Ready-to-wear or prêt-à-porter is the term for factory-made clothing, sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made to measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a particular person's frame. Off-the-peg is sometimes used for items other than clothing such as handbags.
DKNY is a New York-based fashion house specializing in fashion goods for men and women, founded in 1984 by Donna Karan.
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.
A dressmaker is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. A dressmaker is also called a mantua-maker (historically) or a modiste.
Kiton is an Italian luxury ready-to-wear and made-to-measure clothing company founded in 1956 as CIPA in Naples, Italy by Ciro Paone, a fifth-generation fabric merchant, and Antonio Carola. Launched in 1968, the Kiton brand name is a derivation of the Greek word chiton, a garment worn by the ancient Greeks that the Romans later called a tunic. Antonio De Matteis is the CEO, and Antonio Paone is president of Kiton USA; both are nephews of the co-founder, Ciro Paone. The company's motto is ll meglio del meglio più uno.
Bespoke tailoring is clothing made to an individual buyer's specifications by a tailor.
Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford was a British fashion designer. Beginning in the mid-1980s he established an international reputation as one of the UK's most respected and consistently relevant designers of men's and womenswear clothing. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the fashion industry, in the 2007 Birthday Honours.
E. Tautz is a men's clothing brand founded on Oxford Street, London in 1867 as Edward Tautz & Sons. It specialised in sportswear and trousers. The brand was acquired in 2005 by Patrick Grant and focuses on sportswear and casualwear, manufacturing many of its products in the United Kingdom.
Neil Barrett is an English fashion designer. He built his business around minimalist menswear.
Hackett Limited is a multi-channel British menswear retailer, specialising in formal men’s shirts as well as other clothing. It was founded in 1983 in London, England. As of June 2019, the company had 160 stores globally, with its flagship store on Savile Row in London.
Timothy Charles Peto Everest is a Welsh tailor and fashion designer who has, according to Vogue, "dressed some of the world's most famous people". Born in Southampton and raised in Haverfordwest, he moved to London in his early twenties to work with innovative Savile Row tailor Tommy Nutter, where he learned the art of bespoke. Everest was one of the leaders of the New Bespoke Movement, which brought designer attitudes to the traditional skills of Savile Row tailoring.
Patrick Grant is a British fashion designer and Director of bespoke tailors Norton & Sons of Savile Row, E.Tautz, Community Clothing & Cookson & Clegg. As a media figure he is best known as a judge on the television series, The Great British Sewing Bee.
Richard James is a bespoke Savile Row tailors and contemporary menswear company. It was founded in 1992 by designer Richard James, a graduate of Brighton College of Art and a former buyer for the London boutique Browns, and his business partner Sean Dixon. Richard James has won both the British Fashion Council's Menswear Designer of the Year and Bespoke Designer of the Year awards.
Simon James Spurr is a British fashion designer based in New York City. Spurr has received critical acclaim for the clothing line he launched in 2006 which is credited with revitalizing and modernizing classical menswear. He is currently the creative director of Eidos.
Savile Row tailoring is traditional and modern, men and women's bespoke tailoring that takes place on Savile Row and neighbouring streets in Mayfair, Central London. In 1846, Henry Poole, credited as being the "Founder of Savile Row", opened an entrance to his tailoring premises into No. 32 Savile Row. The term "bespoke" is understood to have originated in Savile Row when cloth for a suit was said to "be spoken for" by individual customers. The short street has been termed the "golden mile of tailoring", where customers have included Charles, Prince of Wales, Jude Law, Winston Churchill, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Laurence Olivier, Duke Ellington, Lord Nelson and Napoleon III.
Carlo Brandelli is an English-born designer, he is primarily known as a menswear designer, but is also working as a sculptor. He was voted Menswear Designer of the Year in 2005 by the British Fashion Council.
The word bespoke has evolved from a verb meaning "to speak for something" to its contemporary usage as an adjective that has changed from describing first tailor-made suits and shoes, and later, anything commissioned to a particular specification, and finally to a general marketing and branding concept implying exclusivity and appealing to snobbery.
Todd Snyder is an American fashion designer in New York City. The brand is sold in the US and Japan.
Drake's is a British menswear haberdasher founded in 1977 by Michael Drake. Manufacturing its in East London, Drake’s produces men’s accessories and shirting, and is predominantly known for its ties.
Christopher Bates is a Canadian menswear designer based in Milan, Italy.
