Indochino or Black Lapel?

[Margotron]

Pretty simple. I need a suit that fits. Not sure on grey or navy yet, just trying to pick company first.

379 Indochino 2-piece

450 Indochino 3-piece

499 Black Lapel 2-piece

[LosRockets]

I don't have experience with either but I was impressed with Shad0w's results from both Black Lapel and Dragon Inside. I know he worked with them to narrow down the fit and his athletic build makes it hard for things to fit perfectly the first time, but all the same, they looked awesome.

[dstepner]

I just got 2 done by Dragon Inside as well, and I'm very happy with the results. Almost perfect fit the first time around, and the second nailed it. Armholes are a tad low, but not a huge amount, and the material feels equal to much more expensive suits. Just my two cents, but give them a look. I should mention it was with their 50% off deal.

[Margotron]

Yeah, definitely going pre-tailored with an athletic build. I'll check out dragon inside right now.

Anyone aware of quality v price differences among the three? I admit I *want* to jump on the black lapel for 5 bills, but 120 dollars is 120 dollars. Especially with the tailoring credit Indo has.

Does BL have the same tailoring credit?

Edit:

479 Dragon Inside

Question: do all three makers do a similarly SLIM cut? Meaning I give them all identical measurements, which company sends back the slimmest suit?

I'm 6'4 185 41" chest 31" waist and would like my chest/waist ratio to pop

[shad0w4life]

Yeah, definitely going pre-tailored with an athletic build. I'll check out dragon inside right now.

Anyone aware of quality v price differences among the three? I admit I *want* to jump on the black lapel for 5 bills, but 120 dollars is 120 dollars. Especially with the tailoring credit Indo has.

Does BL have the same tailoring credit?

Edit:

479 Dragon Inside

Question: do all three makers do a similarly SLIM cut? Meaning I give them all identical measurements, which company sends back the slimmest suit?

I'm 6'4 185 41" chest 31" waist and would like my chest/waist ratio to pop

You actually DON'T want that, it will look like a dress flaring out at the bottom. Peak lapels will make your upper torso look broader, which I've opted for on most of my suits. How the hell are you almost identical measurements and weight to me but 4" taller...I must have an empty head.

Ok so here you go. Blacklapel you can score %10 off quite easily, email and ask or wait for a coupon code etc. I'd personally go 3 piece as then you have a vest to wear separate or really dress up etc.

So it's more BL $450 for 2 piece or 500 for 3.

Ok lets summarize:

Black Lapel; Half Canvassed, you get $75 tailoring credit, customer service was great for me, end result was pretty damn good, I am not a fan of the pant length and they made my biceps too small in the suit and they had to be opened up, and that was to THEIR measurement, I'd recommend flexing and also a loose measurement then take the middle IF you have long arms like me, I gain about 1.5-2" when my arm is bent. default fabric is 110s

Indochino: No experience with, and they won't have my business unless they drop their prices or go to half canvassed suits(don't say they are as it's hybrid and I'm calling it fused) default fabric is 110s and you can get the vincero for $700 which is still not half canvassed but 130s

Dragon Inside: After I got my tux well..I abused the crap of the %50 off and got 3 piece grey, 3 piece charcoal, 3 piece black, grey herringbone blazer, indigo herringbone blazer, along with 3 other vest. They say they are fully canvassed, I honestly have no idea what the real test is but the blazers look great. Customer service is amazing, I've had my pants remade twice for the 2 suits due to a huge mixup caused in partial by myself. You can ask for the arm holes to be raised, which I did and they apologized and offered to send me another complimentary blazer with higher arm holes as I had ordered so much from them

Explaining the pant thing as it was just due to the whole emailing measurements correction: Well originally I ended up putting my pant length as 109cm in my profile, Bobby asked me to confirm as it was a bit longer than normal, I came back and said 98cm which was what black lapel had under my measurements profile. Long story short, the tux pants were 109cm as they used my profile, by mistake, which were perfect length but we didn't know that until I got my suits and the pants were too short, I emailed they said so sorry and had a remake done right away, next pair showed up about 2" longer with a lot more extra in the hem but still too short, they also sent me extra fabric for the old pants so that I could get them cuffed and salvedge them for use which I thought was just awesome of them. What happened is the tailor was told 98 cm as per my original email so 2nd time around Bobby caught what happened, so the entire thing was due to me trusting black lapel updating my profile and me being to damn lazy to measure.


Also one other option if you want to save money is you could try iTailor, they have a wool blend, but honestly it's not that bad, I wear my blazer(I asked them to make it more like a blazer than a suit jacket) but they have many colours and it will be about $240. I've also ordered an overcoat from them and it fits quite well.


Summary:

I'd order from BL or DI depending what you want. If you want just a navy and can score a discount from DI, it's well worth the price from my experience, they will accomodate many request like suspender buttons, arm hole raising etc you will have to tell them what type of fit you want as they don't have the option like BL. DI's website the colours are off too, the grey is much darker than it looks and the Navy is actually darker than the BL navy believe it or not. DI has extra little things like the actual flower loop etc, but BL offers many of the similar options.

BL also has more fabric selection beyond normal colours as well...blue charcoal yes please.

Also the tailor I took my BL suit to...said don't order from Indochino, use "these guys" due to the construction quality difference.


Also there's pics of my DI jackets on the DI thread I started and Also pics of my BL under the BL thread I started. iTailor blazer in in the WIWT i think 2 pages ago.

[somaticmarker1]

I own 4 suits from Indochino and 2 from Black Lapel. For a basic gray/navy suit, I would go with BL.

Indochino is a hybrid half-canvassed. My tailor actually took looked underneath the lining to examine the construction of both suits. For Black Lapel, the canvas is attached by stiching along the seam. For Indochino, the canvas is attached by gluing along the seams. Black Lapel is more expensive but it is well worth it. I am very happy with both companies. I will say that IC's customer service is far beyond that of BL's. In both of my orders from BL I have used gift cards. Both times the gift card code didn't work, or rang up as a lesser amount that what it was worth, and it took several emails to BL to get things fixed. Also, I had to send two emails following up to make sure my altertion credit went through.

There has always been a degree of hate directed toward IC. However, all 4 of my suits (and winter topcoat) from them have been right on, look great and are well made (I have had zero problems with durable concerns). A friend of mine ordered 5 suits from them for a wedding, and the total alteration cost for all 5 suits was $100. IC can be a bit too trendy at times. But they have a great selection of the basics, and release a new line every 2-3 months or so.

[Jack]

I've ordered suits from Indochino and Dragon Inside. Since I haven't bought anything from Black Lapel, I can't provide any feedback on them, except to say I'm very interested in their light charcoal blue suit.

Indochino is probably the most prominent online MTM brand. I think that's the reason why so many people either love or hate them - after you serve enough customers, you're bound to have a few with a bad experience. I ordered an Essential Navy suit during a promotion for a suit, shirt, and tie for $320. It fit surprisingly well for a first-time experience, but the shoulders were too wide. I ordered a remake and the jacket fit much better. The material is decent, though on the thin side. The shirt I received is satisfactory, but there were only a few fabric options I liked. If the shirt wasn't part of the deal, I would not have ordered it, especially since there are other companes such as Ratio which have better shirts for the same price. Also, their ties are pretty terrible - but it was also part of the deal. I don't think their suits are worth it when paying full price; however, they do have sales a few times per year.

One more thing about Indochino - some of their suits seem like gimmicks. Usually, this applies to anything they're promoting heavily, such as their winter collection with the vests, or their Art Deco collection. But their solids are nice, and I like their basic patterns too.

I ordered a tuxedo from Dragon Inside when they did the 50% off deal. After seeing the pictures of shad0w4life's navy tux, I ordered it in midnight blue. I'm guessing they got a lot of business during that sale, because it took about five weeks to receive my order, rather than the 20 days they promote on their site. But I didn't need my tux until March, so it wasn't an issue. It arrived a week ago. I would say the quality is better than Indochino, especially in the jacket. The size is off a little bit, so I'm working with Dragon Inside to resolve that. All else being said, their customer service is great and they always respond quickly. I'll have a full review of the tux in a few weeks.

Both companies have a $75 tailoring credit. Both provide good customer service, though DI is better than Indochino in regards to that.