These videos will show you how I work, how I think about my craft and why custom made suits are a quality item tailored to your personality, body and profession.

The Making of a Suit

Picking the Fabric

In this video you will see how I will help you select the fabric and features of a suit that will be perfect for your personality, the job you do and the professional impression you want to make on your customers, audience or co-workers.

The Fitting

In this video you will see how I will measure you for your custom tailored suit. I carefully note all your measurements, use my levels to determine the slope of your back and shoulders and add in my own observations, honed by years of experience. All your measurements will be catalogued for future reference.

Cutting the Cloth – Part One

In this video you’ll see the four yards of cloth that will become a suit laid out on my work table. I then show you how I lay out the standard pattern pieces and adjust for the customer’s measurements precisely.

Cutting the Cloth – Part Two

In this video I cut the fabric for a man’s suit and talk about my apprenticeship in Italy.

Making the Pockets

In this video I show the many steps it takes to make a perfect pocket in a suit.

Trying On the Suit

In this video I make almost-final adjustments as my customer tries on his nearly finished suit.

The Final Fitting

In this video I make final fine tunings as my customer tries on his suit that is completed except for cuffs and buttons.

The Finished Suit, At Last!

In this video, the final one in this series, I present the final suit which the customer wears with pride.

The finished suit, ready for the customer to wear.

The customer, journalist and videographer Wayne MacPhail, wearing his new suit.

Testimonial, Wayne MacPhail

For the past two months I’ve had the pleasure of documenting the making of a custom suit with Emil Fusaro. It was a simple arrangement – Emil would make me a suit, I would document it in video and put the videos on a WordPress site (this one) for him. We began with the consultation (picking of colour, style and fabric) and, as you can see above, moved through every meticulous stage of the process until I got to wear the finished product.

It was a wonderful project for me as I had the privilege to capture on film what is, sadly, a fading profession. Emil is a true craftsman and a true Old World tailor. They don’t make them like him anymore. He began as a teenaged apprentice in Italy. In Italy, now, there are few, if any young tailors who will spend the next fifty years honing their precise art and craft.

I watched as Emil paid attention to the smallest detail of the suit, from the way the stripping of the fabric lined up perfectly on fabric that would go inside a pocket, to the perfect line of lapel. This suit wasn’t just made for me, it was handmade and moulded to every slant, curve and inequity of limb and stance I am victim to.

A good friend of mine, journalist and former Spectator fashion columnist Paul Benedetti, told me that everyone should have the pleasure of having a suit handmade for them at least once in his or her life. He’s right. This was a real pleasure for me and I will wear the suit with pride and with the knowledge that I got to spend time and become friends with a great craftsman. Thanks Emil.

The suit comes together in my workshop.

Other Videos

Tailor vs. Designer

In this video I show you the important and unique structural elements that go in a suit “behind the scenes”. And, I explain how that my philosphy is that a good tailor needs to be both an architect and and engineer if a suit is to look great and wear well and long.

The Try On

In this video, I have a customer try on a nearly finished suit jacket so I can make the final adjustments. The finished product will be ready about ten days later.

The Riding Jacket

In this video I show a woman’s riding jacket. It’s just one of the garments I can custom-create for female customers.

Court Attire

In this video I show some of the fine court attire I can offer my legal customers. I am the exclusive purveyor of court attire in Hamilton and offer very reasonable prices.

Tying a Full Windsor Knot

In this video I show you how to tie a perfect full Windsor knot in your tie. A great tie, tied properly sets off a great suit.