Dapper, Dorking, (suit hire) Review

This morning we drove over to Dorking, to meet up with Tommo and visit "Dapper" (that Flyingpops continually, but quite accidentally refers to as "Dappers" (which unfortunately means something quite different in schoolboy slang))...It turns out to be quite a nice, fairly well-to-do little gentleman's outfitter, stocking everything one would require for any kind of formal dress, including a large number of variously coloured accessories -

- enabling some degree of colour co-ordination with what the ladies will be wearing, after a little initial tension from the staff (obviously a bit confused as to why I was waving the camera around, and obviously no idea at *all* what a "blogger" is, as that reason, when offered as an explanation, just met a completely blank face), we were measured up (which, as the sales person was extremely short, involved me getting onto my knees on more than one occasion) -

We then had to endure slightly more confusion - apparently, thanks to the "lucky" date 7/7/7 coming up soon (and falling on a weekend) a record number of weddings are taking place, and that as a result, many of the suits that we *would* have been able to try on, were already out hanging in people's cupboards, ready to be worn...however, the suits we actually wanted to try on, *were* in stock, so I'm not sure what the protracted explanation was for (anyway)... ;)

We tried them on, loved them, paid the deposit and they had the perfect sizes to fit both Tommo and myself, so it was a bit of a no brainer (rather expensive, but we'd be lucky to walk into anywhere else and pick up perfectly fitting, matching suits for two more variously outsized individuals than ourselves)... ;)

So, in conclusion, the staff could have been a lot more welcoming and polite (there was no "the customer is always right" in evidence, in fact, quite the opposite), stock was exhaustive, covering all extremes of sizes, but some of it looked a little on the tatty side (my trousers weren't finished at the bottom) or dirty (two of the jackets I saw had hair stuck on them), so check what it looks like when you pick it up (sure it will be perfectly pressed and dry cleaned though, they wouldn't be in business otherwise), and it's on the expensive side, so if you *aren't* outsize, you could most likely find somewhere a lot cheaper (our bill will be around £100 per person)...