Picture this: me standing in front of a mirror at a tailor shop in downtown Columbus wearing a brand-new $3,000 custom suit. And…it looks okay. Nothing special. It feels nice and everything fits pretty well, but I promise you it did not feel like wearing millions of dollars worth of clothes like I thought it would.
The tailor kept pulling fabrics around and asking if I liked the “fall” of the jacket – which, I learned quickly, means how the jacket hangs. I enthusiastically told him yes whenever he asked if I liked the fit so that I could eventually leave and not feel like I was wasting $3,000.
But how did I get here?
The Bridesmaid, Born
My college friend Mike was getting married and asked me to be his best man. Normally I would’ve been ecstatic at the invitation, but then he said something about it being “a pretty formal affair” at a country club in Cincinnati. I saw my one “nice” suit hanging up in my closet.
It was a $200 Jos. A. Bank suit that I purchased when I was job interviewing five years prior. Interviews didn’t pan out so I ended up keeping the jacket and selling the pants on eBay because they wouldn’t fit right over my dad bod.
If I was going to be a proper best man I was going to need a new suit.
Spoiler alert: I did end up getting a new suit. But it wasn’t just any suit. It was THE suit.
The one.
Custom.
Built.
Like a king.
Except I’m not a king.
Turns out my colleague and fellow teacher Tom wore custom suits all the time. He kept telling me how “life changing” they were and how I needed one. He would talk shop during lunch duty – spreading terms like “hand-stitched” and “full canvas” like they were seeds to great wisdom.
Don’t get me wrong – custom clothing sounded amazing to me at this point. I had been blogging about men’s style on a budget for a few years at this point teaching people how to look good while spending as little money as possible. Did spending $3k on a suit mean I somehow “failed” at teaching people how to dress well? Did cheap brands like Target and J. Crew miss a special secret about dressing well that I didn’t know about? Questions like these bounced around in my head while Tom continued to sing the praises of Tailor John, as he called him.
My wife Jessica kept asking me about it too. How it would be such a great “investment” since I was finally making some decent money writing. Could I really call myself a “men’s lifestyle blogger” if I was wearing a $200 suit to a wedding? Guys would roast me on the internet forever.
Tailor John’s: The Store Front
Tailor John’s was a pretty impressive joint. Tommy (pronounced Ton-ee, not Tom-my) had a storefront right on Columbus’ west side with leather couches you could sit in as you await your consultation. He even had a decanter of whiskey on the table that you could help yourself to while you looked at his fabric swatches.
It. Was. Heaven.
Tommy asked me about what my “style journey” was and how he could “elevate my wardrobe” with the right suit. He measured me approximately seventeen times and showed me pictures of old Italian men cutting and sewing suits in tiny workrooms.
I should’ve asked more questions about price at this point, but everything seemed so luxurious and image-driven. Plus Tommy was from Italy so he kinda knew what he was talking about.
“How much will this cost?” I asked.
“$2,800 plus tax, of course.”
My eyes nearly bulged out of my head. “What?! ?” I responded.
“That is what it will cost.” Tommy replied.
Thinking back on it, I should’ve ended the meeting right there. But I had already picked out fabric, been measured, and told Jessica about this insane tailor. There was no way I was walking out of there now that I had gotten this far.
“Um, ok.” I said slowly.
Tommy took my credit card that night and we officially began my journey into custom suit goodness.
Suiting Up
Right before Mike and Molly’s wedding I received a call from Tommy telling me my suit was ready to be picked up. The big day had finally arrived.
I was nervous.
I tried the suit on in my bedroom a few times before the wedding and I have to say… I looked pretty good. It was better than my old suit at least. Tommy did a great job measuring because everything fit quite nicely.
But…it just looked like a suit.
Here I was standing in my bedroom thinking I spent $3,000 on freaking rent when all I had was…a suit. Sure, it was a great fitting suit but it wasn’t “wow” like I imagined in my head.
Did I somehow screw up the measurements? Did Tommy cut my legs too short? Would I be wearing this stupid jacket for the rest of my life just because I was too proud to admit what a colossal mistake this was?
It was too late to turn back now.
Wedding Day
The wedding was wonderful, by the way. Mike and Molly looked amazing together, as did their friends that were also bridesmaids/best men. I got several compliments on my suit, which made me feel better about the whole thing I suppose.
Do you know what I received more compliments on than my custom-made suit? TOMMY TOLD ME EVERYONE WOULD THINK THE SUIT WAS FROM TAVERNITI WHEN I SAID IT WAS CUSTOM MADE.
People loved that my suit was “custom.” They had no idea how much it actually cost or that I spent months working with a tailor. All they saw was a $3,000 suit and assumed it came from Paul Stuart or something.
I kept this suit hanging in my closet for a few years because honestly it still looks great and was worth every penny…right?
Well, kinda.
The Maturation
A few months after Mike and Molly’s wedding I began doing the unthinkable – getting alterations to clothing bought at Target. Yes, Target. That golf sweater you’ve mercilessly made fun of on more than one occasion actually CAN look good if you get it tailored.
I bought a $60 blazer from Target and a pair of $40 pants and took them to my local alterations shop to see what all the hype was about. Most of y’all know this place already, it’s the little hole in the wall in the strip mall where the sweet Korean lady who’s been hemming my pants for the past 30 years works.
She charges me $35 to take my blazer in at the waist and sides, plus $15 to hem and taper my chinos.
Friends, the difference was night and day. That $50 in alterations turned my Target-chinos-with-a-J-Crew-blazer into something that actually looked expensive. Not $3,000 expensive but “damn this guy makes bank at his real job” expensive.
I even wore that exact outfit to parent-teacher conferences last year and got more compliments on how I looked than .
You guys think custom suits are magical because they’re custom tailored? News flash – my blazer was custom tailored and it only cost me $35.
Surprisingly, that was really all it took for me to learn my lesson. A custom suit isn’t some magical money pit where your clothes become fabulous by osmosis. It’s tailor basics – fit.
Don’t believe me? Put on a $100 outfit that fits you incredibly well and wear it next to a $500 off-the-rack joke stuffed into a dryer. The $100 item will look better 99% of the time because it fits.
My suit looked great because it fit, not because it was constructed by six Italian grandpas with buck teeth stitching together my dream jacket.
I could’ve replicated about 90% of that satisfaction and result by shopping smart and getting my clothes altered.
Because that’s the beauty of alterations. You can buy cheap pieces from Target or Uniqlo or even Old Navy and have them fitted to your body perfectly instead of wearing whatever imperfect size Woolrich thinks you are.
My tailor is now my best friend. Well…not Sally from Tailor John’s. I’m talking about Maria from the local shop in the strip mall. She might not know how to speak English all that great, but she sure knows how to fit a guy.
One weird thing I discovered is that not all clothes are worth tailoring. If it has a structured fit – for sure. That means blazers and dress pants 100%. But anything that isn’t tailored? Like shirts and polos and jeans and T-shirts? Eh, probably not worth the money.
So where should you draw the line? I’m still experimenting, but here’s what I’ve found works best: buy reasonably priced, quality basics and tailor those holy hell up.
Off-the-rack suiting from Jos. A. Bank, Uniqlo, and even Target looks great when it’s properly fitted to your body. Spend way more money on getting your clothing fitted than you do on the clothes themselves.
I still have that custom suit in my closet. The wedding was awesome and I will probably wear it again for another big event some day. It hangs there now mocking me as I’m getting dressed every morning, but it also serves as a great reminder that I could have bought SIX TIGER OF SWEDEN blazers for that price.
Lesson Learned
Here’s the thing: I needed a new suit when Mike asked me to be best man. Getting a custom suit was not the answer.
If you’re not rocking a sock-in-brown-cardigan bod like I did before going custom, chances are you don’t NEED a custom suit. You need clothing that fits your body and doesn’t look like a potato threw it on while watching Sunday football.
Only you’ll know if you “need” custom. Some of you have extremely slim frames where off-the-rack clothing just doesn’t cut it. Some of you wear suits every day for work and need that extra something. Some of you make more money than me and you spend it on clothes because that’s what you enjoy doing. If you fall into any of those categories, by all means go nuts.
But if you’re like 99% of us living normal,non-billionaire lives – hiring a custom tailor is throwing your money away.
I can’t tell you how many times guys come into my shop with custom suits they’ve never worn before and ask me to alter them because “they don’t fit.”
News flash dummy: THAT’S CUSTOM FABRICATION.
Learn about fit. Spend your money there. Figure out who the good tailors are in your area and start spending money on getting your clothes fitted instead of on clothes themselves.
As someone who only spends about $500 a year on clothing, I think knowing how to fit clothes is 100% worth that money. Hell, I’d even spend $1,000 a year on knowing how to fit clothing at this point. If I learned anything from that $3k suit it’s that everything works better when it fits.
TLDR: Custom is usually overkill for most people. Fit is where its at friends.
Find a great tailor and start spending money there instead of on clothes themselves.
Let me know how it goes 🙂
