Think of a luxurious bespoke suit and London’s Savile Row may come to mind, but now one Dubai-based tailor wants to shift the world’s attention to the UAE by claiming to offer the UAE’s most expensive suit.
Parmar Tailors produces a suit that costs between Dh50,000 to Dh62,000 (depending on the wearer’s size) embellished with gold buttons.
But it is not the precious metal that adds to the value, it is the rarity of the fabric. It uses just 3.5 yards (for the average man) for the two piece suit, made from some of the most luxurious wool in the world. Each thread of this mix is 12000th of a millimetre.
The material is a mix of expensive and scarce wools made by the Yorkshire millers Scabal. Most of the fabrics from its mill contain Vicuna wool, which is perhaps the rarest in the world as the animal, related to the llama, can be sheared only once every three years. Scabal also produces fabrics that has fragments of gold, diamond or lapis lazuli. The one used for Parmar’s most expensive suit does not contain rare gemstones, instead it is made from a variety of rare wools with a total global harvest of just 200-300kg a year.
The fabric is so expensive that a practice suit is made for each client using cheap fabric. Once the measurements are perfected, the Scabal fabric is cut and stitched together.
“Like diamonds, there are many characteristics of wool that make it expensive – its length, strength, colour and ‘scrimp’. The thicker the fabric, the lower the cost,” says Bharat Parmar, managing director at Parmar Tailors, which has three outlets in Dubai.
The suit takes up to 50 hours to produce with every detail stitched and applied by hand. Even the jacket’s chest piece is shaped and put together manually, a labour-intensive and time-consuming process. Nowadays, most tailors use a chest piece that sticks to the material to stiffen it, which thickens the fabric overall.
“Expensive fabrics should always use old techniques,” says Mr Parmar.
While Parmar has 135 tailors making suits for its clientele, only 30 are trained to make such bespoke suits. Each of these tailors is tasked with one specific role.
“A guy who makes shirts, does not make trousers,” explains Mr Parmar, adding that to work at the brand, tailors need a minimum five to seven years’ experience.
It can require two to three fittings until a bespoke suit is ready.
q&a clothes maketh the man
Bharat Parmar, managing director at Parmar Tailors, reveals more about his luxury suit brand.
What sort of suit should a businessman have in his wardrobe?
A gentleman should always have a black, blue and grey suit and three white shirts. Black is the safest option; if you don’t have a black suit, the first thing to do is to get one. Once you have one of these three, then you can look at stripes and checks and other fabrics.
Where are your customers from?
The local market is very small because many of the local men wear the dishdasha, but when Emiratis go abroad, they like to wear suits. Our customers are varied, we have businessmen, CEOs, bankers, politicians, prime ministers, presidents, senators. The sort of people who want something that blends in but is also unique.
Do you need to be a decisive person when it comes to commissioning a bespoke suit?
About 40-50 per cent of customers are indecisive. They come in without an idea of what they want.
How did Parmar Tailors start out?
My father came to the UAE in 1956; he had one machine and that was it. He landed on a dhow and started working in Bur Dubai. My brother joined him in 1983 after he finished secondary school. We now employ 135 tailors with over 1,000 years’ accumulative experience. My dad still goes to the shop and bosses everyone around.
thamid@thenational.ae
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