Custom Made, Handmade & Bench Made - Suits, Shoes, Shirts Differences & Terminology Explained

About this video

The Gazette team explains the differences between commonly misused menswear manufacturing terms like custom-made, handmade, machine-made, and bench-made. They argue that these terms are largely unregulated and often used misleadingly by marketers to command higher prices, and they emphasize the importance of asking detailed questions about production processes to understand what you’re actually paying for.

Key takeaways

• The Gazette team contends that ‘custom’ is an unprotected umbrella term that can mean anything from basic customization to true bespoke, and doesn’t indicate whether a garment is handmade or machine-made
• The Gazette team argues that ‘handmade’ is one of the most misleading terms in the industry, as it only requires some hand labor involved but can vary wildly in actual craftsmanship—buyers should ask specifically what hand processes were used
• The Gazette team recommends asking producers detailed questions about their production methods, requesting pictures of the process, and understanding that terms like ‘bench-made’ and ‘custom tailor’ are often marketing tactics used to justify higher prices for machine-made products

Episode details: published June 20, 2016 · 14K views · 7:35 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The style guidance summarized here is the Gentleman’s Gazette team’s own teaching and opinion, presented for education; product recommendations are theirs, not ours. Summaries are written by Self Growth Videos from each video itself.

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