Need help with deciding on which Bespoke Suit place to go with in Los Angeles for a 2-piece suit and a vest

[krnsamiam]

I am getting married next Fall 2024 and I was deciding between going with either Made-To-Measure or Bespoke and after researching, watching videos and reading articles/blogs. I have decided to with getting a Bespoke suit.

I live in Los Angeles, CA and researched the top rated Bespoke suit and I have come up with a list of 5 Bespoke Suit places in Los Angeles. Below are the 5 Bespoke Suit places and the average cost of a 2-piece bespoke suit and the vest and the average time it will take to produce.

I have read some positive reviews on all 5 of these places and the price is roughly the same. I am having a hard to choosing out of these 5 which one to go with.

Any advice, suggestions and recommendations would be great! Also, this will be my first time getting a Bespoke Suit.

Bespoke Suit Name​	2-Piece Suit and Vest Cost​	Average Suit Delivery Time​
Divij Bespoke​	~$1,600 and Up​	~3 months​
Art Lewin​	~$3,290 and Up​	~4 weeks​
JB Clothiers​	~$3,200 and Up​	~4-5 weeks​
Johnathan Behr​	~$3,900 to ~$4,500​	~3-4 weeks​
High Society​	~$4,550​	~8 weeks​

 

[gimpwiz]

I know how you feel, kind of in the deep end, overwhelmed, a little lost with eight million terms and a lot of people with a lot of opinions.

So I hope this advice will be useful to you. You wrote your post like it's SEO copy or something, very odd capitalization, so I hope you're just excited and not a bot of some sort.

Here's my usual advice because it's asked often enough.

1. The most important thing is fit. If it doesn't fit, nothing else matters.

Do you own a suit? If so, does it fit well? If not, why not? Post photos in either case. If you do not own a suit, you should go to several ready-to-wear shops and try on suits. Take photos, figure out what works for you.

If you find a suit that fits, or will work after mild tailoring, heavily consider ending the search there. (If the cut works but you want different details, chances are the maker makes the same suit with different colors, fabrics, etc.) The absolute least risky way to buy a suit is to buy one that fits perfectly off-the-rack/ready-to-wear, the second least risky way is to buy one that fits well in the important places and just needs a minor adjustment to waist and sleeves. It's also generally much cheaper, without necessarily being worse quality.


2. If you are reading this, either you cannot find a suit that fits well because your body shape is too unique, or you want to spend the extra money for the sake of a custom suit. Figure out what you need and/or want, whether practically or emotionally.

As some much better informed forum members write it, the distinction between MTM and bespoke is quite blurry, and sometimes just a terminology or language issue. The better distinction is between large-factory-made, and bench-made. A large-factory-made garment will allow you to specify many things custom, and be fairly affordable; a bench-made garment will allow you to specify almost anything, and be more expensive. Which you choose depends, again, on the shape of your body (can a factory accommodate you?) and your preferences (do you want to pay a lot of money for handwork or customization outside factory parameters?)

Be honest with yourself about your reasons for deciding you want capital-b bespoke. And with us. It helps get good advice.


3. Figure out what you're looking for, more or less.

If you're going custom, figure out what you want. You can figure out every single detail. Or you can just decide what kind of silhouette you like, go to a tailor whose work seems to match that, talk to them on how to achieve that silhouette, and if you like their answers and their price, pick a color and how warm you want it to be, and let them guide you. Generally the latter strategy is best when you don't know very much, but the less you know the more you need guidance from a real pro and not just some sales droid.

I would usually say to start with your intent. What do you want the suit for? Your wedding in Fall 2024 (congratulations, by the way.) What else? Unlike wedding dresses, suits are rarely one-time-use garments. Will you want it for interviews? Business? Social events? Other people's weddings? Summer, winter, in between? Outdoors, indoors? Think about where and how you would wear a suit. If you want a suit for absolutely nothing but one time use at a wedding, you can go hog wild on whatever you and your wife think looks best. If you want an earnest suit usable at myriad events for the next ten-plus years, you need to strongly consider how the suit looks and how society expects people to look at those events, and second, you need to consider practicality like temperature and durability and so forth.

For example:

If you want one do-it-all suit, get yourself a navy suit in a smooth worsted wool. Weight will depend on your local climate. If you don't like navy, do charcoal. Get it in a workhorse fabric, something like a super 100s or 110s, from a well known mill like VBC.

If you want a suit for happy occasions and aren't too worried about interviews and funerals, you can easily go a little louder, a little less durable, a little more summery, etc.

If you're getting married in the evening and get invited to lots of formal affairs, consider a tux instead.

If you're getting married on the beach and go to a lot of fancy outdoor parties, and don't care about interviews and so forth, consider a linen suit, in sand/stone/ivory or other light colors, patch pockets, etc.

Classic menswear is largely about intent, and aligning your intent with social norms and etiquette. Yes all that is 'made up' by people largely no longer still walking the earth, but that's how life is.


4. Choose a tailor based on their ability to meet your intent, as mentioned above.

If you want a relaxed suit in an ivory linen, you wouldn't want a tailor who only makes heavily structured heavyweight wool tailoring in the old British fashion. If you want an earnest navy suit, you wouldn't want a tailor who only does flamboyant and trendy Italian cuts that are all tight and two inches shorter than standard.

Search online. Stalk their websites, google image search results, styleforum discussions, instagram, whatever. If that seems to align, go to their shop. Go talk to the tailor whose work you like best, or the tailor that charges the least for work you consider good enough, and figure out if they can make what you want and do a good job. Hopefully they are honest enough in telling you what they can or cannot do, or at least, if they're being a bit of a salesman (which many have to be to stay in business), read between the lines. Big difference between walking in and seeing two dozen jackets that you like versus seeing none that you like but the guy telling you "yeah, we can do that, we do it sometimes." Right?


5. Commit, go through with it, do the fittings, do the adjustments, until you're as happy as you're going to be. Take a critical view of what was promised, what was delivered, costs and timelines, and decide how you feel about it.

If you feel bad, then ... well, there was risk in it and I and most other people would mention that risk to you (and did above.) Sorry. Once in a while it doesn't work out. A good tailor and honest businessman will see when it doesn't work out and offer a remake or refund. Not all will. You may have to fight, you may not win.

Most of the time, if you went with someone reputable and asked them to guide you and cut within their house style, you'll find that it worked out. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. Where the whole custom route really shines is subsequent commissions - number two, three, or more. You and the tailor dial in the fit and iron out the issues and end up with really good results. The first shouldn't be bad, but it will usually have minor room for improvement. I wore my second commission for my own wedding; the first is pretty great in most respects, but the second was better in minor ways.


-------

That's a lot of words. Want the executive summary? Go try on suits in person. Get an idea of good fit. If you're not satisfied buying off the rack, go to Divij, their reputation is good, with a >50 page thread here on styleforum (under the name Hemrajani I believe.) A number of forum members get excellent garments from them regularly. Their price is affordable due to doing most of the making in Hong Kong, but IMO you shouldn't let that put you off. Some parts of it will not be traditional bespoke but the work seems good and the results should be good too. They seem great at guiding people, especially if you're not trying to get weird with it.

 

[Blastwice]

My advice:

• Decide how much to spend
• Decide how long to wait
• ???
• Profit

 

[jonathanS]

None of these are bespoke. Don’t get swindled by a slick salesman. If you’re getting married in the fall 2024, go for a mtm from a respected place. The armoury in New York is a safe bet; nmwa x Sartoria carerra is a possibility. Stefano bemer maybe. But those aren’t bespoke.

Also a 2 piece plus a vest is a 3 piece suit. Unless you want to wear a separate fabric vest on your wedding day (don’t). There was a member here that got swindled by behr.

Another option for true bespoke is Leonard logsdail in New York or frank shattuck does remote fittings in upstate New York. You’ll get good honest bench made bespoke.

I am getting married next Fall 2024 and I was deciding between going with either Made-To-Measure or Bespoke and after researching, watching videos and reading articles/blogs. I have decided to with getting a Bespoke suit.

I live in Los Angeles, CA and researched the top rated Bespoke suit and I have come up with a list of 5 Bespoke Suit places in Los Angeles. Below are the 5 Bespoke Suit places and the average cost of a 2-piece bespoke suit and the vest and the average time it will take to produce.

I have read some positive reviews on all 5 of these places and the price is roughly the same. I am having a hard to choosing out of these 5 which one to go with.

Any advice, suggestions and recommendations would be great! Also, this will be my first time getting a Bespoke Suit.

Bespoke Suit Name​	2-Piece Suit and Vest Cost​	Average Suit Delivery Time​
Divij Bespoke​	~$1,600 and Up​	~3 months​
Art Lewin​	~$3,290 and Up​	~4 weeks​
JB Clothiers​	~$3,200 and Up​	~4-5 weeks​
Johnathan Behr​	~$3,900 to ~$4,500​	~3-4 weeks​
High Society​	~$4,550​	~8 weeks​

 

[krnsamiam]

Thank you for all this feedback!

I don't know much about Bespoke and I have only had 3 off the rack suits in my life where I got it tailored. I was originally thinking of just going with an off the rack suit that fits with my body type and getting it tailored for my wedding. While I was researching about suits I got to learn about MTM and Bespoke which I never knew about them before.

I recently got a MTM light grey suit at Indochino to try out MTM and the suit fits better then off the rack so that is a plus but it doesn't feel and fit as perfect as I want it to be.

For my wedding suit I am now debating between either going Bespoke or finding an off the rack suit that fits and works with my body type and getting it tailored to fit as perfect as possible.

As of right now, I know that I want to get a 3-piece, lightweight fabric, Black suit. I tend to run hot and sweat pretty easily and living in LA makes it worse. I want a suit that is breathable and lightweight. Besides just wearing this suit for my wedding, I would wear for other dresser types of social gatherings.

 

[jonathanS]

Thank you for all this feedback!

I don't know much about Bespoke and I have only had 3 off the rack suits in my life where I got it tailored. I was originally thinking of just going with an off the rack suit that fits with my body type and getting it tailored for my wedding. While I was researching about suits I got to learn about MTM and Bespoke which I never knew about them before.

I recently got a MTM light grey suit at Indochino to try out MTM and the suit fits better then off the rack so that is a plus but it doesn't feel and fit as perfect as I want it to be.

For my wedding suit I am now debating between either going Bespoke or finding an off the rack suit that fits and works with my body type and getting it tailored to fit as perfect as possible.

As of right now, I know that I want to get a 3-piece, lightweight fabric, Black suit. I tend to run hot and sweat pretty easily and living in LA makes it worse. I want a suit that is breathable and lightweight. Besides just wearing this suit for my wedding, I would wear for other dresser types of social gatherings.

Let’s backup for a second.

First, A black suit is fine if you’re going to a funeral. But I wouldn’t get a black suit & certainly not a three piece black suit. I think, a navy or charcoal is better.

Second, I agree with you that you shouldn’t use indochino. Its quality is not good. You have a few options for Los Angeles:

-Sartoria Dalcuore from Naples Italy travels to Los Angeles, email them or message them on instagram to see if it’s feasible. with Italians, make sure to build yourself extra time because delays happen & the last thing you’d want I to have an issue with your suit.
-frank shattuck in upstate new York does remote fittings (no experience, but I’d trust he does a good job based on his reputation).
-I’m not sure but I thought either steed or Tom Mahon traveled to Los Angeles (maybe it was Steven Hitchcock). They’re all in England, although, given that you run hot, I’d recommend going with an Italian tailor because the Italian climate is more in line with coastal American cities than London.
-Antonio Pastena in Naples, a younger tailor still finding his way. There’s a thread on here dedicated toward him, and he travels to Los Angeles. Trousers are questionable.
-visit a more established tailor who travels to New York & visit New York.
-divij wouldn’t be my choice. But of those you listed, he’s the only one doing who I’ve seen successful results from.
- there was another option I was thinking of who visits Los Angeles, but I am not sure. So if I think of it, I’ll post a reply below.

Third, it’s a good thing you’re thinking about / starting this now, as you still have time.

Oh fourth & most importantly, congratulations. Good luck on this process

 

[gimpwiz]

Definitely not a black suit. Indochino is not good.

Here's the Divij thread. https://www.styleforum.net/threads/mytailor-hemrajani-bros-appreciation-discussion-thread.557146/

Remember that people with strong opinions have their own biases and until they expound on them or you learn them through osmosis it can be hard to tell how much those opinions apply to your case. For any tailor you think of going with, find examples of their work, and see what people say (especially people who are good at constructive criticism.)

Going with a remote tailor adds significant time and risk. Keep that in mind.