The Allure of the $2,000 Custom Suit
08/04/2006
Judging from what we've seen in the streets and tapas bars of Philadelphia, today's men's suit takes after Hefty trash bags. Underneath the bulges of its shiny black exterior, it is designed to hold and conceal as much garbage as possible. Our eyes are grateful, then, that a handful of New York boutiques are reviving the bespoke suit--custom suits that actually give form to the trunk rather than swaddling it in a voluminous tarp of pinstripes. The customization trend that consultants were peddling through 2004 and 2005 was mostly hot air. Consumers already have way too many choices. This is especially true with the human body, which comes in too many varieties of shape to be reduced to four or five industrial sizes.
If there's a lesson in the luxury bespoke suit craze (aside from the obvious one: some fancy boys will always want to show off) it's this: there's no such thing as mass customization. We're only willing to pay more in order to have more choices on the boutique level, where there's a wise and friendly hand to guide us through the process of selection in a way that no series of pop-up filters will ever be able to.
The Sartorialist--Foremost Chronicler of the Bespoke Revival
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