What Makes a Quality Bespoke Suit? Craft and the Future of Tailoring at FAMT, an Asian Tailoring Competition

Did you know? The things you notice first about a bespoke suit or garment often tell you the least about how well it has been made.

You can usually tell at a glance whether you like the colour combinations, overall style and suiting fabric. But the real test of a tailor’s skill often lies in places you might not think to look. Is the line down the back clean? Are the proportions balanced on both sides? Does the garment fall naturally around the wearer’s posture? You may not be able to put your finger on what makes these details good, yet they directly affect how comfortable and natural a bespoke suit looks, and whether you continue to enjoy wearing it over time.

On my recent trip to Bali for the Federation of Asian Master Tailors event, FAMT 2026, I served as a judge and a council member of the tailoring association. It gave me a chance to take a closer look at these details.

The participating countries and regions included Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and India. The competition tested entrants in three areas: design, with garments displayed on mannequins; handwork, through the “Golden Finger” hand-sewn buttonhole competition; and cutting. The cutting competition had junior and master divisions. I judged the mannequin displays, the Golden Finger competition and the master cutting division.

The standard of finish and technical skill in the junior entries was a lovely surprise. It made the whole competition more interesting, because alongside the experienced tailors, you could see how far the next generation had already come.

When tailors from different places work under the same rules and time limit, it becomes much easier to see what really sets one garment apart from another.

I’d like to share a few of the entries that stayed with me. You don’t need to understand cutting to follow along. We can start with what you notice straight away, then look more closely at the details that help a garment stand out in a competition.

And when we return to making garments for customers every day, how much of that competition standard carries over directly? What needs to be understood differently?

By the end, you may have your own answer to what it means for a garment to be truly well-made. Come along with me to this annual gathering of the FAMT tailoring community.

Bespoke Suits Can Have a Character of Their Own

There were so many good entries that it would be difficult to introduce them all. If I had to choose one, it would be a menswear ensemble from the Korean team. It was among the pieces that left the strongest impression on me.

What caught my eye first was its distinct visual language. It featured a number of Korean elements, along with symbols associated with royalty. There were many layers to the design, and the visual emphasis was clearly weighted towards one side. Yet, somehow, it never felt unbalanced. The two sides were asymmetrical and there was plenty going on, but the garment still felt whole.

That is one of the reasons I enjoy looking at creative work.

An idea can be bold on paper. Once it becomes a garment, though, the fabric, proportions, structure, colours and details all have to work together. One extra element might draw the eye away; a missing visual connection might suddenly leave the whole piece feeling off-balance. Whether it works often depends less on how striking any single detail is than on how convincing everything feels together.

Beyond the handwork, I admired how the makers had brought their culture, ideas and sense of beauty into the garments. You might never wear an identical piece in everyday life, but it reminds you that bespoke tailoring has room for expression within its traditions and techniques.

This is quite close to the conversations I have with customers.

Many customers, particularly in Hong Kong, are fairly cautious when commissioning their first garment. They want a safe colour, fabric that is easy to pair with other clothes, and a pattern that doesn’t stand out too much. That is perfectly understandable. When you’re still working out what you really like, avoiding a mistake feels like the easiest place to start.

What’s interesting is that as people become more certain about what they like and dislike, their choices often become more interesting too.

You don’t have to make a bold change all at once. You might start with a fabric that has a little more texture, try a weave you wouldn’t have considered before, or introduce a different pattern within a familiar colour. Each choice is a small step, but over time you develop your own judgement.

When working with customers, I try to help them explore these possibilities gradually. I want to understand the reasons behind their choices and what they hope to achieve, rather than begin by telling them what they should wear.

The response is often more positive than they expect. Something a customer initially feels “isn’t me” can turn out to be the piece they love and wear most once they try it.

So the most useful thing to take from these competition entries is the thinking behind them. You don’t have to reproduce their elaborate elements or cultural references in your own wardrobe. Even within a form of dress shaped by tradition and rules, there is still room for something of yourself.

Formal clothing doesn’t have to look the same. As you come to understand yourself better, your outfit can begin to feel more like you.

Competition and Everyday Bespoke Suit: What Makes a Good Cut, and How Can You Tell?

Then came the main event, and the part I was most looking forward to: the cutting competition. The challenge is that, after seeing the model, entrants have to take measurements, cut and make the garment within a set time. There is practically no opportunity for a fitting, so many of their judgements have to be right from the start.

The winning junior entry was a real surprise. The garment was very clean, with a well-handled back, waistline and overall proportions. The handwork, cutting and pressing came together beautifully. When we describe a well-cut suit as “clean”, it means that as you follow its lines, the garment sits naturally around the model’s body.

The model in the master division presented a particular challenge too. His upper back was unusually straight, with more prominent areas at the sides of his waist. Those details directly affect how a garment falls on the body. Cutting requires an understanding of the person’s whole shape and posture, beyond their chest and waist measurements.

For me, this is the biggest difference between competition work and everyday tailoring.

“In a competition, the focus is on the participants. In everyday bespoke tailoring, the customer comes first.”

In a competition, everyone is trying to make a garment as close to perfect as possible under the same set of standards. In everyday tailoring, we have to consider the customer’s habits and preferences, because they are the person at the centre of the process. What a judge likes will inevitably differ from what you need every day.

This is also why, despite all the rules associated with suits, I won’t judge how well a garment has been made from a single photograph. You don’t know the wearer’s preferences. Some people like a closer fit; others value more room to move. A particular jacket length or proportion may be a very personal choice.

If something feels restrictive or uncomfortable, or you simply have a feeling that something isn’t quite right, tell your tailor. These are clothes you live in, so how they feel to you matters more than how they might score with a judge.

That is why I pay close attention to a customer’s feelings and habits during a fitting. Rules give me a starting point. What I ultimately want to know is whether the garment feels comfortable and natural on that person, and whether they feel like themselves in it.

How comfortable you feel directly affects your posture, your movements and even the confidence you bring into a room. To me, a good cut means making the garment work for you. Once you put them on, you should be able to stop thinking about them and feel more at ease being yourself.

How Can We Pass Bespoke Tailoring Skills to the Next Generation?

One of the things that stayed with me most was the progress different places have made in recent years. Hong Kong took third place, the Korean junior entries showed a very high standard of finish, and Taiwan produced an almost perfect entry in the Golden Finger hand-sewn buttonhole competition. It showed me that people are still willing to spend time studying this craft, and that the younger generation can reach a very high standard.

That is encouraging. It also makes me think about what comes next.

Speaking with fellow tailors from different places, we found ourselves facing similar problems. Few newcomers are entering the trade, and many skills depend heavily on experience. Here in Hong Kong, we would certainly welcome more resources and support, so interested people have opportunities to learn, somewhere to practise, and a realistic way to keep working in the craft.

Alongside that external support, there is another question: how do you pass on the judgement a tailor has built over ten or twenty years?

One person might be able to make five garments on their own. At fifty or a hundred, a single pair of hands is no longer enough.

At that point, having one skilled tailor is only part of the answer. How do you help a whole team understand the standard required and consistently make good products, while retaining the experience that really matters?

This is an area where I have been hoping to use technology in recent years.

For example, 3D scanning can help us capture measurements and body-shape information more consistently. In cutting, I’m also organising some of the judgements I’ve developed over the years into systematic methods and algorithms. Technology can help with the more technical parts of the work, reducing avoidable errors and giving us a way to build on experience without starting from scratch each time.

But I don’t believe technology alone can replace a tailor.

It can help the craft develop further, while we preserve the personal conversations that are part of bespoke tailoring.

When the basic techniques and processes become more consistent, we can give more attention to the customer. We can better understand their everyday habits, preferences and experience of wearing the garment, including details that data alone may not explain. This helps us bring out the best in each customer and go further: Elevate Greatness.

Alongside making the best garment I can myself, I want to find ways to retain good experience, organise it and give the next person a foundation to build on. Moving from one person doing good work, to a whole team doing it consistently, and then to more people being able to carry the industry forward: that is what makes passing on the craft meaningful to me.

We have no shortage of choices or possessions today. What is harder to find is something made with a real understanding of you, something that fits your life and habits and deserves a place in your wardrobe for years. If a craft can still offer that, it has a reason to keep moving forward as well as a history worth preserving.

Feel Like You Have Nothing to Wear? You Need Garments That Suit You Better

At this point, I’d like to bring the question back to you. Is there anything in your wardrobe that you loved when you bought it, but rarely wear now?

Perhaps it is a jacket with a great design that somehow never feels quite right on you. Or a pair of trousers that looks good when you stand, but feels uncomfortable when you sit. Often, we have become so used to these small problems that we assume this is simply how clothes are. A little loose here, a little short there. As long as it isn’t too far off, we let it go.

But we don’t always have to settle for those compromises.

It is easy to associate bespoke tailoring with suits, weddings, formal dinners or important occasions, as though you need a special enough reason to have something made for yourself. Yet we wear clothes every day. Whether you’re going to work, having a meal, travelling or enjoying an ordinary weekend, you deserve to feel comfortable and like yourself.

You don’t have to begin with a full suit.

A pair of trousers you wear often, a casual jacket, a polo shirt or another everyday piece you reach for repeatedly can be a starting point for casual bespoke. What I find most meaningful about bespoke is how it can bring the garments you already wear every day closer to your body, habits and way of life. Everyday dressing doesn’t need to become more formal for that to matter.

Buying clothes is so convenient now. If something doesn’t fit, you can exchange it. If you don’t like it, you can buy something else. The choices keep growing, yet many people still open their wardrobes and feel there is nothing they really want to wear.

Perhaps the problem has never been that we don’t own enough. Perhaps we rarely stop to ask ourselves what really suits us.

If you have never tried bespoke, you don’t need to understand fabrics, cutting or a long list of suit rules before you begin. You only need to notice what feels a little off in the piece you wear every day. How close or relaxed do you like the fit? Which proportions feel comfortable? What does your life actually call for? Those feelings are already a very good place to start.

At this competition, I saw people spend a great deal of time pursuing a clean line down a jacket’s back or an almost perfect buttonhole. I also saw tailors from different places finding their own ways to move the craft forward. Those details deserve our appreciation because, beyond the difficulty of making them, someone is still willing to spend the time to make a garment a little better.

I hope more people will take a fresh look at Hong Kong’s tailors and bespoke culture. You don’t have to understand every technique to support a craft. Sometimes, asking one more question or being willing to try something is enough to help valuable experience remain part of everyday life.

If you have something in your wardrobe that always feels “almost right”, perhaps next time you could pause before buying another version of much the same thing.

Try starting with yourself and what you need. Come and talk to us at The Lancelot about your habits, questions and ideas. It might be the fit of your trousers, the proportions of a jacket, or the everyday piece you have never quite managed to find. Any of these casual bespoke pieces could be the starting point for your first commission.

For me, the most important part of bespoke is understanding what you really need, then working together to make it well. Deciding how unusual or special the garment should be can come later.

You may find that bespoke has a place in ordinary days too, helping you feel more at ease and accept fewer compromises in what you wear.

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📌 Visit our Resources page for a guide to commissioning a suit, including advice on choosing fabric, putting outfits together and caring for your garments.