Why one sample suit comes first
Because the minimum order is one piece, your first order can be exactly one suit, made to your own body measurements in the cloth and construction you plan to sell.
Production takes 14 days from a confirmed order, and shipping time comes on top. Set your launch date for after the sample arrives. If something needs changing, you want room to adjust and reorder before any client's money is involved.
Order the sample in the cloth and construction you intend to sell. A sample in another fabric tells you little about what your clients will get.
Check the fit against what you sent
You placed the order with measurements. The full form has 47 fields, 31 of them required. If you started from height and weight alone, the platform suggested sizes and you adjusted from there.
Now put the suit on and go through it point by point, against what you entered:
- Shoulders: the shoulder seam should sit where your shoulder ends. Note it if the seam stops short or drops past.
- Jacket length: stand straight and look at where the hem falls compared with what you ordered.
- Sleeves: let your arms hang. The sleeve should end where you asked for it.
- Button stance: the top button sets how the jacket closes over your torso, so compare its position with your order.
- Collar: turn your head both ways. The collar should stay against your shirt, with no gap at the back of the neck.
- Trousers: look at the break. Write it down if the hem pools on your shoe or rides up.
Write down everything you would change and send those notes with your next order.
Check the cloth
Hold the swatch or bunch book you chose from next to the suit. Colour can look different on a small swatch than on a whole jacket, but the weave, the weight and the pattern should match what you picked. Then take the suit outside, because daylight shows colour and texture that indoor lighting hides, and watch how the cloth falls over the shoulder and chest.
If you chose from the house book, you are looking at Corsini LANA Four Seasons: 280 g four-season Australian merino, 100% wool, one of 85 fabrics in that book.
Selling a mill name means knowing what you sell. A suit in Zegna Trofeo or Vitale Barberis Canonico cloth is our make in that mill's cloth. We cut and sew it, we are not the mill, and your clients should hear it described that way.
For reference, we hold 162 Zegna styles in Shanghai (99 Trofeo, 63 Traveller), keep Vitale Barberis Canonico in stock and cut cloth from 33 mills and cloth merchants, 26 of them in Europe.
Check the construction
You chose fused, half canvas or full canvas when you ordered. Each one sits differently on the chest, so if you are unsure which you picked, look at your order confirmation before you open the box.
In a fused jacket the front is bonded to its interlining, and the chest feels firm and even when you press it. A half canvas jacket has a canvas layer floating in the chest; press the front gently and the cloth should move over it. In a full canvas jacket that floating canvas runs the length of the front.
On either canvas jacket, pick up the lapel and let it fall. It should roll back into place on its own instead of folding flat along a crease.
For your price list later: a two-piece suit starts from 155 USD full package ex works Shanghai, from 185 USD for half canvas full package, and from 100 USD as CMT when you supply the cloth.
Check your label
Your label is in the garment, placed where you asked for it. The label also states the country of origin, because the suit was made in our own workshop in Shanghai, China. So when a client asks "where was my suit made?", you can answer in one line and the label backs you up.
Three things to look at before you sign it off:
- Read every word on it. A typo on the sample turns up on every suit after it.
- Look at where it sits the way a client will, the first time they open the jacket.
- Photograph it inside the jacket the way you would for your product page. If it is hard to read in the photo, tell us before your next order.
Wear it before you launch
Do not ship a product you have not worn. Wear the suit through an ordinary day: sit at a desk, walk outside, reach for something on a high shelf. Notice where it pulls, where it gaps and where it feels right.
Photograph it for your shop pages while you have it on. Shoot the front, the back, the jacket open and a close shot of the lapel.
Do not launch on photos of a suit you have not worn, since your clients are paying for how it fits on a body.
Never promise a client a delivery date before your own sample has arrived. Until you have been through one full cycle of order, production, shipping and review, you do not know your real timeline.
Once you have worn it and photographed it, decide what to change and what to keep. Then you are ready to sell.
What to do next
Pick a cloth and a construction, enter your measurements on the platform and confirm the order.
If you have questions first, message us on WhatsApp, or fill in the form on the contact page and tell us about the label you want to start.
Related pages: measuring, cloth, pricing, delivery.
Questions founders ask about sample suits
Can I order just one sample suit?
Yes. The minimum order is one piece, so your first order can be a single sample suit made to your own measurements.
How long does a sample suit take?
14 days in production from the day the order is confirmed. Shipping time is added on top and depends on where you are.
Will my own label be in the sample?
Yes. Your label goes in the garment, so the sample is exactly what a client would receive. The label also states the country of origin.