Custom Suits for Hermosa Beach

Mr James is a bespoke tailoring house about twenty minutes up the coast from Hermosa Beach, at 221 Culver Blvd in Playa del Rey. We make fully canvassed, fully bespoke suits from $1,795, cut from a pattern drawn for one person and made by hand in our own atelier in Southern Brittany, France.

Hermosa is a town of shorts and sandals, and that changes what a good suit has to do. It is worn rarely, so it has to be right every time it comes out, and it has to feel as easy as everything else a man here wears.

A suit for a beach town

The answer is usually soft tailoring: a natural shoulder, a jacket that moves, and a cloth that breathes. A navy or mid-grey in high-twist wool covers interviews, dinners, funerals and most weddings, and the jacket earns its keep again with odd trousers at the weekend. Why fit matters more than anything else is set out in how a suit should fit, and the breadth of the trade behind it in what a tailor actually does.

Weddings on the sand

A ceremony by the pier or on the Strand asks for different tailoring from a ballroom. Wind, sand and the glare off the water all argue for a lighter cloth, a paler colour than you would wear indoors, and trousers cut to sit cleanly above the sand rather than pooling on the shoe. Linen and wool and linen blends come into their own. Black tie on a beach is possible, and it is worth talking through first; tuxedo or suit for your wedding covers the choice, and renting a tuxedo or having one made the arithmetic behind it.

What a custom tuxedo Los Angeles commission involves, down to the facings and the braid on the trouser, is set out on a page of its own.

Six months ahead is ideal, three is comfortable, and six weeks is possible as a rush. Wedding parties are twenty per cent less. More on the page for wedding suits Los Angeles and on groomsmen suits Los Angeles.

Brides and bridesmaids commission from us too, and a woman's first bespoke suit in Los Angeles describes how that appointment runs.

Cloth for the coast

Salt air and a warm car are both hard on tailoring. Cloth with a firm twist recovers overnight on a hanger and resists creasing; a soft flannel will not. We set the choices out plainly in the best suit fabric for hot weather, and we will tell you which cloths we would not recommend for the way you live.

If the mill labels are the puzzling part, what the super numbers and the weight on a suit cloth mean explains why a higher number is not simply a better cloth.

Getting here from Hermosa Beach

Up Pacific Coast Highway or Highland through Manhattan Beach, then Vista del Mar along the sand to Playa del Rey, about twenty minutes. Clients coming from Redondo Beach, a mile or two further south, take the same road and allow another ten minutes. On a Saturday morning it is one of the better drives in Los Angeles.

Who comes to us from Hermosa Beach

Hermosa gives us grooms, mostly, marrying on the sand by the pier or at the Beach House, and a smaller number of men who have moved to the beach and still keep a few proper suits for the days that call for one. The brief is nearly always the same: light, breathable cloth that still holds a line in the wind.

What it costs

Lightweight cloth costs no more: two-piece from $1,795, odd trousers $450, shirts $295. Wedding parties are twenty per cent off. Details are published on bespoke suit cost Los Angeles, and how much a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles explains where the money goes.

If you would rather we came to you

A visit to a home or office anywhere in Los Angeles is $300, with cloth and finished garments brought to you. It works well for a wedding party measured together in one evening. More on home and office visits, or on booking a fitting at the storefront.

Questions we are often asked

Is there a custom suit tailor near Hermosa Beach?

Yes. Mr James is at 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey, about twenty minutes up the coast.

What should I wear to a beach wedding?

A light cloth such as linen, a wool and linen blend or a high-twist wool, in a paler colour than you would wear indoors, with trousers cut to sit cleanly above the sand.

Will you come to Hermosa Beach?

Yes, for $300 a visit.

How long does a bespoke suit take?

Four to six weeks in domestic cloth, six to eight in imported Italian or English cloth. Fittings are unlimited and included. There is a week-by-week account in how long it takes to make a bespoke suit.

Hermosa Beach is one of several neighbourhoods we look after from the Playa del Rey storefront. If you would like the fuller picture — what every garment includes, the cloth houses we work with, prices in full and how the making is done — our main guide to custom suits Los Angeles covers all of it in one place.

What suits a Hermosa Beach wedding on the sand?

A lighter weight wool or wool-and-linen in a soft blue or stone, unlined or half-lined, with a trouser weighted to sit still in the breeze.

Can the groomsmen be fitted together?

Yes, and wedding parties are twenty per cent off. We can fit the party at the storefront or at a house in Hermosa for a single $300 visit.

How long before the wedding should we start?

Six months is comfortable for a party; three months works for one suit; six weeks is a rush at twenty-five per cent more.

Come and see us

221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey, twenty minutes up the sand. Appointments seven days a week; book here, call 310-503-3592, or write to mrjames@bespokemrjames.com.

Nearby: custom suits Redondo Beach · custom suits Manhattan Beach · custom suits El Segundo · custom suits Westchester · bespoke tailor Playa del Rey. More: bespoke suits Los Angeles · made to measure Los Angeles · about the house.