The first thing to do when searching for the best custom tailor in NJ is to come up with a list of several candidates. Internet search engines make this process easy. Look for tailors who are close to your home and within your price range, and also hunt for those with plenty of glowing online reviews.
Once you have your shortlist, you can rely on these five tips on finding the best custom tailor in NJ. They’ll let you separate the clothes makers who are truly great from those who are merely good.
1. Find a Business With Busyness
It’s a good idea to call your finalists and ask if you can bring a shirt, a pair of pants or a suit in for alterations. Also, mention that you need the work to be done by the next day. If a shop agrees to this request, it’s kind of a red flag.
Sure, any store can have a slow day. Nevertheless, it’s a positive sign if a tailor requires longer than 24 hours to complete an assignment. It suggests that there’s a waiting list because there are so many satisfied customers or that the tailor would rather take some time to complete the work with accuracy and finesse. That’s the kind of shop you want to patronize.
2. Seek Guarantees
What happens if your tailor alters your suit and the outcome isn’t to your total satisfaction? Even worse, what happens if, for some reason, one of your garments is damaged while it’s in your tailor’s care? These issues might not be too common, but they can certainly happen.
Thus, it’s vital that you have a written guarantee from your tailor ahead of time. This professional should agree to keep making adjustments until you’re happy with the work, and the business should fully compensate you for any torn or otherwise ruined article of clothing.
Don’t give your money to anyone who doesn’t offer such guarantees. After all, such an agreement signals that a tailor is confident in his or her ability to please customers.
3. There’s No Substitute for Experience
Look at your list of tailors. Through online research or phone calls, try to figure out which of them has been in business the longest. Obviously, a long track record indicates a successful practice. What’s more, can you find out what kind of training these tailors underwent?
It might make sense for you to ask each tailor if they specialize in a certain type of garment or material. If you usually go to tailors to have cashmere clothes made, and one of your potential tailors happens to be an expert in cashmere, you may have found your champion.
4. Stop In and Say ‘Hi’
What kind of person makes an excellent tailor? Well, one quality is meticulousness. Someone who cares about details and about getting each undertaking exactly correct is probably someone you can trust with your clothing.
It’s safe to assume that a diligent tailor would run an immaculate store. Therefore, by visiting a tailor’s shop, you should get a sense of how important cleanliness and details are to that professional.
When you go into the store, look around carefully. Does everything look orderly? Do the staff members seem engaged in their work? Are the surfaces clean and the floors spotless? If anything seems out of place or disorganized to you, you’d likely do well to try a different establishment.
5. Review Samples
Of these five tips on finding the best custom tailor in New Jersey, this pointer might be the most valuable.
Samples can be photos of clothing that a tailor’s worked on, but it’s more helpful to get your hands on actual garments.
How do you obtain samples? Maybe you know someone who has gone to one of your potential new tailors. If so, you could ask that person to show you a few of the results. Alternatively, you could visit a tailoring shop, and an employee should be able to show you some pictures or a few pieces.
If you have a few articles of clothing that you want to be altered in a similar way, you could go to a few different tailors and give one to each of them. Later on, you could compare and contrast the results.
When you examine a piece of clothing that’s been tailored, it’s important to look at it from afar and up close. From a distance, are you impressed by the shape and style? On the micro level, are the stitches neat and tight? Do you spot any loose threads, wobbly buttons or anything else undesirable?
Hopefully, these five tips on finding the best custom tailor in NJ will lead you in the right direction — the direction of the tailor’s shop to which you’ll return again and again. When you have the utmost confidence in your tailor, you’ll look forward to picking up your altered or custom-made clothing every time.
