tailor

Alton Lane: The Modern Bespoke

A new online menswear brand has launched, promising bespoke clothing at an accessible price. Alton Lane seeks to be the new standard for premium custom menswear. "We aren't here to join the luxury men's clothing market. We're here to revolutionize it," says Colin Hunter, Alton Lane's co-founder and CEO. The site will offer bespoke clothing for business, social and special events, including suits, shirts, trousers, blazers, tuxedos and overcoats. Custom shirts start at $79 and custom suits start at $485. The company has a state-of-the-art 3D body scanner in the Manhattan showroom that lets clients get their precise measurements in less than 30 seconds. Then they can browse the carefully curated selection of fabrics while enjoying a drink from the Alton Lane bar. Clients can request fabric samples and personalized style advice from the website. The site has debuted as an invitation-only service and the Alton Lane showroom is open for private appointments around the clock, seven days a week. Turn around time from date of order to delivery is approximately four to five weeks. In a recent interview co-founders Colin Hunter and Peyton Jenkins said that they are hoping to change the way men view their clothes, how they should fit and their access to it.

Tags: alton lane, bespoke, menswear, tailor

Hard Times For Hardy Amies

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

One of Britain's esteemed Savile Row clothing firms Hardy Amies may become a victim of changing styles and changing finances. As my colleague Jared Paul Stern reported earlier this year, British couturier Hardy Amies, whose Savile Row shop opened back in 1946, designed clothes for everyone from Stanley Kubrick to the Queen of England. Sir Hardy Amies died in 2003 (at the robust age of 93) but since then his company has carried on and recently launched a handbag line.

But The Guardian delivers the sad news that the firms is now struggling and has said that t it may have to go into administration after failing to secure funding from a major shareholder. When the funding didn't come through the company requested that the stock exchange suspend the shares until the company can regroup. Icelandic investment firm Arev Brands Limited (ABL) owns a 49.3% stake and has provided substantial loans to prop up the company but has refused to give additional funding. The company has has losses for several years. Some say that the brand is done, that it is too matronly and does not understand today's woman. A ready-to-wear line also failed to capture public attention.

It seems that unless the brand is sold to someone who will buy the business as a whole or additional funding is secured, we may witness an ignominious end to a great British brand.

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Tags: england, hardy amies, HardyAmies, savile row, tailor

The Ultimate Bespoke Suit

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

I thought $20,000 was a lot to pay for a suit but that's nothing compared to the Ultimate Bespoke suit by William Westmancott. Westmancott, a young Savile Row tailor makes the suit from a one-off cloth woven in a traditional English Mill. Because the cloth is so expensive, Westmancott creates a complete sample suit in another fabric to make sure your pattern is perfect. He also flies to wherever you are for fittings and throws in a complimentary set of five bespoke shirts worth £2,475.

[via Daily Mail]

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Tags: bespoke suit, BespokeSuit, savile row, suit, tailor, william westmancott