Custom Suits for Manhattan Beach
Bespoke Mr James is a European tailoring house fifteen minutes up the coast in Playa del Rey. Fully canvassed, fully bespoke suits cut from your own pattern and made by our atelier in Southern Brittany, France, from $1,695. Unlimited fittings and a year of complimentary alterations included. Wedding parties are discounted twenty per cent.
Weddings, mostly
More of what we make for the South Bay is for a wedding than for anything else, so let us start there.
Six months out is perfect. Three months is comfortable. Six weeks is possible as a rush. What we would rather you did not do is start a year ahead. Men change shape between the engagement and the day — a training regime, a new job, the wedding diet — and a suit cut to a twelve-month-old body is a suit that has to be remade. We would rather tell you that now than take the deposit.
Groomsmen and wedding parties are twenty per cent off. A groom and four groomsmen is a straightforward afternoon for us, and everyone is measured properly rather than sized off a chart.
A beach or garden ceremony changes the recommendation, and not in the direction most people expect — lighter and more open, not thinner and smoother. More on that below.
Cloth for a coast that is warmer than it looks
The most useful thing we can tell anyone dressing on this stretch of coast: a smooth lightweight worsted looks cool and wears hot. A high-twist cloth — the yarn twisted harder before weaving — is more open, moves air, and comes out of a long day still holding its crease. It is what we put most South Bay clients into, and it costs no more.
Linen and linen blends have their place for a genuinely informal ceremony, provided you accept that linen creases; that is the point of it, not a fault.
What makes it bespoke
A pattern drafted for you alone, from around thirty measurements and three photographs — front, side and back. Posture and stance recorded, not just dimensions. That pattern is yours and is kept and adjusted over the years.
And full canvas, in every garment, at every price. A layer of horsehair and wool floats between the cloth and the lining, attached by hand, and takes the shape of your chest over the first months of wearing. A fused jacket has that structure glued in — it looks similar on the rail and never moulds to anyone. We do not make fused jackets and we do not offer made-to-measure.
Prices
- Two-piece suit — from $1,695
- Three-piece suit — from $2,045
- Tuxedo or dinner suit — from $1,795
- Overcoat — from $1,200
- Odd trousers — from $450
- Custom shirt — $295
In the finer mills: Drago from $2,995, Zegna and Holland & Sherry from $3,495, Loro Piana from $3,995. Price is set by the cloth; the making is identical at every level. Here is the full breakdown of what a bespoke suit costs and why.
The drive, or not
We are at 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey — up the coast from Manhattan Beach, past the airport, and there is free parking in front of the shop and behind it.
If that is inconvenient, we visit homes and offices anywhere in Los Angeles for $300, bringing the full cloth selection, linings, shirting and finished garments. For a fitting or two during a wedding build, a good many clients simply have us come down.
How long it takes
Four to six weeks in domestic cloth, six to eight in imported Italian and English cloth, which takes two to three weeks longer to reach the atelier. Shirts two to four weeks. Alterations about a week. A rush carries a twenty-five per cent surcharge and brings a suit to roughly three weeks.
Come and see
The first consultation is an hour and costs nothing. You meet Robb or Ben — there is nobody else to meet, and no sales floor.
Appointment only, seven days a week, forty-eight hours' notice. Call 310-503-3592 or read more about wedding commissions first.
Wear 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.