What Bespoke Means at Mr James
For our main Los Angeles page, see custom suits in Los Angeles.
Mr James makes fully bespoke, fully canvassed suits priced at consultation. Every garment is cut from a pattern drawn for one client and made by our own atelier in France. Unlimited fittings and a year of complimentary alterations are included. 4 to 12 weeks, depending on the cloth.
There is a great deal of loose language in this trade. Shops advertise “bespoke” for a stock pattern in a chosen cloth, and “canvassed” for a jacket that is mostly glued. What follows is exactly what we do, garment by garment and mill by mill, so you can judge us against anyone else making custom suits in Los Angeles on the same terms.
Where the suits are made
Mr James is a European house. Robb founded it in 2010. Every garment is made in our own atelier in France. We have been in Los Angeles since 2015 and a bespoke tailor in Playa del Rey since 2021, sixteen years of the same hands doing the same work.
As far as we know we are the only genuinely European suitmaker in Los Angeles. There are other fine tailors in this city and we would happily send you to several of them. What we do not think anyone can match is the combination: a French atelier, full canvas as standard, and a starting price set at consultation.
What it costs
Price is set by the cloth. Nothing else changes: every suit at every price is fully bespoke, fully canvassed, with unlimited fittings. A jacket commissioned on its own is priced the same way, and whether you can have just a jacket made explains why no single figure for one is published here.
- Two-piece suit: priced at consultation
- Three-piece suit: priced at consultation
- Tuxedo or dinner suit: priced at consultation
- Overcoat: priced at consultation
- Odd trousers: priced at consultation
- Custom shirt: priced at consultation
In the finer mills:
- Drago: priced at consultation, and the least expensive of the four
- Zegna: priced at consultation, a step above Drago
- Holland & Sherry: priced at consultation, alongside Zegna
- Loro Piana: priced at consultation, and the dearest cloth we cut
Every price includes unlimited fittings and one year of complimentary alterations. A deposit is taken at cloth selection and the balance on delivery. If the date is close, we will tell you at the consultation what a rush involves.
The overcoat is the line on that list most men never commission and the garment everyone sees before they see the suit. Cloth, length and the case for having one made in this climate are set out on our page for custom overcoats Los Angeles. Which of the classic shapes to have made, and the cloth weight that makes sense in this city, is set out in bespoke overcoat styles.
We do not make cheaper made-to-measure garments. It is not that we look down on them; it is that a full-canvas bespoke suit from our own atelier starts where a good deal of made-to-measure already sits. Where made to measure in Los Angeles is genuinely the better answer for someone, that page says so plainly.
What makes a suit bespoke
A bespoke suit begins with a pattern drafted for your figure alone: your posture, the set of your shoulders, the way you actually stand rather than the way a mannequin does. That pattern is kept and adjusted over the life of the relationship. No two clients share one. Drafting from nothing matters most on a frame no block was ever drawn for, which is set out in custom suits for tall, big and athletic men.
The canvas is the second difference, and the one nobody can see. A fully canvassed jacket has a layer of horsehair and wool floating between the cloth and the lining, attached by hand. It takes the shape of your chest over the first months of wearing and holds it. A fused jacket has that structure glued in. It looks similar on the rail and it never moulds to anyone. Every suit we make is full canvas. There is no other option here, at any price.
The third difference is the one you can see, and it is worth learning to read: how a jacket sits at the collar and the shoulder. We have set out eleven fit checks you can make in a mirror, including which faults an alteration can correct and which are drafted into the pattern and cannot.
If you are weighing us against another house, there are nine questions worth asking any tailor in Los Angeles: canvas, pattern, workroom, fittings, price and what happens in the year afterwards. Our own answers to all nine are at the foot of that piece.
How the process works
The first consultation takes an hour and costs nothing.
- Consultation. You meet Robb and we explain what full bespoke actually involves. Then you choose: cloth first, with what each one involves set out plainly, then linings, buttons, detailing and any monogram.
- Measurement. Around thirty measurements, head to toe, plus three photographs: front, side and back. Posture and stance are recorded, not just dimensions.
- Making. The pattern is drafted and the garment cut and made by hand in our atelier in France.
- Fittings. Most clients have three in total, counting the consultation. Some take four or five. There is no limit and no charge: we fit until it is right.
- Delivery. A final try-on, and a year of complimentary alterations afterwards.
A suit takes 4 to 12 weeks, depending on the cloth. We can work faster when we have to, but we would rather space the fittings a week apart and do it properly. If the trade itself is new to you, what a tailor actually does describes the work behind each of those stages.
What to wear to your consultation: fitted trousers or jeans and a T-shirt, or a well-fitted shirt. Nothing baggy, and please not shorts: we cannot read your figure through loose clothing.
Suits for women
The house dresses women as well as men, with the same pattern drawn from nothing, the same full canvas and the same terms. There is a dedicated page on women's bespoke suits in Los Angeles. For a first commission, what to expect from a woman's first bespoke suit sets out the whole journey, from the consultation to the year of alterations afterwards.
Weddings
Six months before the wedding is perfect. Three months is comfortable. We have made suits in six weeks and we will tell you honestly when we are working at the edge of what is sensible.
We would rather not start a year out. Men change shape (a training regime, a new job, the wedding diet), and a suit cut to a body from twelve months ago is a suit that needs remaking. Three to six months is the window.
Our page on groomsmen suits Los Angeles sets out how a party of five or six is best sequenced. There is also a timeline for grooms, a note on choosing between a tuxedo and a suit, and a guide to dressing a wedding party.
Black tie is set out separately on our page for custom tuxedo Los Angeles, which carries the same pattern, the same full canvas and the same starting price as a suit.
For a party weighing a hire shop against a commission, renting a tuxedo or having one made sets the two costs beside each other, hire by hire, including the three cases where we would send you to a rental counter ourselves.
Common questions
Who is the best bespoke tailor in Los Angeles?
That is for you to judge at a fitting, and there are several good houses in the city. What we can say is what Mr James is: a European house in Playa del Rey, founded in 2010, where every suit is drafted from your own pattern, full canvas at every price, hand-made in our own atelier in France, and priced at consultation, with unlimited fittings.
Where is the best place to get a custom tailored suit made in Los Angeles?
Somewhere that draws a pattern for you rather than adjusting a factory block, sets out what the commission involves before you are in the room, and has the same person at every fitting. Ours is 221 Culver Blvd in Playa del Rey, by appointment seven days a week, or we come to your home or office anywhere in Los Angeles. $300 visit within 20 miles of our Playa Del Rey studio. Farther away? Ask us when you book.
How much does a bespoke suit cost in Los Angeles?
Ours are priced at consultation for a two-piece, fully canvassed and fully bespoke. Among the finer mills Drago is the least expensive of the four, Zegna and Holland and Sherry sit a step above it, and Loro Piana is the dearest. The price is the cloth; the making is the same at every level. We have set the whole of the arithmetic out in how much a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles, including what the figures at each level actually buy.
How long does a bespoke suit take?
4 to 12 weeks, depending on the cloth, Italian or English. If the date is close, we will tell you at the consultation what a rush involves. The week-by-week account, and what is happening in the atelier during each of them, is in how long it takes to make a bespoke suit.
How many fittings will I need?
Most clients have three, counting the first consultation. Some need four or five. Fittings are unlimited and included: we do not stop until the suit is right.
How should a bespoke suit fit?
The collar lies flat against the shirt with no gap, the shoulder seam ends where your shoulder ends, the front closes on the waist button without strain lines, and the trouser breaks once over the shoe. Those four carry most of it, and the first two cannot be altered in afterwards: they are drafted into the pattern. There are eleven checks here you can make yourself in a mirror.
Do you offer made-to-measure?
No. Every suit we make is full canvas and fully bespoke, cut from your own pattern. Our starting price sits where much made-to-measure already sits, so there is little reason to offer a lesser garment.
What cloth weight suits the Los Angeles climate?
Lighter and more open than most people expect. A high-twist worsted breathes in a way a smooth lightweight cloth does not, and holds a crease through a long day. Heavy flannel has its place here, but only from December through February. We have written a fuller guide to Super numbers and cloth weight, and which ranges actually work in this city.
Will you come to me?
Yes. We visit homes and offices anywhere in the Los Angeles area, and we bring cloth, linings, shirting and finished garments with us. $300 visit within 20 miles of our Playa Del Rey studio. Farther away? Ask us when you book.
What should I bring to a fitting?
The shoes you intend to wear with the suit, and a shirt whose collar you like. Trouser length is set to a specific heel height, and how much linen shows at the cuff is set to your shirt, not to a standard. Which shoes belong with navy, grey, charcoal and black is set out in what shoes to wear with a suit.
Before you commission
These answer the questions men actually ask before they spend the money. They are worth half an hour before you book anything, here or anywhere else. If you would rather begin with a single piece, we have set out what to ask before you commission a bespoke suit.
- How to choose a bespoke tailor in Los Angeles: nine questions worth asking any house in this city, and our own answers to all nine.
- How a suit should fit: eleven checks you can make in a mirror: collar, shoulder, waist button and break, and which faults can never be altered out.
- What a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles: what is included, garment by garment and mill by mill, with the figure for your own cloth given when we meet.
- What is the difference between a cheap ready-made suit and a fine bespoke one?: the pattern, the canvas and the hours, in that order of importance. The cloth is the least of it.
- Full canvas, half canvas or fused: how a jacket is built: the difference you cannot see on the rail and will feel for a decade.
- Super 120s, 150s and cloth weight: what the numbers mean: what the Super count actually measures, and why weight decides more about how a suit wears.
- How long does it take to make a bespoke suit?: the 4 to 12 weeks set out week by week.
- Renting a tuxedo or having one made: what each really costs, and the three occasions on which we would send you to a hire shop instead.
- Made to measure, bespoke and off the peg: an honest comparison, including the cases where made to measure is the sensible choice. We simply do not make it.
- What happens at a consultation: the hour itself, so you know what you are walking into.
- How to care for a bespoke suit: resting, brushing, pressing, and how rarely a suit truly needs dry cleaning.
- Odd trousers, and when they beat a second suit: priced at consultation, and a good deal less formal than the name suggests.
- Everything we make: suits, tuxedos, overcoats, shirts and visits.
If you would like to see where the work actually goes before you commission anything, there is a longer account of the making in how a hand-made suit is built: the paper pattern drawn for one person, the canvas inside the chest, and what happens between the first measurement and the finished jacket.
Book a consultation
We are appointment-only, seven days a week, and we ask for forty-eight hours’ notice. The showroom is at 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey, CA 90293, with free parking in front and behind.
Book a private consultation, or if nothing on the calendar suits, telephone 310-503-3592 and we will find a time. You can also write to mrjames@bespokemrjames.com.
See also custom suits in Los Angeles and women's bespoke suits.
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