Spano?

[emsny]

Has anyone on the forum had a suit from Domenico Spano, now working out of Saks Fifth Avenue? Thanks.

 

[Thracozaag]

Nice guy, but I wasn't terribly enamoured with his suits; the chest area seemed quite stiff, and the cuts (and fabrics) were much too flamboyant for my taste.

koji

 

[A Harris]

I've seen probably 20-25 pieces. He uses interesting fabrics and cuts, but the construction quality leaves much to be desired. Sort of crude. Not really recommended.

 

[discostu004]

he tried to get me to get something last week.

 

[emsny]

Many thanks - I was concerned about the flamboyance (though I thought I could probably be in control over that), but I'm grateful for the warning about construction.

Any thoughts about Flusser?

 

[emsny]

In fact, let me broaden my question and give some background about what I'm looking for. I don't buy a lot of clothes (my wife would disagree): one or two suits a year, maximum. My favored look is the Anderson & Sheppard look of the late Colin Harvey's day: a nice generous drape and fairly soft shoulders. Elegant but easy to wear. The principles espoused by Flusser, in fact. After trying a few other Savile Row firms in the 1980s, I had a few garments made by Anderson, and have been using a private tailor in the UK for the past ten or 12 years, but I feel that we are drifting apart and I thought it would be nice to have a local (Manhattan) alternative - especially given the weakess of the dollar, which has gotten to the point where it is a factor. I'm not looking, especially, to spend a lot more than $3K for a two-piece suit.

Any thoughts would be welcome. One reads (on forums) much about one Raphael on E 53rd Street - the one set of photos I've seen of a suit of his suggests that his preferred look owes more to, say, Huntsman or Dege than to Anderson. But that might have been more the client's taste than his own practice.

Thanks, all.

 

[BGW]

I might post your latest query as a separate thread, as those not interested in Spano, but with info on the style of various NYC tailors, might not open this one.

 

[masterfred]

Ems, a search on the topic of tailors here and at the AskAndy.com forum will give you quite a few results, a number of which will reflect acrimonious replies. However, there are some very interesting posts on the subject. I've never used Spano, and have no plans to do so; when I visited his shop in SFA, his rather snotty salesmen really turned me off. In addition, Spano's suit silhouette is stiffer in the chest, blade, and shoulders than perhaps what you're looking for, and the construction is less than ideal. I certainly don't mind the flamboyance the other posters have commented on.

Although some others haven't had much good to say about Cheo Park in NYC, he does a version of the drape suit. I've never been able to afford to use him; a friend of mine has had several suits made by Cheo, and I think they're quite nice. Several posters (I won't cite names) found Cheo pompous, but I visited him once off the cuff when I was in Manhattan, introduced myself, and before I'd even mentioned my friend (and his customer), he stopped his cutting and chatted with me. This took place a few years ago when his shop was still street-level on 60th.

Anyway, the suits my buddy has from him are quite nice; a slightly slimmer and more shaped drape cut than, say, Prince Charles's suits (which I personally think is a good thing). The detailing is well done. Perhaps I should say was, as he hasn't ordered from Cheo in several years. Anyway, unless he has recently moved, Cheo is still on 60th street in an office building, the address of which escapes me. Why not give him a ring and see if he's what you're looking for? In addition, Darren Beaman, who trained at A&S, travels to the U.S. several times a year, and does a Scholte-style cut; he's received praise from members here and at AskAndy.

 

[LabelKing]

How would you say the cut is flamboyant? Like Bijan?

 

[masterfred]

LabelKing, Spano's cut isn't flamboyant; his blends of pattern-on-pattern are, I'm sure, what Koji is referring to. It's a riff on Duke-of-Windsor-by-way-of-1930s-gangster styling (well, maybe that's a bit over the top). Actually, although I didn't care much for the styling overall, I liked some of his accessories - ties, braces, pocket squares. Spano used to work for Alan Flusser, and I'd think of him in the same light: a designer and retailer, not a tailor, who offers some nice haberdashery.

 

[A Harris]

He does a lot of very unique striped fabrics that you will never see anywhere else.

I too think you should check out Darren Beaman. He has been highly praised by gentlemen in the know, and his prices are extremely reasonable.

 

[emsny]

Thanks, A Harris, et al. Beaman does come in for quite a lot of favorable comment; I was hoping, however, to try someone local. We'll see what happens.

 

[brescd01]

If I were in NYC, I would buy fabric at Tip Top and bring it to Ercole in Brooklyn, if I were not going to spend the 3000 dollars/suit at Raphael. I know you wanted a Scholte cut, and that specificity is going to be tougher to satisfy, as you know.

 

[emsny]

As a non-automotive man who has arranged his life in such a way as to minimize the need to go anywhere other than on foot, I'm ruling out Brooklyn even more emphatically than London. This isn't provincialism, just laziness.

Thanks, though - I read much that is good about Ercole.

 

[Urban Warrior]

brescd01, I have been contenplating contacting Erocle to have a suit made from my own fabric. However I haven't read or found many reviews of his product other than he does a nice job. Could you please elaborate on your experiences with him? Thanks in advance.