Benchmade Bespoke
Handmade in London
Partnering with the best and brightest cutters and makers in London, Raconte is developing and grading our house block in order to provide the absolute highest quality handmade garments in New York City.
Available Soon. Dive Deeper Below.
The Consultation
Research: Meet Your Raconteur
The first step of the bespoke process is a virtual consultation. We’ll get to know each other and discover what makes you uniquely you. We’ll dig deep into your style preferences, from what you like to wear to how you live your life. What are the cultural touchpoints that inspire you? Who’s your muse? What keeps you up at night?
Then we’ll turn toward sartorial decisions. What bespoke garment will we be making? Is it for a special occasion? Do you already have some ideas about the look you’re going for? Is there a mood board hiding behind your bed, or are you a blank slate looking for an artist? We’ll collaborate to identify the specific story you want to tell and start imagining its form together.
At the end of our consultation, you’ll schedule an in-person measurement and design appointment.
Measurement & Design
Outline: Your Personal Pattern
We’ll meet in-person for your measurement and design appointment. This is a critical step in the process; your Raconteur will use tailoring instruments to take accurate full body measurements and assess your posture and figuration. Beyond the inches and pounds of your frame, we’re looking to see how you carry yourself and how your skeleton is aligned. We’re crafting a never-before-seen pattern exclusively for you, so every detail of your shape, stature, and stance must factor into the garment we design.
With bespoke, the opportunities for customization are virtually endless. Features like button closure, collar and lapel style, and pocket style can all be personalized, but so can any other aspect of the garment. Want a left-handed shooting jacket with fine leather facing? Five-pocket trousers with jogger cuffs in a cozy winter cashmere? The sky isn’t the limit, the limit does not exist.
When you leave your measurement and design appointment, we’ll start constructing the first iteration of your garment. See you in 3-4 weeks for your first fitting.
The First Fitting
Rough Draft: Your First Basted Garment
If the measurement and design appointment is devoted to turning a two-dimensional sketch into a three-dimensional model, the first fitting is our opportunity to see that prototype on your body.
Your Raconteur will arrive at your first fitting with a basted version of your garment made from muslin. When you try it on, you’ll discuss how it feels and how it measures up to your expectations while the Raconteur pins adjustments to inch ever closer to your ideal fit. The changes required at this stage are often so subtle that you wouldn’t be able to see them with the garment laid flat on a workbench or hanging up on a rack. Your bespoke fit is based on how the fabric and your body interact.
Based on the pinned adjustments to the muslin garment, the Raconteur will tweak your pattern and take further measurements if necessary. We’re constantly checking that every individual measurement is as precise as possible, while also ensuring the balance of the piece as a whole.
At the end of the first fitting, we’ll take these tweaks back to the atelier and start to hone the silhouette of your garment. See you in 3-4 weeks for your second fitting.
The Second Fitting
Second Draft: Basted Garment #2
The next time we meet, you’ll try on an entirely new muslin basted garment. The Raconteur will check to make sure we’ve nailed posture and balance, and make further adjustments if necessary. At this stage we’ll move toward final determinations for details like sleeve and trouser length.
While the first fitting is dedicated to getting measurements right and adjusting where necessary, the second fitting is where we really focus on your fit preferences. The Raconteur will ensure your piece is perfectly matched to the unique elements of who you are and how your body works, so that you can use the second fitting to make the design adjustments that make your bespoke garment everything you can possibly imagine.
We’ll take stock of all the details you’ve chosen so far and double check that they still work together as chapters in your story. Where the button closure sits, how close the buttons are to each other, how the pockets are aligned, the break on the trouser leg — we leave no stone unturned. We’ll take all the tweaks and adjustments back to the atelier with us.
See you in 6-8 weeks for your final fitting.
The Third Fitting
Final Draft: Wear Your Story
For the very first time, you’ll get to hold your bespoke garment in your own two hands. We’ll make sure it’s exactly what you envisioned and more when you try it on, and you’ll be ready to wear the piece out into the world with pride. If any final alterations are required, we’ll have them completed for you at one of our trusted bespoke tailors. We’ll keep your bespoke pattern on file, so we can always use it as a starting point for your next story.
The clothes you wear change how you feel about yourself, that’s not news. Picking out a fresh look for a special occasion — or just any Tuesday — can spice up your step when you need a boost. But bespoke? That’s something else. We’ve explained the difference as best we could, but when you know, you know. By your third fitting, the soul of the garment will speak to you whether you’re listening or not. Our journey is complete, and both your bespoke garment and the magic in it are yours to treasure forever.
We’re a clothing company, but we’re really talking about soul stuff here. That’s especially true when it comes to bespoke — something transcendent takes place when what you’re wearing was crafted from scratch entirely for you. Nothing will ever match your bespoke Raconte garment, because the soul of every piece is crafted entirely by hand.
Unparalleled construction quality and impeccable craftsmanship are some of the qualitative features of bespoke clothing by Raconte, but the true benefit of bespoke is ethereal. Bespoke is an elevation. An evolution.
You know that feeling when something just hits right? Like that time you tried on a fringed leather jacket in a thrift store in downtown Atlanta on a whim and it fit like a glove — it’s been around the world with you and you haven’t stopped wearing it in the two decades since. Or when you crack open a dusty old cookbook, its pages smeared with sauce, and the spirit of everyone who’s ever held that book before you guides your hand to deliver a flawless coq au vin to your dining room table just when it’s surrounded by all your in-laws for the very first time.
These are objects imbued with soul. That’s the magic of bespoke.
Raconte’s bespoke garments are crafted by hand in London, which means countless individuals are conspiring across the globe to tell your story. Down to the finest detail, every element of your bespoke garment is under your control, from the button you choose to precisely where it is placed. That leads to a more sculpted fit, shrinking the infinite space between here and perfection.
From your initial consultation with the Raconteur through to the final completion of the piece, the bespoke process stirs the essence of your garments. Each piece is nurtured, cared for, cradled, coddled, and persuaded toward its finished form. The final result is the Raconte promise on steroids: your story crafted in cloth, with no word left unsaid and no comma forgotten. Your story free from abstraction, free from concession, free from compromise.
Bespoke is the pinnacle of custom clothing, but we often mistake the personal for the individual. For something to be truly personal, it must be not only tethered to its owner but also situated in its environment. Bespoke is about understanding ourselves as part of the collective — we, not me. Bespoke is about supporting young, brilliant artisans around the world. It’s about participating in a lineage of the handmade, joining a realm of craftspeople and guilds. You’ll stand taller in your bespoke Raconte garments, yes. But you will also be reminded that none of us gets to be who we are on our own, and our stories are nothing without our communities.
Welcome to Raconte bespoke.