Custom Suits for Silver Lake
Mr James is a European tailoring house, and the shop is at 221 Culver Blvd in Playa del Rey. Silver Lake sits on the east side of the city, a little under twenty miles from us, and it is the kind of neighbourhood where a good many people do not put on a suit to go to work. That changes what a suit is for, and it changes almost every decision at the cloth table. Every garment we make is full canvas and fully bespoke, and every one is sewn by hand in Southern Brittany, France.
Silver Lake is part of the City of Los Angeles, laid out around the reservoir with the walking loop around it, and covered by 90026 to the south and 90039 to the north. Sunset Boulevard runs along the southern edge, Silver Lake Boulevard and Glendale Boulevard carry the traffic north and south, Rowena Avenue cuts across the upper end, the 101 passes below and the 2 comes down to meet Glendale Boulevard at the top. Echo Park is immediately south and east, Los Feliz immediately north.
The suit you do not wear to work
Most writing about bespoke tailoring quietly assumes the reader wears a suit five days a week. A great deal of Silver Lake does not. The suit in that wardrobe comes out for a wedding, an awards night, a funeral, a christening, a memorial, a photograph, the two board meetings a year that are not on a screen. Perhaps twenty wearings a year rather than two hundred.
That is not a lesser reason to have one made. It is a different brief, and a more demanding one. A suit worn every day is forgiven a great deal, because it is one of several and because nobody looks closely at the fourth one this week. A suit worn twenty times a year is looked at every single time, usually in a room full of people, often in a photograph that outlives the evening. It has no second chance to be the right suit.
It also has to be ready. The occasion that most often sends someone to a tailor in a hurry is a funeral, and a funeral gives you four days. The honest advice is to own a dark suit before you need one, because 4 to 12 weeks is our turnaround and nobody wants that conversation in that week. How many suits a man actually needs works through the same arithmetic from the other end.
Cloth for twenty wearings a year
Infrequent wear pushes every cloth decision in the opposite direction to the usual advice, and this is the part worth getting right.
Crease recovery matters more than anything else. A suit worn twice a week is pressed by its own use and rested between wearings. A suit that hangs in a wardrobe for five weeks has to look correct straight off the hanger, in the car, after an hour of sitting down. A high twist worsted in the ten to twelve ounce range is the cloth that does that: the yarn is spun hard, so it springs back rather than holding a fold. The soft, loosely woven cloths that feel best in the hand are exactly the ones that crease and stay creased, and a linen, lovely as it is, is the wrong first suit for this purpose.
Weight is the second decision, and the instinct to go very light is usually wrong here. A seven ounce cloth is a pleasure in August and shows strain at the seat and the elbow far sooner. For a suit that must last a decade of occasional wear and look composed each time, mid-weight is the sounder choice. What the mill numbers and the ounces actually describe is set out in Super 120s, 150s and cloth weight explained, and the behaviour of each fibre in suit fabric types explained.
Third, and least expected: the better cloth is a stronger argument for occasional wear, not a weaker one. A suit worn two hundred times a year is finished in three or four years whatever it cost. A suit worn twenty times a year is still yours in fifteen, so the difference between mills is paid back over a decade and a half rather than over eighteen months. The making is identical at every price. Only the cloth changes the figure, and each mill is set out on bespoke suit cost Los Angeles.
Last, pattern. A strong check or a distinct stripe is remembered, and a suit that is remembered cannot be worn to three events in one season among the same people. For a suit doing all this work, plain navy or charcoal, or a quiet birdseye that reads as plain across a room, gives you far more wearings for the money. Which suit colour to buy first goes through the order properly.
One suit, several occasions
A waistcoat is the cheapest way to make one suit behave like two. A three-piece reads as more formal for a daytime wedding with the waistcoat on and as an ordinary dark suit with it left at home, which is a real gain when the same garment has to cover a church at noon and a dinner at eight. Whether it earns its place is argued out in is a three-piece suit worth it.
Two honest limits. A plain dark suit jacket is not a blazer and does not become one by leaving the trousers behind; if you want a jacket for ordinary days, that is a separate garment with a separate cloth. And black tie is its own thing rather than a dark suit with a bow tie. What the various dress codes on an invitation actually ask for is in what black tie optional actually means, and what to put on when you are the guest rather than the groom is in what to wear to a wedding as a guest.
A garment that hangs for eleven months of the year also needs looking after differently: brushed rather than cleaned, rested on a broad hanger, and kept somewhere moths are not welcome. How to care for a bespoke suit covers it, and it is the shortest route to a suit that is still good in fifteen years.
Getting here from Silver Lake, or not bothering
We do not keep a Silver Lake address and have never suggested otherwise. Clients come to Playa del Rey, or the house comes to them.
If you drive, it is south out of the neighbourhood to the 101, then across and west on the 10, leaving the freeway for Lincoln Boulevard and running south to the coast. A little under twenty miles, and the hour of the day decides everything about it. Number 221 has no suite number, parking is free in front of the building and behind it, and we ask for forty-eight hours' notice. We are open Monday to Sunday by appointment, roughly nine until six.
From the Eastside the sensible answer is often that we come to you. A visit to a home or an office anywhere in Los Angeles is quoted by location, travel included, and it brings the whole cloth table with it: suitings, shirtings, linings, buttons and the mill books, with the prices on the page as you choose. Around thirty measurements are taken and three photographs record how you actually stand, because measurements give size and photographs give posture. The fittings come back out to you the same way, so a commission can be finished without the drive. What a visit includes is on tailor home and office visits Los Angeles.
Either side of Silver Lake the same arrangement is set out for custom suits Los Feliz immediately north, custom suits Hollywood to the west, custom suits Downtown Los Angeles to the south, and custom suits Glendale and custom suits Pasadena north and east.
What it costs
| Two-piece suit | Priced at consultation |
| Three-piece suit | Priced at consultation |
| Tuxedo | Priced at consultation |
| Overcoat | Priced at consultation |
| Odd trousers | Priced at consultation |
| Custom shirt | Priced at consultation |
| Home or office visit | Quoted by location |
| Drago cloth | Priced at consultation |
| Zegna cloth | Priced at consultation |
| Holland & Sherry cloth | Priced at consultation |
| Loro Piana cloth | Priced at consultation |
Half is paid at cloth selection and the balance on delivery. Every commission carries unlimited fittings and a year of complimentary alterations afterwards on garments we have made. A rush is twenty-five per cent more. Wedding parties and groups come down by twenty per cent, fathers and brothers counted in.
One service, and it is the whole thing
Everything that leaves this house is full canvas and fully bespoke. There is no second tier, so the decision at the cloth table is about weight, hand and mill rather than how the garment will be built. We do not offer made to measure at all, and the difference is laid out on made to measure Los Angeles. Why the canvas matters to a suit that must keep its shape through years of occasional wear is explained in full canvas, half canvas or fused.
Robb Pollard founded Mr James in 2010 with Max, the house's French atelier, who has sewn every garment since. We came to Los Angeles in 2015 and have been on Culver Blvd since 2021. As far as we know we are the only genuinely European suitmaker in this city, and there are several very good tailors here we would happily send you to. Robb takes the consultation and sees the garment through to delivery.
Turnaround is 4 to 12 weeks in domestic cloth and toward the longer end of that range when the cloth travels from Italy or England. A shirt is two to four weeks. The stages of a commission are on bespoke suits Los Angeles, the full range the house makes, for women as well as men, is on custom suits Los Angeles, and custom tailor Los Angeles sets out what to ask of anyone.
Weddings and black tie
Six months before the date is perfect, three is comfortable, and six weeks we will still take as a rush. The planning side is on wedding suits Los Angeles. A dinner suit costs no more than a plain two-piece, and the detail of shawl against peak, braid and barathea is on custom tuxedo Los Angeles. For the one good suit, a dark overcoat is the other garment that earns its place over a decade, and that is on custom overcoats Los Angeles.
Questions we are often asked
Is there a bespoke tailor in Silver Lake?
Not in Silver Lake itself. Mr James is a European tailoring house at 221 Culver Blvd in Playa del Rey, a little under twenty miles west, and we come out to homes and offices anywhere in Los Angeles (visit fee quoted by location). Every garment is full canvas and fully bespoke, and a two-piece is priced at consultation.
Is a bespoke suit worth it if I only wear one a few times a year?
It is arguably worth more. A suit worn twenty times a year is looked at closely every time, often in a photograph, and it is still in your wardrobe in fifteen years rather than finished in three. The cost spreads over that life, and the fit is the part nobody can buy later off a peg.
What cloth should I choose for a suit I wear rarely?
A high twist worsted of ten to twelve ounces, plain navy or charcoal or a quiet birdseye. Crease recovery is the quality that matters, because the suit has to look right straight off the hanger and after an hour in a car. Very light and very soft cloths crease and keep the crease, and a strong pattern is remembered, which limits how often you can wear it.
How long does a commission take?
4 to 12 weeks in domestic cloth, toward the longer end of that range if the cloth travels from Italy or England, and two to four weeks for a shirt. A rush at twenty-five per cent more will pull a suit forward. If the suit is for a funeral we will be straight with you about what is possible, which is why a dark suit is better owned before it is needed.
Will you come out to Silver Lake?
Yes. A visit to a home or an office is quoted by location anywhere in Los Angeles, travel included, and it brings the full cloth selection with it, suitings, shirtings, linings and the mill books. The measurements and the three photographs are taken there and the fittings come back out to you, so the whole commission can be done without the drive west.
What is the drive from Silver Lake to the shop?
South to the 101, then west on the 10 and off at Lincoln Boulevard down to the coast, a little under twenty miles. The hour of the day decides the time rather than the distance. Number 221 has no suite number, parking is free in front and behind, and we work by appointment with forty-eight hours' notice.
Do you cut for women, and who will I meet?
Yes, by the same method, on the same patterns and at the same prices: the house has always dressed women as well as men. You will meet Robb. Robb takes the consultation and sees the garment through to delivery.
Do you alter garments you did not make?
No. Alterations as a separate job are no longer something we take in, and we do not work on garments made elsewhere. The year of complimentary alterations after delivery applies to garments this house has made, and it belongs to the commission rather than being a service we sell.
Come and see us, or let us come to you
221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey, CA 90293, seven days a week by appointment, roughly nine until six, free parking front and back. The first hour costs nothing and nothing is asked of you at the end of it. Book a fitting, reserve an hour directly, write to mrjames@bespokemrjames.com, or telephone 310-503-3592. If the drive is the obstacle, say so and we will come to Silver Lake instead.
Nearby: custom suits Hollywood · custom suits Downtown Los Angeles · custom suits Glendale. Reading: how many suits a man actually needs · how to care for a bespoke suit · which suit colour to buy first.