TIÑO, A Philippine Brand Offers Bespoke Suit Tailoring In Manila, Bringing A Piece Of Italian Craftsmanship To The Filipinos

    Bespoke tailoring means to design garments in accordance to the client’s personal specifications and style. Tailored to physical proportions and peculiarities, molded to the body shape and is highly personalized.

At TIÑO, creating a bespoke suit does not only require measurements, it is determined by the client’s desire for unique and exclusivity in style reflected in the process of meticulous entirely hand-stitched garments.

The client’s personality is observed in bespoke tailoring. To heightened individuality, the client’s decision on shape, style and detail are discussed and noted for the master cutter to harmonize the suit with the body.

Napoleon Arienza, TIÑO’s Master Cutter has been into bespoke tailoring for fifty years and has familiarized himself with different body structure and style. The standard of this kind of craftsmanship takes 20 hours or more of handwork for every part of the suit to be fully adaptable to the client’s specifications.

Bespoke Tailoring Process
Time is one of the fundamental elements in bespoke tailoring.  The process would take three to four weeks or longer until the suit is ideal fit to the client.

First Appointment – Measuring and Choosing Fabric
Basic measurements are taken in great detail. Only a master cutter who has years of tailoring experience can determine and assess all peculiarity of the body posture and figuration.

Swatches of high quality fabric are presented to choose from. Specific style, trim and detailing options are discussed with the master cutter for customization and specifications.
Second Appointment – First Fitting, The Canvas Stage
At the first fitting, the master cutter will assess the accuracy of his measurements. By this time the suit is half-made, temporarily stitched together by white threads, this is called the ‘Baste’ suit.



This fitting is necessary.  It usually takes around half an hour from trying on the baste suit to marking with chalk and some pins for alterations and adjustment. At this stage, the cutter is given the opportunity to see how his measurements translate to the garment when tried on.

The baste suit is then taken apart and remolded back together from scratch in accordance to the changes. Highly in-depth development of the fabric is taken to ensure the contour and silhouette lines remain intact.

Intensive hand tailoring begin, a full canvas is constructed entirely by hand using horsehair to make the base foundation of the suit.  This stage takes approximately a week before the second fitting.

Third Appointment- Second Fitting
At this stage, all alterations and changes from the baste fitting are incorporated and is ready for another fitting. This time to assess for the second time and look over the details like posture, drape, neck point, shoulder slope, cuffs, length of the sleeves and other specific parts of the suit. Any final adjustments from this fitting will be finished off.

Final Appointment – Third Fitting / Finished Suit
On the third fitting, a possibility of having the finished suit would depend on the client’s body shape. At this point the cutter would ensure that the adjustments have been done correctly. TIÑO’s master cutter adheres a very strict and delicate style and workmanship.
The final fitting is to guarantee that it passes the client’s modifications and requirements. In case of minor changes, it is necessary to take as many fittings to achieve perfection.

(Our client, Mr. Brent Javier wore his proudly Philippine made Bespoke suit in the US at his sister’s wedding.)