free worldwide shipping for all custom scarf orders
free worldwide shipping for all custom scarf orders
Three words, three different ways to order
Personalized, custom, and bespoke get used as if they were one word. For a silk scarf they are three different orders, and the difference is where the artwork comes from. A personalized scarf starts from one of our designs and carries your names and your date. A custom scarf starts from artwork you already have, printed on silk as you send it. A bespoke scarf starts from nothing, with a design created for you before anything is printed, and that is the one we do not do ourselves.
Once you know which of the three you are asking for, the rest follows, the page to start on, what to send, and what it will cost. This guide walks through each one and ends with a short table for telling them apart.
A personalized scarf starts from a design that already exists in our library. You pick the design, add your wording, choose the size and the silk, and we print and finish it in Como with a hand-rolled hem. The design tool on our personalize page shows the scarf as you type, so you see the result before you order.
The library has three families. The Erich Biehle designs, painted by our founder’s father, among them Lago di Como Blue, the design that was our own wedding invitation and later became the first By Biehle scarf. The Ceci New York x By Biehle designs, hand-painted watercolor botanicals from a stationery studio we work closely with. And the By Biehle designs, quieter patterns of our own.
What changes is the wording. First names, a date, a place, a line from the toast, and, where a design comes in more than one colorway, the colorway. Lago di Como comes in blue and pink, Modena in red and blue. The artwork itself stays as the artist painted it, which is the point. You are borrowing a finished design and making it carry your occasion.
Pricing and minimums are the same as for any custom run, because the work in Como is the same. A personalized pocket square in organic silk twill starts at $35 per piece, and every production run has a standard minimum, fifty pieces for the smaller sizes, forty for the 70 x 90 cm (27 x 35 in) stole and the 90 x 90 cm (35 x 35 in) square, thirty for the 140 x 140 cm (55 x 55 in) wrap. The full grid is in our guide to how much a custom silk scarf costs.
Personalized suits couples who fall for a design and want their names on it, planners who need a proven layout without a design phase, and anyone whose artwork does not exist yet and does not need to. There is nothing to prepare or check at your end. Our files are already built at size.
A custom scarf starts from artwork you bring. A wedding invitation your stationer designed, a family crest, a painting, a brand’s pattern, a logo set for a corporate gift. You send a print-ready PDF or PSD at the finished size of the scarf, we check the file for print quality and make small production adjustments where needed, and the run is printed and finished in Como like every other.
Custom is what most people mean when they write to us, and it is the word American English uses for what British English often calls bespoke. The line we draw is simpler than the dictionary. If the artwork exists, it is custom. If it still has to be created, it is bespoke, and that is the next section.
Print-ready means finished. We do not create original artwork, and we cannot turn a low resolution file into a high one, so the quality of the print begins with the quality of what you send. Our guide to preparing your file for silk has the full spec. The short version is a PDF or PSD at the finished size, 300 dpi, with lettering and crests kept as vectors.
Everything else is shared with personalized orders. The same price grid and the same minimums, the same optional finished sample at $550 for any size and silk, credited in full to the production order, and the same timeline, about six weeks from your confirmed order to delivery, with a pause each August. Shipping is free worldwide, with customs and duties covered for the EU and the United States.
Bespoke is the tailoring word. A bespoke suit is cut for one person from nothing, and a bespoke scarf is the same idea, a design that does not exist until a designer creates it for you. It is the most involved of the three, because the design has to be imagined, drawn, revised, and approved before a single meter of silk is printed.
We do not do this part. Our craft is the printing and the finishing. For the design itself, the studio we recommend is Ceci New York, whom we work closely with. Their hand-painted botanicals are the Ceci New York x By Biehle designs in our library, so you can see the two crafts together before you commission anything.
Once the design exists, it comes to us as a custom order and follows the custom path exactly, the file check, the optional sample, the run in Como. A bespoke project is really two projects in sequence, design first and production second, and the timeline is the sum of both. If your event has a date, the design phase is the one to start early.
Every route above is a production run with a minimum, because each run begins with color mixed for that artwork and the presses calibrated for it. If what you want is one scarf, the answer is none of the three. It is the collection, finished scarves and pocket squares in stock, from $55 for a 33 x 33 cm (13 x 13 in) square to $245 for a 140 x 140 cm (55 x 55 in) wrap, gift packaged and shipped within the United States for a flat $11.90.
| You have | The word | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| A design you love in our library, and your own names and date | Personalized | Our personalize page. Pick the design, add your wording, choose size and silk, order. |
| Print-ready artwork of your own, or a file from your stationer or designer | Custom | Our custom silk scarves page. Upload the file or send a link, and we confirm it is set for silk. |
| An idea, and no artwork yet | Bespoke | A designer first. We recommend Ceci New York. When the design is ready, it comes to us as a custom order. |
| One scarf, for one person | The collection | Shop the collection, in stock and shipped within the United States. |
If you sit between two of them, send us what you have through our custom silk scarves page and we will tell you which path it is. The answer is usually clear within a sentence.
Is a personalized silk scarf cheaper than a custom one? No. Both are production runs in the same silks at the same prices, from $35 per piece, with the same minimums. The difference is where the artwork comes from, not what it costs to print.
Can I change the colors of a personalized design? Several designs come in more than one colorway, such as Lago di Como in blue and pink and Modena in red and blue, and you choose between them. For a change beyond the colorways offered, tell us the design and the color you have in mind and we will confirm what is possible.
Do you design bespoke scarves? We do not create original artwork from scratch. For a fully bespoke design we recommend Ceci New York, whom we work closely with. Once the design is ready, we print and finish it as a custom order.
Is there a minimum for personalized scarves? Yes, the same standard minimums as any custom run. Thirty pieces for the 140 x 140 cm (55 x 55 in) wrap, forty for the 70 x 90 cm (27 x 35 in) and 90 x 90 cm (35 x 35 in) sizes, and fifty for the smaller sizes. For a single piece, the collection is the place to look.
What is the difference between a custom and a bespoke scarf? On this site, custom means your artwork already exists and we print it. Bespoke means the design still has to be created. In everyday American English the two words are often used interchangeably, so if you write to us saying bespoke, we will simply ask which one you mean.
If one of our designs is the one, start on the personalize page. If the artwork is yours, upload it on our custom silk scarves page or send us a link. And if you are earlier in the process, our guide to how to create a custom silk scarf walks the whole journey from a file to a finished piece.
