MAN-MADE STYLE: Well-suited to impress

Patio Nights, a networking and social tradition at Lombardo Custom Apparel, has one small problem. The Miami Circle showroom where men and women come seeking tailor-made duds does not have a patio.

The misnomer doesn’t seem to bother the 25 or so suit-wearing businessmen, athletes and attorneys milling around on any given evening. Some of these men are at the top of their respective games; others are still on the rise. Many of them are under the age of 40. All of them have at least one thing in common.

They have discovered the beauty of bespoke.

Atlanta’s Miami Circle is not quite London’s Savile Row, where the term bespoke originated —- a reference to suits custom-made for a man who would select a bolt of fabric for a suit then considered to “be spoken for.” But the arrival last year of Dallas-based Lombardo, along with other recent additions to the local men’s custom apparel scene, is evidence of a small revolution.

“Men are embracing the idea of wanting to dress up, and to do that, the logical final stopping point on the curve is custom tailoring,” said Nick Sullivan, fashion director of Esquire magazine.

Custom tailoring, in which a suit is constructed from a pattern cut to the measurements of a single individual, is not to be confused with made-to-measure, in which a suit is made from an existing pattern that is modified to meet an individual’s measurements. And definitely not to be confused with off-the-rack, off-the-peg or ready-to-wear, in which what you see is what you get.

Pop culture influences, such as AMC’s hit TV show “Mad Men,” which showcases slim-suited ad executives living the high life, the dressed-up image of President-elect Barack Obama, and specialty retailers that now make ready-to-wear clothing with bespoke elements such as fine Italian wool and hand-sewn buttons, have exposed a broader cross section of men to custom clothing.

What was once the domain of Old World tailors is now, for better or worse, an industry shared with businessmen who ply the trade in wood-paneled showrooms with flat-screen TVs and espresso bars. For the customer, the end result is a suit that makes him walk a bit taller, look a bit better and revel in owning a garment that is uniquely his.

‘Like a second skin’

“It is almost like having a second skin,” said radio personality Ryan Cameron, a client of Atlanta’s Executive Clothiers. Cameron’s first indulgence several years ago was two pinstriped suits, one of which he pressed into service on New Year’s Eve. “I looked sharper than most of the people [at the party]. I was hosting it. I needed something to stand out.”

For some men, going custom is more a matter of practicality than style. Athletes such as the Atlanta Falcons’ Jonathan Babineaux, 27, who began wearing custom suits as a rookie in 2005, often have no other choice to properly fit their muscular or tall builds.

But the principle of fit applies to the average guy as well. Is his body alignment off from carrying a briefcase? Is one leg shorter than the other from a knee injury? Does a forward-leaning head leave a gap at the back of the collar? A finely made custom suit can disguise almost any imperfection.

Tailoring is part physics, part chiropractic medicine and part art, says Al Kleber Jr., founder of Custom Clothing of Atlanta.

Kleber first studied tailoring under his father while growing up in Pittsburgh; once, as a testament to his skill, he designed a tuxedo for a stuffed version of the late Willie B, Zoo Atlanta’s famed gorilla.

In a modest showroom among racks of suits in various stages of completion, Kleber and his son, Al Kleber III, mark garments using the universal language of tailors to indicate a shorter sleeve or longer hem. It takes more than 20 measurements to create a custom suit, and any adjustments made when the garment is fitted on a client must also be made to the pattern. Cutters in New York rework the garment until it is a perfect fit, then send it to Kleber and his tailors to be finished. The entire process can take eight to 10 weeks and include three to five fittings. Once the first suit is made, future orders can be delivered in four weeks or less.

A custom suit costs on average $2,000 to $3,500, but Kleber has made suits that cost as much as $15,000. The difference in price, he said, is all in the fabric. There is pinstriped fabric, for instance, on which the stripe spells out the client’s name in near microscopic letters. There is material woven with diamonds and 22 karat gold. There is wool from Australian sheep raised in luxury surroundings that commands $70,000 per suit.

But that’s all fantasy stuff. The reality, Kleber said, is that he can make a sport coat for $2,750 in the same fabric that would cost $4,300 purchased off the rack from Brioni, the Italian suitmaker.

“If you are going to spend $500 or $600 on a nice suit, for an extra several hundred you can get exactly what you want, and it fits perfectly,” said Marc Alexander, 38, of Roswell, who had his first suit made in 2001 to satisfy his eccentric style. Alexander mixes his custom suits with a wardrobe of shirts, ties and pocket squares to create different looks. The durability of a custom-made suit, the fact that virtually any adjustment can be made to it from scrap material that Kleber keeps on file, and the ability to have a suit be whatever he desires is how Alexander justifies the cost.

A merging of old, new

Kleber said he is seeing more clients like Alexander. “They don’t buy as many [suits],” Kleber said. “They want to buy less, but better.”

Kleber recognizes the times are changing as his 25-year-old son drags him into the modern age of computers and electronic transactions. The younger Kleber may not be able to eyeball a client’s trouble spots without the help of a tailor’s tools, but he knows what younger clients want. This melding of old and new is changing the landscape of custom menswear, even if new is sometimes just the old way dressed up in new clothes.

“You can’t be purely a maverick or a dinosaur,” said Sid Mashburn, who opened his eponymous store in late 2007. The westside boutique takes one-stop shopping for men to the extreme, offering ready-to-wear, made-to-measure and bespoke all under one roof. “We are trying to dress guys from Sunday to Saturday,” Mashburn said.

So while a shopper may find popular brands such as Polo, he also can kick it old school with Mashburn’s tailor, who is as steeped in the tradition of tailoring as he is willing to defy its conventions. “It’s super important that you build off of things that are tried and true, but give it new life,” Mashburn said.

In this new era of custom apparel, there seems to be room for it all. Whether a man chooses a multilocation operation such as Lombardo, a third-generation tailor such as Kleber or an independent startup such as Mashburn, it is his choice.

And that’s exactly what custom clothing is about.