I am Philip Perkins, a direct custom clothier, in San Antonio, TX, who offers apparel crafted by merchant made-to-measure companies. When I started the business, order forms had illustrations and descriptive words to define physical characteristics of a client. The appropriate information was to be circled on an order form. Therefore, communicating with manufacturers involved using a tape measure and a visual assessment of customers; which presented the possibility of miscommunication. For me, too much time and money was spent on local garment alterations. I was very fortunate to work with a true master tailor, Raymond Herrera, for local alterations. I asked Raymond to help develop hand tools to more accurately measure clients for custom apparel. Initally, we came up with 4 Devices; Shoulder, Incline, Rise and Sleeve. After working with these instruments, the results were dramatically fewer alterations. This prompted my wife to suggest I advertise this measuring system to help fellow custom clothiers. So, I ran an ad in Made To Measure Magazine, showing a photo of each Device and a brief description of the advantages of working with each Device, beneath the following heading of the ad: “WANT A BETTER FIT?”.
All of the merchant made-to-measure companies, in the U.S., received their complimentary issue of the magazine. The innovative manufacturers that saw the advertisement, purchased the Instruments, checked them with their patterns and concluded that these Devices are what is needed in the custom apparel industry. Since 1983, I have been grateful, and humbled, for the endorsements by custom apparel manufacturers in the U.S. and several other countries. Because of these endorsements and word of mouth, for many years, I did not have a website. This enabled other companies to advertise my products for sale on their websites. Since December 2020, no Instruments have been shipped to those who were reselling these measuring tools. As a result, the ONLY SOURCE for PERKINS TAILORING INSTRUMENTS is as follows : www.perkinstailoringinstruments.com or www.perkinsdevices.com or by email at perkins10tools@gmail.com or by phone at Office: +1 210-684-6233 Or Mobile: +1 210-364-8442 Or Fax: +1 210-684-8440.