Alterations

Most clothes are cut for a body nobody has. A good alteration makes a garment look as if it was made for you, and the best ones nobody notices at all.

Every fitted alteration starts in the fitting room at the front of the shop. You put the garment on, with the shoes you will wear it with, and Ana or one of the seamstresses pins it: the hem, the waist, the sleeve, the side seams. We look at it in the long mirror together, change what you want changed, and write the job and the ready-by date on your ticket.

The work is done in the workroom above the shop on industrial machines and by hand where it shows. Trouser hems are finished to match the original: a blind hem on suit trousers, the original worn hem kept on jeans if you want it, turn-ups where there were turn-ups. Jacket sleeves are shortened from the cuff where the buttons are decorative and from the shoulder where they are working buttonholes, which is the difference between £28 and £45.

Some things we will tell you not to do: taking a jacket in by more than two sizes, shortening a coat with a deep vent, letting out a seam that has no allowance left. Where an alteration will not look right, we say so before you pay for it, and suggest what will.

Most jobs are ready in two to five working days, Monday to Saturday. Express service halves the days for half as much again, when the workroom has room; ask when you hand it in.

What is included

• Pinned on you in the fitting room
• The ready-by date on your ticket
• Original hems kept on jeans if you want them
• Hand finishing where it shows
• Try on before you leave; redone free if not right
• Express at half the days for 50% more

What it costs

From £10 for shortened straps; trousers taken up £14, jacket sleeves £28. Express at half the days for 50% more. The price list has every alteration with its price and the date it will be ready if you hand it in today; the bridal page works out your fitting dates.