Custom Suits for Manhattan Beach

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 $1,795. 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.

Hiring for the party is the obvious alternative, and we have put the two routes side by side, year by year, in renting a tuxedo or having one made.

What we make for a custom tuxedo Los Angeles, from the facings to the braid on the trouser, sits on a page of its own.

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.

If the mill labels are the confusing part, what the super numbers and the weight on a suit cloth mean explains what you are actually choosing between.

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. The comparison, honestly made, is on made to measure Los Angeles.

If it is the work itself you would like described rather than the terms, what a tailor actually does goes through nine jobs that sit well beyond hemming a pair of trousers.

Getting here from Manhattan Beach

Highland or PCH north to Vista del Mar, fifteen minutes along the ocean to Playa del Rey. From the Sand Section it is barely a detour on the way to the airport.

Who comes to us from Manhattan Beach

Manhattan Beach sends us grooms for the pier and the Strand, fathers of the bride, and a steady number of men who commute to El Segundo and the airport corridor and want one or two suits that do everything. The town is informal; the few occasions that need a suit are usually photographed. The brief carries on down the coast through Hermosa and into Redondo Beach, where the ceremonies tend to be by the harbour rather than the pier.

Inland and a little further south, custom suits Torrance covers the larger city behind the Riviera slope, where the brief is more often a working wardrobe than a wedding.

Prices

From $1,795 for a two-piece and $2,045 for a three-piece, with a year of complimentary alterations. Bespoke suit cost Los Angeles lists every garment and every mill, and how much a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles sets out where the money actually goes.

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 a domestic cloth, six to eight in an imported one, after a free hour-long consultation. Our page for bespoke suits Los Angeles explains each stage, booking a fitting what the first hour involves, and how long it takes to make a bespoke suit where each of those weeks goes.

Questions we are often asked

Which cloth works for a Manhattan Beach wedding?

The coast is cooler than it looks once the sun drops. A mid-weight wool in a soft blue, half-lined, photographs well off the water and keeps its shape through the evening.

Do you do fittings in Manhattan Beach?

Yes. A home visit is $300, including travel and the full cloth selection; the storefront is fifteen minutes up the coast with free parking.

Can you match the wedding party to the groom?

Yes. Groomsmen, fathers and brothers commissioned alongside the groom are twenty per cent off, and we keep the cloth and cut consistent across the party.

Come and see

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.

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. It is worth reading more about wedding suits Los Angeles 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.

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

See also: custom suits Los Angeles · bespoke tailor Los Angeles · women's bespoke suits Los Angeles · custom suits Hermosa Beach · custom suits El Segundo · custom suits Torrance · custom suits Westchester · bespoke tailor Playa del Rey.