Custom Suits for Santa Monica

Mr James is a European tailoring house in Playa del Rey — about fifteen minutes down Lincoln from Santa Monica. Fully canvassed, fully bespoke suits cut from your own pattern and made by our atelier in France, from $1,795. Unlimited fittings and a year of complimentary alterations included.

We have dressed men and women from Santa Monica since we opened in Los Angeles in 2015. Most of them come to us. Some of them never do, because we go to them instead.

Getting here, or not bothering to

The showroom is at 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey. From most of Santa Monica that is a straight run down Lincoln, and there is free parking in front of the shop and behind it — which, if you live in Santa Monica, you will appreciate more than anything else on this page.

If the drive is the obstacle, it need not be. We visit homes and offices anywhere in Los Angeles for $300, and we bring the cloth with us — the full selection, plus linings, shirting and finished garments to look at. For a man who is billing by the hour, that is usually the cheaper option.

What Santa Monica actually wears

The brief we get from this side of the city is consistent: something that works in a meeting and does not look like a costume at dinner. Softer shoulder, less structure, cloth that can take a warm afternoon and an air-conditioned office in the same day.

That last part is where most men go wrong. A smooth lightweight worsted looks cool and wears hot. A high-twist cloth — the yarn twisted harder before weaving — is more open, breathes properly, and holds a crease through a long day. It is the single most useful thing we tell people about dressing for this climate, and it costs nothing extra.

Heavy flannel has its place here too, but genuinely only from December to February.

What makes it bespoke

A pattern drafted for you alone — your posture, the set of your shoulders, the way you actually stand rather than the way a mannequin does. Around thirty measurements and three photographs, front, side and back. That pattern is kept and adjusted for as long as you come to us.

And full canvas. Inside the chest of every jacket we make there is 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 and holds it. A fused jacket has that structure glued in; it looks similar on the rail and never moulds to anyone. There is no fused option here at any price.

We do not offer made-to-measure. Our starting price already sits where much of it does. The whole comparison, including the cases where made to measure Los Angeles is honestly the better answer for someone else, is set out on that page, and what a tailor actually does describes the work behind the words.

Getting here from Santa Monica

Lincoln Boulevard south to Culver, or Pacific Coast Highway and Vista del Mar if you want the ocean the whole way, about twenty minutes. Montana Avenue, Main Street and the Promenade have plenty of menswear; none of it is bespoke, which is why Santa Monica clients make the drive.

Who comes to us from Santa Monica

Santa Monica gives us a particular client: well dressed, often in tech or entertainment, used to good ready-to-wear and slightly tired of it. Weddings at Shutters, Casa del Mar and the Annenberg Beach House bring us grooms. The rest want a suit that looks relaxed on Montana Avenue and correct in a Century City boardroom, which is a cutting question.

Santa Monica is not the only place that sends us that brief. We see a good deal of Culver City, Mar Vista, just inland of you, Playa Vista, El Segundo, Westchester and Manhattan Beach as well, and each has a page of its own.

Prices

Suits from $1,795, shirts $295, jackets and odd trousers priced individually, fittings unlimited. A custom tuxedo Los Angeles commission begins at $1,795 as well, which is the same figure as a two-piece. Everything, by cloth house, is on our bespoke suit cost Los Angeles page, and how much a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles sets out where the money actually goes.

Shirting and repairs sit on pages of their own: custom shirts Los Angeles at $295 apiece, and suit alterations Los Angeles at $80 an hour on garments we did not make. For a wedding party, our groomsmen suits Los Angeles page sets out how a group is sequenced.

How long it takes

Allow an hour for the first meeting and four to eight weeks for delivery; you meet Robb or Ben at every fitting. Full detail on the bespoke suits Los Angeles page, and on booking a fitting for what that first hour covers.

Questions we are often asked

Do you do home visits in Santa Monica?

Yes. A visit to a home or office anywhere in Santa Monica is $300, including travel, cloth books and finished garments to try on.

What suits a wedding at Shutters or the Annenberg Beach House?

A soft blue or stone in a lighter-weight wool, half-lined, cut to sit still in an onshore breeze and photograph well against the sand.

How does bespoke compare with the made-to-measure shops on Montana?

Made to measure adjusts an existing block; we draw a pattern for you from thirty measurements and three photographs. The difference shows in the shoulders and the balance, not the label. The two routes are compared in full on made to measure Los Angeles.

Come and see, or have us come to you

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 will meet Robb or Ben — there is no sales floor and nobody else to meet.

Appointment only, seven days a week, forty-eight hours' notice.

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.

Two recent pieces are worth the time before you choose cloth: what the super numbers and the weight on a suit cloth actually mean, and, for anyone commissioning alongside you, a woman's first bespoke suit in Los Angeles.

Two newer ones answer the questions we are asked most: how long it takes to make a bespoke suit, and renting a tuxedo or having one made.

More: custom suits Los Angeles · custom tailor Los Angeles · bespoke suits Los Angeles · custom tuxedo Los Angeles.

Nearby: custom suits Venice · custom suits Marina del Rey · custom suits Mar Vista · custom suits Brentwood · custom suits Pacific Palisades · custom suits Malibu · bespoke tailor Playa del Rey.