I’ve had a complicated relationship with wearing a suit. I grew Custom Pocket Squares up appreciating the style of writers like James Baldwin and Vladimir Nabokov, people who had a flair for wearing suits and did so flawlessly, with a personal touch. Baldwin could do the Ivy look with a slim navy suit, but he also never had problems with replacing the tie with an ascot. And while Nabokov wasn’t known first for his sartorial prowess, he always showed up in a suit.
That was how things used to be, but not so much anymore。So when I tried my hand at finance through college internships despite having literary ambitions, my experience pretending to be a suit-wearer gave me suit PTSD. When I finally graduated and bounced around some jobs in which a tie and blazer weren’t required, I forgot about suits, or why anyone would wear one in the first place. My current job is in the nonprofit sector, and involves taking government meetings in state capitals, primarily London and Brussels.
As such, it became clear to me that I’d have to grow up and buy a suit.But the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t just want any old off-the-rack suit. I wanted a suit like the ones Nabokov and Baldwin wore — something that would make me stand out from the thousands of other backpack-wearing political staffers who run around frantically with both thumbs pressed to their phones, always responding to one urgent missive or another.A colleague of mine always looks quite dapper when we’re traveling.
I confessed to him that I was looking to invest in a suit, something distinctive, something that would stand the test of time. He smiled, and told me that he would introduce me to his tailor. There was one catch: I’d have to go to London. The waiting room is on the ground floor, where you’re greeted and sat. Shelves stocked with swaths of fabric line the waiting room walls. The shop expands upwards instead of outwards — narrow, spindly staircases lead to three workrooms stacked on top of one another.
