How close are you to the Marina?

Playa del Rey is the next neighbourhood south. Five or ten minutes along Culver Blvd and you are at the door, number 221, with free parking in front and behind.

What does a suit cost?

A two-piece suit starts at $1,795, a three-piece at $2,045, a tuxedo at $1,795, an overcoat at $1,200, odd trousers at $450 and a custom shirt at $295. Cloth from the better mills costs more: Drago from $2,995, Zegna and Holland & Sherry from $3,495, Loro Piana from $3,995. The making is the same at every one of those prices, full canvas throughout, so what you are choosing is cloth, not quality.

Who will I actually meet?

Robb or Ben. There are two of us, and whichever one you see at the consultation is the one who sees the garment through to delivery. You will not be handed round.

Custom Suits for Marina del Rey

Mr James is the nearest bespoke tailoring house to Marina del Rey — a few minutes along Culver Boulevard, at 221 Culver Blvd in Playa del Rey. Two-piece suits from $1,795, fully canvassed, cut to a pattern that exists only for you and made by our own hands in France.

If you live in the Marina, this is your local tailor in the literal sense: the bespoke tailor in Playa del Rey is five minutes along Culver Boulevard. Most clients from there walk out of a first consultation having spent less time travelling than parking at a mall.

Waterfront weddings

A good deal of our Marina work is grooms. The hotels and the yacht clubs along the water host weddings most weekends of the year, and a waterfront wedding has its own requirements.

Wind is the first. A jacket that hangs correctly indoors can look unsettled on an exposed deck, and that is a cutting question — how the skirt of the jacket is shaped and how the trouser is weighted. Light is the second. Photographs taken off the water carry a great deal of reflected brightness, which flattens a very dark cloth and shows every flaw in a shiny one. A mid-grey or a soft navy in a cloth with some texture photographs far better than a flat black.

We will talk all of this through at the consultation. Wedding parties are discounted twenty per cent, which covers groomsmen, fathers and brothers commissioned alongside the groom. There is more on our page for wedding suits Los Angeles, and on black tie on our page for a custom tuxedo Los Angeles.

Getting here from Marina del Rey

Along Culver Boulevard or Via Marina, five minutes. If you live in the Marina we are the nearest tailoring house by some distance, and most clients from there walk out of the first consultation having spent less time travelling than parking at a mall. Inland beyond us, over the bluff, is Westchester, and custom suits in Westchester are made on the same terms at the same storefront. North and further inland lies Mar Vista, where custom suits Mar Vista come from the same bench.

Who comes to us from Marina del Rey

The Marina's hotels and yacht clubs, the Ritz-Carlton, the Marina del Rey Hotel, the California Yacht Club, host weddings most weekends of the year, so a good deal of our Marina work is grooms and their parties. The rest is men who keep a boat or a condo on the water and want a few suits that behave in wind and reflected light.

What it costs

Two-piece suits from $1,795, dinner suits from $1,795, overcoats from $1,200. The price follows the cloth; the hand work is the same at every price. More on bespoke suit cost Los Angeles, and a fuller account of how much a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles in the journal.

Cloth near the water

One practical note for anyone living on or near the marina: salt air is unkind to tailoring, and so is the habit of leaving a jacket in a car. Cloth with a firmer twist holds up better, and a suit that is aired properly between wearings will outlast one that lives in a garment bag.

We will say which cloths we would and would not recommend for the way you actually live, rather than the way a catalogue imagines you do. That conversation is part of the consultation and costs nothing. If you would like the groundwork first, what the super numbers and the weight on a suit cloth mean sets it out, and a woman's first bespoke suit in Los Angeles covers what to expect from a first commission.

Two newer notes from the journal answer what grooms here ask first: how long it takes to make a bespoke suit, and renting a tuxedo or having one made.

How a commission runs

One free hour to start, then the pattern, the fittings and four to eight weeks of making in France. See bespoke suits Los Angeles for the stages, booking a fitting for what the first hour involves, and what a tailor actually does for the work itself.

Questions we are often asked

What should a groom wear for a waterfront wedding in the Marina?

A mid-grey or soft navy in a cloth with some texture, so the reflected light off the water does not flatten it, with a jacket cut to stay settled on an exposed deck.

Can you fit the wedding party at the hotel?

Yes. A visit to any Marina del Rey hotel or residence is $300, including travel; wedding parties are twenty per cent off.

How quickly can you turn a suit around for a Marina wedding?

Four to six weeks in domestic cloth, six to eight in imported. Rush orders at twenty-five per cent more can be done in six weeks.

Come and see us

Five minutes along Culver Boulevard: 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey. Daily by appointment, free parking. Reserve a time or telephone 310-503-3592.

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