Your measurements

What actually gets measured

The list is longer than people expect, and most of it is not circumference. Chest, waist and seat are the obvious ones and the least interesting, because they are the measurements an off-the-rack size already approximates. The ones that decide whether a jacket looks made for you are the lengths and the angles.

• Shoulder width and slope, taken per side rather than as one number
• Back length, from the collar seam down
• Sleeve length to the wrist bone, each arm separately
• Front and back balance, which is what stops a jacket pulling
• Rise and inseam, taken against the shoes you will wear

Measurements are recorded in centimetres — Thailand is metric — though the tape is read in whatever unit you are comfortable hearing.

Why almost nobody is symmetrical

One shoulder is usually lower than the other. One arm is usually longer. Most people carry a slight forward roll from years at a desk, and a good many stand with more weight on one side. None of this is unusual and none of it is a problem — it is simply information.

It is also the single clearest difference between being measured and being sized. A size chart assumes a symmetrical body and adjusts for none of it. A drafted pattern takes the asymmetry as given and builds it in, which is why a bespoke jacket can hang clean on a body that no off-the-rack jacket ever sits right on.

So we note posture alongside the numbers, in words: sloped left shoulder, forward neck, fuller chest than waist. Those notes travel with the pattern and they are re-read every time you order again.

Measured, not sized

This is worth stating plainly because so many of the questions people arrive with are really size-chart questions. What size am I in Thailand, what does a label mean here, will my usual size translate.

None of it applies. There is no chart. Nothing is selected from a range and adjusted toward you; a pattern is drawn from your measurements and cut. Whatever size you take in another country has no bearing on what we make, and you do not need to know it.

What we ask you, not just measure

• What the garment is for — work, a wedding, black tie, somewhere cold
• How you want it to sit: close, or with room to move
• Whether you empty your pockets into the jacket or the trousers
• The shoes you will wear with it, for trouser length
• Your departure date, if you are visiting, before any cloth is cut

A garment you like the fit of already is the most useful thing you can have to hand. It is faster to measure a jacket that works than to describe one.

The pattern stays on file

What comes out of the appointment is not a list of numbers, it is a pattern — your pattern — and it is kept. That matters more on the second order than the first.

A repeat order needs no new appointment. Reordering the same trousers in a different cloth, adding a waistcoat to a suit made two years ago, sending a shirt order from another country: all of those start from the draft rather than from a guess at what it was. It is also why a later alteration works from the original rather than against it —alterations afterwards covers that.

What happens to the measurements next

They become a pattern, the pattern becomes a half-made garment, and the half-made garment is tried on your body while it can still be changed. That is the step where measuring is proved right or corrected, and it is described inhow a fitting works.

The cloth decision runs alongside all of this — seecloth and construction — and the garments themselves are under bespoke suits andtailored shirts.

Questions we are actually asked

What unit of measurement is used in Thailand?

Thailand uses the metric system, so your measurements are taken and recorded in centimetres. If you are used to inches it makes no practical difference — the tape is read in whichever unit you prefer and the pattern is drafted from the numbers either way. What matters far more than the unit is that the measurements are taken over the shirt you would actually wear under the garment, and that your posture is noted alongside them.

What is Thai length, and what is considered plus size in Thailand?

Both are questions about size charts, and bespoke does not use one. Off-the-rack sizing differs between countries and a label that fits you in one market can be wrong in another, which is exactly the problem a drafted pattern removes: there is no chart to fall on the wrong side of, because the pattern is cut from your own measurements. Whatever size you take elsewhere has no bearing on what we make.

How long does measuring take?

About an hour for a first suit and less for shirts. Most of that hour is not the tape. It is the conversation about what the garment is for, how you want it to sit, and which decisions — collar, cuff, lapel, pocket — you want made a particular way. Later orders are much faster because the pattern is already on file.

Can I be measured at my hotel or office?

Yes, and that is the usual arrangement rather than an exception. The Boss Tailor brings the tape, the bunch books and the cloth to your hotel, office or home anywhere in Bangkok, so measuring for a bespoke suit happens where you already are. Evening appointments are ordinary — we are open 09:00 to 21:00 daily.

Can I send my own measurements from overseas?

You can, and it is worth being honest about the trade-off. Self-taken measurements are the weakest input a tailor can work from, because the two things that decide fit — posture and how the tape sits against the body — are the two things hardest to judge on yourself. For a first order it is far better to be measured in person. For a repeat order it is unnecessary, because your pattern is already here.