Tailor-Made Attire Lets Clients Suit Themselves
If clothes make the man, they also explain him.
A host of reasons, spoken and unspoken, send men and women to tailors for custom-made clothes. In subtle and not-so-subtle ways, personally tailored clothes hint at our self-image, fantasies, taste, creativity, concept of comfort and financial status.
“My clients want it known that they’re uniquely themselves,” says Kristine Faison, owner of Fashion Forward, a tailor shop in Newport Beach.
Style is just one advantage.
Custom-made clothes usually display better workmanship, last longer and fit precisely, preventing puckering along the seams, says Denny Hoang, co-owner with his brother Tom of Newport Custom Tailors in Santa Ana. Clients also can request fabrics that resist wrinkling, a special incentive for people who travel regularly.
Frequently, in opting for custom-made clothes, clients will simply be trying to duplicate an item of clothing. If they have a favorite pair of pants they’ve worn out, a tailor can take the garment apart and re-create it. And some customers--mostly women--find a fabric and bring it to a tailor to create something unique.
Busy professionals tell Faison that going to a tailor is more time-efficient than searching for clothing in stores. “Shopping is a burden,” she says, especially if they can’t find the size or the style they want.
Another appeal, Faison says, is the attention the tailor gives to the client. “First, they want the exclusivity and the attention,” she explains. “Secondly, it’s the self-confident feeling of getting something they wanted.
“Women need more of a personal service. Women enjoy lots of discussion of styles and fabrics.”
The men with whom she deals want an honest opinion about how they look and how they’re perceived, Faison says, adding “I’m the one who decides that.” Faison’s typical client is a Newport Beach woman 35 to 45 years old who’s a professional herself or married to one. “They like to deal with someone who’s competent, who gives them a secure feeling,” she says. They usually don’t come in for career wear, and if they do, Faison discourages them because there’s a wide range of career wear in the market.
These women prefer a stylish but conservative look. “I think women in Newport Beach are very conservative,” Faison says. “This is not an eclectic-look place. They’re not all that adventuresome.”
Her clients also trust her judgment. “That’s the most important element in my business--trust,” says Faison, who began her career as a seamstress working for a tailor in Corona del Mar, then opened Fashion Forward in 1980. She has built a clientele that appreciates her outgoing personality and informal style.
While she may encourage a client to abandon a concept that doesn’t suit her, “I don’t want to discourage creativity,” she explains. “This is a very personal thing.” Whatever motivates the individual to have clothes custom- made, the desired garment often starts out as little more than a vague, pleasant vision. In coming up with a finished product that pleases the client, Faison sees her role as part seamstress and part psychologist.
Her research, as she calls it, consists of asking questions and helping clients formulate what they have in mind. Faison wants to know what the client wants the item for, the occasion on which it will be worn and how the client sees him or herself.
A degree of risk and responsibility goes with creating a finished product that she expects the client to like, Faison admits. A frivolous attitude on the part of the client can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction for both Faison and her customer. “I want them to be serious about what they want,” she says. “I want them involved in what they’re doing.”
At Newport Custom Tailors in Santa Ana, Tom and Denny Hoang run a quiet, male-oriented world where half the business comes from tailoring custom suits, sport coats and shirts. Predictably, they have a high-income clientele. Clients like being able to have a custom-made suit in two weeks, Tom Hoang says, compared to the six to eight weeks it often takes to have a suit custom-made in New York or Hong Kong. Whereas Kristine Faison keeps only a small stock of fabrics on hand and works mainly with materials that are brought to her, men’s tailors--such as the Hoangs--maintain a full stock of fabrics.
The most popular material used for suits is a 9 1/2-ounce wool fabric by Roger LaViale Ltd., which the Hoangs consider a high quality mid-price line that is light enough for year-round use in Southern California. The most common suit colors are charcoal gray with pinstripes, and navy blue with pinstripes. The Hoangs say they are only infrequently asked to make vests. Suits cost from $550 to $750.
In a custom-made suit, the jackets are fully lined, while most trousers have a half-lining extending below the knee that prevents wrinkling along the thighs. Full trouser linings are used only if the material is light-colored and thin, or if it’s a thicker wool that may cause itching. Sport coats, which are usually made from heavier 11-ounce wool, are common in navy blue, with various proportioned plaids and checks following in popularity, Tom Hoang says. White shirts account for about 50% of the shirts the Hoangs make. The most popular fabric is 100% cotton pinpoint, a light, cool material. The next most popular shirt is white with pinstripes.
The Hoangs are asked to put monograms on about 80% of their tailored shirts; most of these are monogrammed on the left sleeve. French cuffs also sell well, accounting for about 50% of the white shirts made, and these are usually monogrammed. The shirts usually are bought four at a time and sell for $55 to $75 each. Shirts are made in 10 days.
Tailors say that knowing more about a client than just measurements can help them become a valued colleague. As Kristine Faison puts it: “I help my client look at herself as a fulfilled person. She doesn’t have to look across the room and say, ‘I want to look like that.’ ”