Almost every problem in tailoring is a timing problem. Someone walks in three weeks before a wedding wanting a hand-finished sherwani, and now something has to give. So here it is in plain numbers: how long each thing takes, what pushes it out, and what we can genuinely do when the date is close. If you buy off the rail and need it altered, that clock is much shorter — often the same week.
By garment
Two-piece bespoke suit. Four to six weeks from first visit to collection. That covers pattern drafting, cutting, the first stage of construction, a basted fitting around week two or three, the rest of the making, then a final fitting and finishing. Four weeks is doable when the diary allows. Five or six is more comfortable and leaves room if the first fitting throws up something unexpected.
Three-piece suit. Add a week. The waistcoat needs its own pattern, its own fitting and its own making.
Jacket or blazer on its own. Three to four weeks.
Trousers. Two to three weeks for a first pair. One to two weeks for extra pairs once we hold your pattern.
Shirts. Three to four weeks for a first order including a fitting. Two weeks for repeats, or three without a fitting once the pattern is proven.
Bandhgala or Nehru jacket. Four to five weeks. The stand collar takes fitting work an open-collar jacket doesn't.
Sherwani, plain or lightly worked. Five to six weeks.
Sherwani with heavy zardozi or full embroidery. Eight to twelve weeks. The embroidery alone runs four to six weeks with the specialists who do it. We run the tailoring alongside where we can and assemble once the panels come back.
Kurta and churidar. Three to four weeks.
Jodhpuri suit. Five to six weeks.
Alterations on ready-made. Three to five working days for a hem or a waist. One to two weeks for a jacket recut or a re-lining.
What pushes a timeline out
The cloth. If what you've chosen is on the shelf or ships quickly from the mill, it costs you nothing. If it has to be ordered specially, add three to seven days depending on where it's coming from.
How your body fits the pattern. Two fittings is standard. If there are significant asymmetries or an unusual posture to work around, a third fitting is sensible and adds about a week. Better a week than a garment that never quite sits right.
The season. October to February is our busiest stretch — South Indian and North Indian wedding seasons back to back, plus December. Our timelines hold, but the diary fills and there's far less room for rush jobs. Marrying between November and January? Start six months out.
Several garments at once. A suit, two shirts and a pair of trousers doesn't take four times as long — a lot of it runs in parallel and we coordinate the fittings. It does take longer than any one of them alone, so plan for that rather than assuming otherwise.
When the date is tight
Life doesn't give six weeks' notice. Functions get announced, travel gets moved, someone remembers the reception is next month. We take rush work when the bench has room, and we're straight with you about what speed costs.
A suit can be done in three weeks if the cloth is in stock, you can come in for fittings at short notice and the fit isn't complicated. Under three weeks on a jacket, quality starts to go: the canvas doesn't get worked properly, the lapels don't get the padding time they need, and fitting corrections get half-implemented. If your date is too close, we'll tell you rather than take the order and hope.
Shirts and trousers move faster — a trouser in two weeks, a shirt in two to three, with nothing sacrificed. Embroidered ethnic wear is the one place where there's very little give, because the embroidery simply takes what it takes.
And if the date is genuinely close, remember the other option: buy off the rail and let us fit it properly. A Raymond or Blackberrys jacket, altered by our own tailors, beats a rushed bespoke one every time.
We don't charge extra for hurrying. Urgency doesn't earn a premium here, but it does earn a straight answer.
Working back from a date
If you have a date — a wedding, a function, a board meeting, a flight — say so on the first visit. We'll count backwards from it, tell you whether it works, and put your fittings in the diary there and then.
For weddings, this is the rhythm that works: the groom six months out, brothers and groomsmen four months out, family and guests two to three months out. That leaves room for a third fitting if it's needed, for cloth to arrive late, and for the relief of having everything hanging in a cupboard well before anyone starts panicking.
Garments commissioned with time to spare look better than garments commissioned in a rush. That isn't a policy we invented to manage customers. It's just how the work goes. Time is one of the materials.