legends · 4 min read ·
Fitting Record, Coat No. 77
A bespoke tailor cuts a coat for the client and a second, smaller layer for the person who stands behind him.
**Ambrose & Keel, Savile Row Bespoke · Measurement Card · Coat No. 77**
**Client:** Mr. Gabriel Stroud · **Cloth:** charcoal herringbone, 340 g · **Style:** single-breasted, three-button, half-canvas
**Measured by:** T. Keel (master cutter) · **Date:** 4 Sept
- **Measurement · Value (cm)**
- Chest · 98
- Waist · 86
- Hip · 96
- Shoulder · 46
- Sleeve (shoulder to wrist) · 64
- Back length · 76
- Inside leg · 81
- Neck · 40
- Wrist · 17
*Cutter's note: client stood very still throughout. He did not move when the tape was drawn across the shoulder blades. He asked whether we could take a measurement of the wrist twice, as he would like the cuff to sit a little loose.*
· · ·
**Fitting record (first fitting, 18 Sept)**
Canvas basted. Client present. Fit good across shoulders. Sleeve length correct. Client asked for the left shoulder to be lowered by 3 mm, which we did. He stood in front of the long mirror for a long time, turning slowly, and said, "It's the right size now. Someone was going to need it to be exactly this."
· · ·
**Client correspondence (Gabriel Stroud, 22 Sept)**
*Dear Mr. Keel,*
*Thank you for the fitting. I'd like to make a change to the order. The coat should have a wider chest, by about four centimetres, and the sleeves should be a little longer, because I'm going to be wearing it for someone taller than me. I'm not sure how tall. I'll know when I see them.*
*Could you also add an inside pocket on the left, large enough for a small notebook? I'd like to keep my wife's measurements in it. She's been dead for six years, but I've never been able to put her tape measure away.*
· · ·
**Fitting record (second fitting, 2 Oct)**
Client asked for the coat to be fitted over the chest with a second, unseen layer of canvas, padded, and shaped to the outline of a person a little smaller than himself. Cutter asked who the second layer was for. Client said, "For the one who's been standing behind me in the shop every time I've come in."
Cutter checked the mirror. There was no one behind the client. But the lining of the coat was already cut, and the sleeve on the right had been shortened to fit an arm narrower than the client's.
· · ·
**Cutter's note (T. Keel, 9 Oct, personal)**
I've been making coats for forty-one years, and I've never had a client ask me to take a measurement of someone who isn't in the room. But this morning, when I drew the tape across the coat on the form, the reading at the chest came out at 62 centimetres, and the reading at the waist came out at 49, and both were marked, in my own hand, on the card, under the client's name.
I don't remember measuring anyone else. I checked the book. The cutter's entry for the second measurement reads: *Subject: Clara Stroud. Age: 34. Measured from the doorway. She asked for the coat to be left open at the front, so she can get in quickly when it's cold.*
· · ·
**Fitting record (final fitting, 16 Oct)**
Coat complete. Client tried it on. He said it was perfect. He asked if we'd be kind enough to pad the inside breast pocket a little more, because he kept a folded photograph there, of his wife and a friend standing in the doorway of a house, and the photo had a tendency to slip.
The coat was delivered to the client's house the same day.
· · ·
**Client correspondence (Gabriel Stroud, 21 Oct)**
*Dear Mr. Keel,*
*The coat is wonderful. Thank you. I've worn it every day, and I've noticed it hangs differently now, the way a coat does when someone is standing inside it. The left sleeve is always a little too long. The right is always a little too short, as if it's being held by someone smaller, who wants to be the one who holds the door.*
*I'm writing because my daughter Clara has grown out of her winter coat. I've asked her to come with me to the shop, to be measured. She says she'd like to wait in the car. I told her she could come in and stand where she likes. She said, "Dad, I've already been measured. You took the card home in your pocket."*
· · ·
**Final card entry (Ambrose & Keel, 27 Oct)**
Coat No. 77: collected by the client, in person, on 26 Oct. He tried it on in the shop. The sleeves fitted perfectly. He turned to the mirror and asked the cutter to take one final measurement, at the shoulder, for a second coat.
*Cutter's note: the second coat was never collected. It hangs on the rail with its card attached. Each morning the cutter brushes it down and hangs it back up.*