite accurate - 7 out of 10 times, no further alterations are needed. We will add the finishing touches to the cut after it is made should they be needed.

Artefact London is making a seamless blend between traditional sartorial mastership and latest technology, combining the best of two worlds to deliver high-quality tailoring faster at reasonable prices.