Bespoke Deposits and Payments: What's Normal

A bespoke suit is paid for before it exists. You commit money when you choose the fabric and are measured, and you see the finished suit weeks or months later. That is normal, and it works well when both sides know the terms. Deposits, balances, cancellations and remakes follow common patterns across most tailors, and knowing them lets you spot fair terms and ask the right questions before you pay.

How much deposit does a bespoke tailor take?

About half is the most common deposit for a bespoke suit, jacket or coat. One UK tailor's published terms, for example, ask for 50% when you select the fabric, with the remaining balance at the final fitting, and work starts only once the deposit has cleared. Another UK tailor asks for a 50% deposit and offers 5% off for paying in full up front. Visiting tailors who hold fittings in hotels usually split the payment half and half as well.

Some tailors will agree a payment plan, and some offer a small discount for paying everything at once. A discount for full payment can be fair, but it moves all the risk to you. If you take it, make sure the written terms cover remakes and delays.

Why do tailors ask for a deposit?

Because most of their costs come before you ever try anything on. The tailor buys a length of fabric for your order, often from a merchant, drafts a pattern for your body alone and cuts the fabric to it. Once that fabric is cut, it has little value to anyone else, and the hours spent on your pattern cannot be sold to another customer. The deposit covers that early outlay and confirms that both sides are committed.

When is the balance due on a bespoke suit?

The balance is usually due at the final fitting or when you collect the suit. If the suit will be shipped to you, expect to pay before it is sent. Holding the balance until you have seen the finished suit on your body is normal, and it is the best protection you have that the last details will be put right.

What happens if you cancel a bespoke order?

It depends on how far the work has gone, and on the tailor's terms. Published terms show the range. One UK tailor allows cancellation within seven days of payment, refunding the money less any costs already incurred, and returns nothing after that. Another charges 50% of the order value once the first appointment has taken place and 100% once the garment is made and awaiting a fitting. A third simply states that deposits are non-refundable once the fabric is cut.

Does the law give you a right to cancel?

Usually not for bespoke work. In the UK, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give a 14-day right to cancel most distance and off-premises sales, but that right does not apply to goods made to the consumer's specifications or clearly personalized, and it does not cover orders placed in a shop at all. Consumer laws in many other countries contain similar exceptions for made-to-order goods.

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission's Cooling-Off Rule gives you three business days to cancel many sales of $130 or more made at a seller's temporary location, such as a hotel room or convention center. It does not apply when you completed the negotiations at the seller's permanent shop. If you order from a visiting tailor in a hotel suite, ask whether the rule applies to your order.

What if the suit doesn't fit? Remakes and alterations

In bespoke, getting the fit right is part of what you pay for. The fittings exist to find and correct problems, so changes made at the baste, forward and finish fittings are normally included. Who pays for anything beyond that depends on why it is needed.

Time limits matter. One tailor's terms require any problem with a delivered garment to be reported within three days; another allows 30 days, with photos, and will then remake, alter or give a partial credit at its discretion, with extra charges if the cause was the customer's own measurements. Try the suit on as soon as it arrives, and put any problem in writing at once. Our guide to bespoke fittings explains what can still change at each stage.

What should a bespoke order say in writing?

A good tailor will happily put the terms on paper or in an email. Before you pay a deposit, make sure you have the following, and keep a receipt that shows the amount, the date and what it was paid for.

How do you pay a tailor abroad?

Pay in the local currency. If a card terminal offers to charge you in dollars, the merchant sets the exchange rate, which can be marked up; choosing the local currency lets your own bank convert it, usually at a better rate. Check your card's foreign transaction fee too: they typically run from one to three percent, and some cards charge none.

Card protection is the main reason to pay a deposit by credit card. In the US, the Fair Credit Billing Act treats a charge for goods you did not receive or accept as a billing error; you can dispute it by writing to the card issuer within 60 days of the first statement that shows it. In the UK, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act makes the card company jointly liable for items priced between 100 and 30,000 pounds (about $130 to $40,000), even if you paid only the deposit on the card, and it covers purchases abroad.

If the suit will be shipped, ask about shipping costs, insurance and duty before you pay the balance. Import duty and taxes are normally paid by the person receiving the parcel, and some tailors' terms state that the risk passes to you once the parcel is handed to the carrier. Our guide to shipping a suit from Thailand covers the practical steps.

How do deposits work with visiting tailors?

Many London and Italian houses travel to New York, Hong Kong, Dubai and other cities several times a year and fit customers in hotel suites. The usual arrangement is a deposit of about half at the first measuring and the balance at the final fitting or before the suit is shipped. Because fittings fall months apart, a visiting tailor's suit can take much longer than one made at home, so agree the expected timeline and how you will be charged, often in the house's home currency. Our guide to Savile Row trunk shows explains how the visits work.

When should you pause before paying a deposit?

Most tailors are straightforward about money. These are reasons to slow down and ask more questions before you pay.

• Full payment up front for a discount that expires today.
• No written receipt or terms, or terms that will be sent later.
• No fabric reference. The quote describes the fabric only as wool or Italian, with no mill, merchant or reference number.
• No answer on cancellation or on what happens if the suit does not fit.
• A balance due before you have tried on the finished suit, when you could easily attend a final fitting.

The tailor's view

From the tailor's side, the deposit is what makes it possible to buy a length of fabric and spend hours on a pattern for a customer they may have met once. Most tailors would far rather talk through the terms at the start than argue over them later. Ask your questions about price, deposit, cancellation and remakes in the first meeting, and treat clear, written answers as a good sign about the tailor as a whole.

For the full list of questions to ask before you commit, see questions to ask a tailor and how to choose a tailor. For what you will pay in each city, see bespoke suit prices by city, and for timing, how long a bespoke suit takes.

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