And coming in with the highest price for a custom-made suit, it's...Arzano's own Kiton! (Deafening applause.) Made by Neapolitan tailors with Kiton's famous 14-micron fabric--or anything else you can afford--Made to Measure suits are elegant, comfortable, close fitting and just the right look for casting a hush over the boardroom. While a mere $6,000 will get you in, for the full Kiton treatment you'll have to shell out 30 grand. But what a treatment, including having Kiton's Master Tailor flown in from Naples for measurements and fittings, and a selection of the highest-end fabrics, including exclusive vicunas and elegant "Fabric 2000." (Whatever that is...)
A lingering and lively proponent of the "power look" that was all the rage in the Gordon Gekko days, Fioravanti has been turning out sharp, straight, square, trim and boardroom-ready suits for more than 40 years. All ensembles are designed, cut and sewn at Fioravanti's shop on West 57th Street in Manhattan, often from exclusive fabrics imported from Italy and England. From a pricy low end of $5,500, Firoravanti suits "level out" at around $10,500 in the finest Super 220 merino wool. Whatever the wattage, that's certainly a statement.
"I've never made a perfect suit, even at $20,000," says Jon Green. Not to worry, he comes pretty darn close. From an airy, third floor office overlooking Madison Avenue in New York, the former professional musician and men's store manager thoroughly sizes up customers from head to toe and lifestyles to attitudes to figure the best look and fit before sending measurements on their way. Entirely handmade suits of the finest fabrics are somewhere in that comfortable space between classic English, Italian and American, with slightly sloped, slightly roped shoulders and a sound chest thanks to sturdy canvassing. From a $5,100 starting price, most of Green's business is in the $6,000 to $7,000 range, with the occasional $18,000 to $20,000 for vicuna or cashmere with a touch of guanaco. (Guanaco are also camelid South American mammals.)
Looking for a bargain? Don't look at H. Huntsman, where even a ready-tailored suit--a.k.a., off-the-peg--will run you around $2,200, including VAT. The Savile Row suit maker lowest-end bespoke is a hefty investment as well, starting at around $4,500, before VAT. Yet for the price you'll get an ensemble of the finest fabric that just breathes "Huntsman": trim, contoured, slightly long and impossibly comfortable. Much of Huntsman's highest-end suits are being purchased by Russians these days, who apparently have a thing for incredibly fine pashmina and Super 200 vicuna, and who won't flinch at dropping $11,000 for them. As for English and Americans, they seem to prefer their Huntsman thread counts in the Super 120, 130, 140 and 150 range.
The rare dame in a man's game, Korean-born, New York-based and self-admitted "old-fashioned" suit maker Liana Lee has a fondness for British styling--though her take on it is perhaps not what you'd expect. Instead of big shoulders, Lee prefers to create a "power suit look," with a clean-cut and tailored presence, fitted to the body but not too tight. Working by appointment only from her first-floor shop on Lexington Avenue, Lee serves a steady clientele of big-shot corporate types, but has lately seen an influx of younger executives in their mid-30s who are just discovering how to dress properly, which she's more than happy to educate in their journey. A bottom-end Lee runs $4,500. Asked about her top-end, Lee demurs, but eventually admits she recently did a cashmere jacket for $8,000. She also does a brisk business in custom ties--seven-fold only.
Everyone from Humphrey Bogart to Burt Lancaster to the Prince of Wales and Ronald O. Perelman has worn Caraceni, so why not you? Under the guiding needle of Gianni Campagna, who purchased the company in 1998, the Milanese suit maker continues to turn out exquisitely made bespoke ensembles for some of the biggest shots in the world. Productivity is low: some 700 per year at around 63 hours per suit, each of which is painstakingly sewn by hand. With a style that hasn't changed since 1913, Caraceni's look is classic English: softer and rounder on the shoulder, full in the chest and a bit shorter than usual. A starting price for a Caraceni is around $4,500, plus the cost of getting to Milan. A top of the line suit in, say, super 210 wool will run you in the neighborhood of $18,000.
"I get well paid for the suits that I make," notes Savile Row veteran Leonard Logsdail, who struck out on his own 33 years ago and has been on New York's East 53rd Street since 1991. After a "tough" three years in the sinking economy, things are going "reasonably well" for Logsdail, who counts financial talking head Lawrence Kudlow among his customers. Logsdail's ensembles have the tapered look of the finest British tailoring, though without the harsh solidness of the British canvas. Unlike most big-league suit makers, the difference between Logsdail's lowest and highest end is a mere $1,500, because he doesn't work with fabrics in the Super 180 and above range.
Though a mere 42-years-old, Domenico Vacca seems to have garnered a lifetime of expertise in his four years on Fifth Avenue in New York. Having soaked up the fine art of tailoring from his grandmother, the Bari, Italy native specializes in a classic, 1930s-era Neapolitan look: close fitting to the body, with high armholes and barely a thread of excess fabric--which he swears will shed pounds from your look, if not your physique. Vacca's on the move these days, having recently opened new shops in New York's SoHo district and Palm Beach, with more coming on Rodeo Drive and in Bal Harbor over the next couple of months. His lowest-end, custom-made suits stand tall at $3,900, while a super 200 wool job will run you around $10,000. Think that's pricey? Vacca's shirts go for $390 in Sea Island and Egyptian cotton.
From his 'kozy' shop on New York's Lexington Avenue, Jay Kos has been selling eponymous, superbly tailored and prominently priced menswear since 1996. While off-the-peg suits are comparable to other high-end lines, a made-to-measure Kos will put a dent in your wallet, starting at $3,800. Cut and sewn by "the oldest suit maker in Italy," natural shoulders and high armholes make them wear as much like shirts as suits. At the highest end, a 100% cashmere ensemble will run you $8,500, and Kos says he does the occasional vicuna for $11,000 or so. A new Jay Kos opened last November on 57th and Park Avenue in Manhattan, and Kos hopes to expand into Chicago and five other major cities in the near future.
Wide-shouldered, slim-waisted, lusciously fabriced and authoritative from collar-to-cuff...must be a Brioni. Founded in 1945 as a single shop on Via Barberini in Rome and favored by European aristocracy, Hollywood heavyweights and Pierce Brosnan's James Bond (everyone's second-favorite 007), Brioni takes over where Zegna's leave off in corporate hierarchy, standing tall behind the podium or in the corner office. The made-to-measure line starts at $3,500, and spikes all the way up to $25,000 for the most precious fabrics, such as the finest vicuna, which are sold only to Brioni's "elite" customers who order every season.
At 40 hours of work and three fittings per, Anderson & Sheppard ensembles are best suited for those with a lot of time on their hands, which is perhaps why Prince Charles is such a fan. Happily, nothing much ever changes at the venerable Savile Row tailor, which has been rendering exquisitely soft, elegantly draped, slightly wide-shouldered and high-armholed suits in its own traditional cut since 1873. The store reports good business from America these days: Its last visit stateside was the best ever, according to a cutter, with three large trunks full of fittings. A starting-end Anderson & Sheppard will run you $3,500, while a highest-end suit in 100% cashmere is a mere $5,700.
Nothing much ever changes at Oxxford, whose superbly fitting custom suits require a couple of fittings, are still cut from a single piece of fabric, and are still stitched and sewn largely by hand by master tailors and seamstresses in the Chicago workrooms the company opened in 1916. Nothing much, until recently, that is, with the introduction of Oxxford Crest, a new line aimed at younger consumers, with more contemporary styling including stronger, squarer and softer roped-shoulders and a sexier silhouette at $3,500, or in Escorial--a rare fiber from a single herd of sheep in New Zealand--at $5,000. For the boardroom, though, it's Oxxford Custom, also starting at $3,500. On the highest-end, $7,000 is a more likely price, though Creative Director Jack Simpson says Oxxford sells a limited number of suits in Super 200 cashmere each year at $15,000. Now that sounds like a nice suit.
From sharp military uniforms to stylish ready-made collections to wallet-busting bespoke suits, Gieves & Hawkes is Savile Row in a nutshell. Prominently located at No. 1, the suit maker has been delivering elegant handmade English tailoring since 1785, with some of its earliest customers including Lord Admiral Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. Not quite as stuck on traditions as some of its neighbors, Gieves & Hawkes is mindful of contemporary trends, as per its snappy Gieves line for the young, flush, slender and fashion-minded set. For the perfect fit it's bespoke, of course, starting at around $3,500 and scaling up to $11,000 or so in luscious cashmeres and the like.
With those hefty price tags, smart shoulders and a trim, clipped and classic old-world (i.e., British) air, Ralph Lauren's high-end Purple Label is an elegant uniform for the boardroom, yacht club or anywhere you have to look refined. First introduced in 1994, Purple Label added "made-to-measure" suits about five years ago, which are currently available only at select big city locations, including New York, Chicago, Dallas and, of course, Beverly Hills. Made in Italy from fine fabrics, including a smattering of exclusive ones, made-to-measures get started at $3,500--well, $3,495 to be precise--for something like Ralph's classic "Douglas" jacket, and climb briskly up to $10,000 for superb cashmeres and the like. Nice looking suits, these.
