The ATELIER 23 Tradition of Bespoke Tailoring in Lisbon
What happens to a suit in the six weeks between the cloth on the table on Avenida da Liberdade and the first fitting, why it is made in the Serra da Estrela, and what the number on every garment is for.
A made to measure suit begins with a very simple scene: a man sitting at a table on Avenida da Liberdade with the bunches in front of him, touching cloth. Looking can be done in a catalogue. Touching only here. More is decided in that moment than at any fitting, because the cloth is chosen once and worn for fifteen years. Everything that follows, the pattern, the workshop, the fitting, is the tradition this piece is about.
Tradition is the right word here. The jacket we make in 2026 is built the way a Savile Row jacket of 1900 was built: canvas in the chest, a hand-worked lapel buttonhole, a sleeve set to the shoulder. One thing has changed, and it is the shoulder. We took ours from Naples, soft and without a pad, because a client of an atelier today spends more time seated, driving and flying than standing.
Savile Row and Naples: two schools of one craft
The English school grew out of military uniforms. Henry Poole & Co opened on Savile Row in 1806, and the structure of their jacket is still the same: a dense chest canvas, a defined shoulder, a chest line that holds itself. A jacket like that makes an officer of any man. The Neapolitan school, Rubinacci, Attolini, Kiton, Caraceni, did the opposite in the twentieth century: it took out everything that interferes with movement and left the handwork where it shows. The spalla camicia shoulder is gathered in small pleats, like a shirt sleeve, and follows the arm.
We chose the second, and it is a client's choice that the tailor agreed with. In a Neapolitan jacket a man can drive and embrace someone, and after the meeting it looks as it did before it. That is why Naples is the reference for men who wear a suit every day.
The workshop in the Serra da Estrela
Our workshop is in the Serra da Estrela, where wool has been spun and sewn for centuries and where, by convenient accident, it is genuinely cold. Biella knows this region well: the cloths of Loro Piana, Vitale Barberis Canonico and Zegna come here, and garments are made here for Italian houses whose labels everyone recognises. Portuguese makers combine two things that rarely go together: the precision of a factory and the hands of an atelier.
Why do we not sew in Italy, where the cloth comes from. Because the same work costs considerably more there, and it is the client who ends up paying the difference. Portugal gives Italian quality at an honest price, and the distance between the table where the cloth is chosen and the table where it is cut is a few hours of road, which means a correction does not cost three weeks of post. It is the advantage we consider our principal one, and it exists only because we are from here.
The cloths
On the atelier table sit the bunches from Loro Piana, Vitale Barberis Canonico, Dormeuil, Scabal and Caccioppoli. For a working suit we recommend Super 120's or 130's wool: finer is beautiful in the hand but lives less well in an aircraft seat. For winter, flannel and tweed; for summer, linen with wool and cotton; for evening, barathea and mohair. We name the cloth and the price at the same time, so the choice is made with open eyes.
Our knitwear is made from Zegna Baruffa yarn: Cashwool and SuperGelong, an extrafine merino that the hand mistakes for cashmere. The same Biella mills that weave for suits, only in yarn.
How an order runs
Four to six weeks and one fitting. One, because the pattern is built to the figure in advance and the fitting is left to verify and adjust. Clients who have ordered elsewhere are usually surprised that a second is not needed.
Quality control and the number on the label
Every ATELIER 23 garment carries its own number. Against it the workshop keeps the pattern and the cloth batch, so that years later a second identical suit can be ordered. Before it leaves, the finished garment is checked from seam quality to fit: whether the stripe matches at the seams, the buttonholes, the way the lining lies in the sleeve. A suit that does not pass does not travel to the atelier.
The finished collection and made to measure
At the atelier there is a finished collection of suits, jackets, trousers, shirts and knitwear, made at the same workshop from the same cloths. A finished garment is altered to the figure in one to two weeks, and that is included in the price. And there is made to measure from any length on the table. The difference between them is one thing: a finished suit is fitted to you, and a made to measure suit was made for you from the beginning.
Cloth is chosen once and worn for fifteen years.ATELIER 23
Questions before ordering
How long does a made to measure suit take at ATELIER 23?
Four to six weeks with one fitting. The first conversation takes about an hour and the fitting takes place in Lisbon in the fourth week.
Where are ATELIER 23 suits made?
At our own workshop in the Serra da Estrela, in cloths from Loro Piana, Vitale Barberis Canonico, Dormeuil, Scabal and Caccioppoli.
How does the Neapolitan cut differ from the English one?
A soft shoulder without a pad, a light canvas and freedom of movement. An English jacket holds its shape by itself; a Neapolitan one follows the figure.
How many fittings are needed?
One. The pattern is built to the figure in advance from measurements and photographs, and the fitting settles shoulder, length, waist and pocket position.
Can a suit be repeated years later?
It can. Every garment has a number, and the workshop keeps the pattern and the cloth batch against it.
Where is the ATELIER 23 atelier?
Avenida da Liberdade 110, office 209, Lisbon. By appointment, seven days a week.
Book a visit to ATELIER 23
We show the cloths in the length and in the bunch, the finished suits on the stands, and a basted jacket so you can see what a fitting looks like. We take measurements and give you a price and a date. The visit takes about an hour and commits you to nothing.