Their Motto: The Custom Is Always Right

When David Rothenbuehler of Laguna Niguel wants a new wardrobe, he makes a “rag run” to Bangkok.

Every year or so Rothenbuehler travels overseas to buy suits for $150 that he says would set him back $1,500 to $2,000 at local retailers. He orders a stack of custom shirts made of 100% cotton, complete with monogram, for $15 each; he says they’d cost $100 each here.

After a few days in Bangkok, he heads home with suitcases full of new clothes.

“You can have anything your little heart fancies,” Rothenbuehler says. “You can do the Bond experience and get a white dinner jacket for a couple hundred bucks that would cost $2,000 here.”

Rothenbuehler, a senior vice president with Southern California Bank in Newport Beach, figures the money he saves on suits more than pays for the approximately $1,000 he spends on air fare and the $1,000 he spends over four nights on hotels and dinners.

“It’s like going on vacation and getting 10 suits for free,” he says.

Orange County residents don’t have to make the 24-hour flight to Bangkok or Hong Kong to get an imitation Armani suit or a copycat couture gown that costs hundreds or thousands of dollars less than the real thing.

Here, they can find fabrics identical to those used by European design houses and tailors or seamstresses to duplicate virtually any garment found in a magazine or store.

While a consumer might pay several hundred dollars more for a suit than Rothenbuehler does, he can still get it for less than if he’d bought a garment with a designer name.

Seventeen years ago Mohan Narwani came to America to be a tailor, taking a piece of his Hong Kong heritage with him. He set up a shop in Irvine called Mohan’s Custom Tailoring, where people go to order custom suits just as people do when they fly to Hong Kong for a new wardrobe.

“Hong Kong is famous for its material and custom tailoring,” Narwani says. “You can get a suit in 24 hours. You can get a fitting in the morning and go out to dinner that day wearing the suit.”

At $400 to $1,800 per suit, a garment made at Mohan’s does cost more than one made in Hong Kong, but, Narwani says, it’s still 20% to 50% less than a designer version.

“When you buy a designer suit, you pay $2,000 for the name,” he says. “Ours won’t say Versace, but it will still be the high-cut suit with a baggy shoulder and made from the same fabric.”

His customers can save an additional $100 or $200 by having their suits sewn in Hong Kong instead of here, but Narwani maintains that the workmanship of locally made suits is superior to those made overseas.

“We can copy exactly the same garment from any fashion magazine, and there’s an 80% chance we can get the same fabric or a very similar one,” Narwani says.

He has 5,000 samples of fabric and makes all kinds of garments--”everything but lingerie,” he says.

Virtually any couture garment seen on the runways can be reproduced by local seamstresses and tailors even before the designer clothes make it to market.

Ansari Fabrix in Newport Beach imports European fabrics identical to those being used by Christian Dior, Armani, Chanel and other design houses.

The shop’s walls are filled with gossamer laces from France, fine wools from England and elaborate cut velvets from France and Italy. Pinned next to many materials are photographs of couture creations that illustrate how a designer turned a lace panel into a bodice for a ball gown or used a pinstriped wool to make a women’s suit.

“I believe if they can do it, we can do it,” says owner/designer Nasrin Ansari.

The price of some of the finer fabrics would cause any tailor to pause before cutting the cloth. Chanel wool sells for $150 to $175 a yard; cashmeres range from $150 to $350 for a buttery soft material used by Yves Saint Laurent, and fine French laces cost about $150 to $175 a yard.

Ansari carries a red and gold lace that Christian Lacroix used for a camisole top that runs $485 a yard. Such materials are for those who insist their copies not differ from designer versions.

A gown from Ansari costs $7,000 to $12,000. That’s not cheap, but it’s a bargain when compared with couture prices, which start at about $15,000 and can easily top $30,000, Ansari says.

Designer dresses and suits can be made for $1,500 to $3,000, or about half the label price. A Chanel suit that retails for $5,000 can be reproduced for about $1,600, she says.

“Some people come in with a picture from a magazine. They want the identical outfit,” says Ansari, who travels to textile shows in Europe for the latest collections of fabrics used in couture lines.

Valaree Wahler of Corona del Mar has Ansari make about 80% of her wardrobe, she says. Ansari has made Wahler evening outfits, suits and dresses, both original creations and look-alikes from the pages of fashion magazines.

“I’ll just clip something out of a magazine and tell her, ‘I really like this.’ She’ll take anything and copy it or add her own flair,” Wahler says.

Wahler often asks Ansari to change a detail or fabric from a designer creation so hers is one-of-a-kind.

“I like that somebody else isn’t going to have the same blouse or skirt,” Wahler says. “It might be the same cut, but she’ll do it in a different fabric. To me that’s better than paying $7,000 for an outfit that three other people are going to have.”

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While Ansari reproduces primarily higher-end couture or garments of her own design, other tailors will make basic wardrobe pieces for those who can’t find their exact size or look in stores.

“We’ll do whatever they want. A very simple dress begins at $85. Price depends on material and style,” says Amelia Maciel, owner of Maciel’s in Costa Mesa. Customers bring her the material, thread and zipper, and Maciel’s will sew whatever they want from a pattern or picture.

People turn to tailors for a variety of reasons.

Some customers can’t find the exact look they want in the stores. They might have found the perfect jacket on sale, but the skirt will be gone. Or they’ll like the cut of a Versace dress but not the color.

“Sometimes they can’t find something in their size,” Ansari says. “Everyone doesn’t have the perfect model body.”