Custom Formalwear

There is a moment, just before you leave the house, when you catch yourself in the mirror and the jacket sits exactly where it should. The shoulders are clean. The waist is nipped. The lapel lies flat against your chest without a ripple. That moment is what we build toward.

Black tie is the highest standard of a man's wardrobe. It is not an occasion for rented garments or compromise. When the invitation says formal, the execution must be flawless — because the room will be full of people who notice.

A rented tuxedo that sort of fits is an insult to the occasion — and everyone in the room can tell.

We have built tuxedos for grooms who wanted to look like themselves on the most photographed day of their lives. For fathers walking daughters down the aisle. For men who attend the same charity gala every November and decided, finally, to stop renting.

The cloth matters. A barathea wool with a dry, matte hand. A midnight blue that reads black under candlelight but reveals its true color in the photographs. A velvet dinner jacket in deep burgundy or forest green for the holiday season — the kind of jacket that makes the host come find you before the first drink.

The Details of Black Tie

From the width and material of the lapel — satin or grosgrain, peak or shawl — to the precise break of the trousers, we walk you through every rule of formal attire. And then we ask which rules you would like to bend. Single-breasted or double. Midnight blue instead of black. A shawl collar on a midnight dinner jacket. A one-button closure that sits exactly at the waist.

The facing on the lapel is grosgrain or silk satin — your choice — and the buttonhole is hand-stitched, the kind of detail no one will see until they are standing close enough to shake your hand. The trousers have a single silk braid down the leg. The waist is covered. The shirt is white, with a marcella or pleated front, French cuffs, and stud closures in mother-of-pearl or black enamel.

And the bow tie is hand-tied. Always hand-tied. A pre-tied bow tie is the one detail that every man in the room will recognize, even if he cannot say why. The slight asymmetry of a hand-tied knot is the signature of a man who knows what he is doing.

The slight asymmetry of a hand-tied knot is the signature of a man who knows what he is doing.

For the Groom

Your wedding photographs will be looked at long after the cake is gone and the band has packed up. The suit you wear will be in those photographs forever — on the mantel, on the wall, on the phone screen of every relative who could not make the trip.

We have dressed grooms who wanted a classic black peak lapel, grooms who chose midnight blue with a shawl collar, and one who wore a cream dinner jacket with a black silk bow tie on a yacht in the Mediterranean. The right answer is the one that makes you look like the best version of yourself — not a costume, not a rental, not a version of someone else's idea of formal.

We also build formalwear for the father of the bride, the best man, and the ushers — so the wedding party looks like a group of men who were dressed by the same hand, not a collection of rented jackets in slightly different shades of black.

Beyond the Tuxedo

Formalwear is not only black tie. There is the morning dress for a daytime wedding — the cutaway coat, the ascot, the pearl-gray waistcoat, the striped trousers that trace their lineage to the races at Ascot. There is the stroller coat for a semi-formal daytime event. There is the white dinner jacket for a summer affair in Newport or a cruise through the Greek islands.

Each has its own rules, its own proportions, its own quiet codes. Brad knows them all, and he will guide you through them without making you feel like you are taking an exam. The point is not to follow rules for their own sake. The point is to walk into the room knowing you got it exactly right.

The result is a garment that fits like it was made for you, because it was — and that makes all the difference when every photograph of the evening will outlast the evening itself.