See how a TailorMe Woman piece is made
From the first measurement to the last press — bespoke womenswear made one garment at a time in our Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town ateliers.
It starts with what you picture.
Bring a photograph, a sketch, a dress you already love, or nothing at all but an occasion and a feeling. Most women arrive somewhere in between — certain about one detail and undecided about the rest. That is the right place to begin.
Your consultant works through the decisions in order, so nothing is chosen in a vacuum: silhouette first, then neckline, sleeve and length, then the details that make it yours — a covered button, a hidden pocket, a lining nobody else will see.
You can also start online. Our designers let you build a suit, blazer, dress, blouse, skirt, coat, trench or tuxedo yourself, watch it change as you decide, and send the finished design to the studio before you ever walk in.
Design yours online
The cloth decides how it will live.
Everything else follows the cloth. It sets how a garment falls, how it creases, how warm it is and how many years it has in it — so it is chosen before a single measurement is drafted into a pattern.
Our books come from the serious European mills: Italian wools and mohairs, British worsteds and tweeds, French and Italian silks, crêpes and chiffons, linens for Highveld summers and cashmere blends for coats.
There is a difference between a cloth that photographs well and one that wears well. We will tell you which is which, and when a cloth is wrong for what you have in mind — a chiffon that will not hold a sharp waist, a pale linen that will not survive a long day.
Measured by hand, in the room with you.
Fit starts with measurements taken properly. A senior consultant takes over twenty by hand at our Johannesburg, Pretoria or Cape Town studio — not only the obvious circumferences, but shoulder slope, back width, the height of your waist and the way you actually stand.
Posture is the part a size chart cannot hold. One shoulder is usually lower than the other; most of us carry a little more weight on one side. We record it, because your pattern has to answer the body you have rather than an average.
Your figures stay on file. The second piece you order fits like the first, without starting again.
Book a measuring appointment
A fresh pattern, drafted for you alone.
This is the step that separates bespoke from made-to-measure, and the one nobody sees. Your measurements are drafted into a new paper pattern — drawn for your body, not a standard block graded up or down and taken in at the seams.
It is slower and it costs more, and it is why a TailorMe garment sits flat across the shoulders and closes cleanly at the waist without pulling. A garment altered into shape never hangs the way one cut to shape does.
Your pattern is kept and refined after every fitting, so each piece you order is a little more exactly yours than the last.
Cut and built in our own workroom.
Once design, cloth and pattern are settled, our own tailors cut by hand and build the garment — canvassed fronts, hand-finished collars, buttonholes and linings. No factory line, no outsourcing, no shortcut taken to reach a price.
Allow six to eight weeks from first consultation to handover. A single simple piece can be quicker; a full bridal party takes longer. If you are working towards a date, say so at the first meeting and we will tell you honestly whether it can be done.
Ask about our express option when the date is closer than the calendar allows.
You try it on before it is finished.
Two fittings are included in every commission. The first is in the cloth itself, partly constructed, so adjustments happen on you rather than on a mannequin — a sleeve shortened, a waist lifted, a neckline opened by a few millimetres.
The second is the finished garment. Nothing leaves the studio until it is right on your body; if it is not, it goes back to the bench.
If your shape changes afterwards, bring it back. Minor alterations within the original design are free for the life of the garment.
It stays yours long after you collect it.
Bodies change — pregnancy, training, time. Bring the garment back and we will alter it. Minor alterations inside the original design cost nothing, for as long as you own it.
We keep your pattern and measurements on file, so a second piece needs no full measuring round, and a matching piece years later is still cut to the same body.
We will also tell you how to look after it: how seldom it actually needs cleaning, how to hang it, and how to store cloth through a Johannesburg summer.
Talk to a consultant
Made to order. Nothing wasted.
We hold no stock and run no sales, because nothing is made until someone has asked for it. Cloth is ordered per garment, offcuts go back into accessories, and there is no warehouse of unsold dresses waiting to be marked down or destroyed.
The most sustainable garment is the one you keep wearing. A piece cut to your own pattern, in cloth from a serious mill and altered free as your shape changes, stays in a wardrobe for years rather than a season.
The thinking behind every garment we cut.