Ordering timelines — Lagos or London

My own rule: anything I have to stand in for photographs gets made here. Anything where the embroidery is the point gets made in Lagos, with three months in hand.

1. 8 weeksDecide the garment and the register. Confirm whether you are in aso ebi.
2. 7 weeksFirst contact with the tailor. Send the date, the room, references and a budget as a number.
3. 6 weeksCommission. Cloth chosen and paid for, measurements taken in person, deposit paid.
4. 4 weeksCutting and making. Nothing for you to do except stop changing your weight.
5. 3 weeksFirst fitting. Sit down, sit back, raise both arms, do up every button.
6. 2 weeksEmbroidery and finishing. Order the cap and any beads now.
7. 1 weekSecond fitting and collection. Shoes worn around the house for an hour.
8. Night beforeFull outfit on, photographed under a warm lamp with flash.

Six weeks is the real deadline. After that a good tailor will still say yes, but you will get one fitting, simpler embroidery, and whatever cloth is already in the shop.

1. 14 weeksChoose the house. Ask for photographs of finished work on a frame like yours.
2. 12 weeksCommission and pay the deposit. This is the deadline that matters.
3. 11 weeksMeasurements sent — ideally taken by a tailor here, not by you and a friend.
4. 10 weeksCloth confirmed with a daylight photograph of the actual length.
5. 8 weeksCutting. Ask for a photograph of the cut pieces before embroidery begins.
6. 6 weeksEmbroidery. This is the stage that slips, every time.
7. 4 weeksFinishing, and photographs on a mannequin or model before it ships.
8. 3 weeksShipping. Courier, tracked, insured — not hand luggage with a cousin.
9. 2 weeksIt lands. Try it on the day it arrives, not the day before the event.
10. 1 weekAdjustments with a UK tailor. Budget for this — it is not a failure, it is the plan.

Twelve weeks sounds excessive until the embroidery stage runs two weeks over, which in my experience it does more often than not. The buffer is the whole point.

Do not measure yourself. Pay a local tailor £20 to £40 to take a full set of measurements properly and write them down in centimetres.

Send, in one message: the measurement sheet, four photographs (front, back, both sides) in a fitted t-shirt against a plain wall, your height and weight, and a photo of a garment you already own that fits well — with its own measurements taken flat. That last item resolves more ambiguity than everything else combined.

Then ask one question: which of these numbers will you adjust, and by how much? A house that answers precisely is a house that has done this before.

Use a tracked courier — DHL, UPS or FedEx — not the postal service and not a traveller. Three to seven working days from Lagos, and worth the cost of the garment arriving in a box rather than a suitcase.

Expect UK import charges on the declared value: duty of roughly 12 per cent on garments plus VAT at 20 per cent, and a courier handling fee of around £12 to £25. Indicative, and they do get charged. Have the money ready — parcels are held, and a held parcel eats the adjustment week.

Ask for the invoice to state the honest value. Under-declaring is the one shortcut that can cost you the garment entirely.

• Three to four weeks out: a made-to-measure kaftan or senator set is still comfortable. Drop the hand embroidery, keep the cloth quality.
• Two weeks out: buy off the peg in the best cloth you can find and spend £60 to £150 on alterations. Shoulders and sleeve length first, waist second, hem last.
• One week out: buy, alter the two things that matter, and get the cap fitted. A well-altered £250 outfit reads better than a rushed £900 one.
• Rush premiums: indicatively 20 to 50 per cent. Ask for the number before you agree, and ask what gets simplified.

If you have a wedding in May and an owambe in July, commission once. Ask for a two-piece in a year-round wool-silk plus a second lighter top in the same palette. One set of fittings, two complete looks.

This is also the cheapest way to build a small occasion wardrobe rather than accumulating single-use outfits, which is what most of us do for the first five years.