Destination Wedding Suits Los Angeles
A wedding in Puglia in July, a vineyard in Napa in September, a beach in Tulum, a family church in County Clare, a garden in Provence. More of our grooms now marry somewhere other than Los Angeles than marry here, and a suit made for a Westside ballroom is often the wrong garment for any of those places. A destination wedding asks three things of a suit that a local one does not: it has to survive the journey, it has to behave in weather you cannot control, and it has to be finished well before you fly.
Start with the weather, not the photographs
Almost every destination wedding suit that goes wrong goes wrong because it was chosen from a photograph taken somewhere cooler. Southern Italy in high summer is not Santa Barbara. Mexico in May carries humidity that Los Angeles never sees. The Irish coast in September is a good deal colder than the picture in your head, and considerably wetter.
So we begin a destination commission with the forecast for that week in that place, and then with the hours of the day you will actually be in the suit. A ceremony at five in the evening with dinner outdoors is a very different brief from a midday ceremony followed by four hours of photographs in full sun. Once those are known, the cloth more or less chooses itself, and the rest of the decisions follow quickly.
Cloth that travels
For heat with low humidity, a high twist wool, sometimes sold as a fresco, is the finest thing there is. The yarn is twisted hard and the weave left open, so air moves through it and it recovers from creasing almost on its own. It is the cloth we reach for most often for weddings abroad, because it behaves in a suitcase and it photographs crisply.
For heat with humidity, an open weave wool or a wool and mohair blend keeps its shape when a softer cloth would collapse. Mohair has a faint dry lustre that reads very well in strong light and badly under a flash, so we weigh it against the hour of the ceremony. For a beach or a garden in the heaviest heat, a linen and wool or linen, silk and wool blend gives you the coolness of linen with much of the recovery of worsted, which is the compromise most grooms actually want: pure linen is beautiful and it will crease, and it is meant to.
For a wedding in a cooler place, Ireland, Scotland, the Hudson Valley in late autumn, a mid weight worsted or a soft flannel in a three piece is the right answer, with a waistcoat doing real work when the church is cold and the jacket comes off at dinner. A fuller account of how each fibre behaves in heat is in our guide to the best suit fabric for hot weather.
Colour in strong light
Black does not photograph well outdoors in bright sun; it loses all its detail and goes to a flat shape. Mid blue, light grey, soft fawn, sage and warm stone all hold their detail in that light and sit well against most landscapes. Ivory and cream belong to the evening or to a very particular kind of coastal afternoon, and they are unforgiving of red wine.
We are glad to look at the venue, the hour and the colour palette with you, and to say honestly when a colour that looks handsome in the showroom will be a problem at four in the afternoon.
Construction for travel
Cloth is half of it. The other half is how the jacket is built. A half lined jacket, which keeps the lining in the sleeves and across the shoulders and leaves the lower back and fronts open with the seams finished by hand, removes a whole second layer across the torso and makes a real difference in heat. A softer shoulder with less padding packs better and reads as more relaxed, which suits most destination weddings.
Every garment we make is full canvas and fully bespoke, cut from a pattern drawn for one person and made by hand by Max in the house atelier in Southern Brittany. A full canvas chest is also, usefully, the construction that recovers best from a suitcase, because the canvas is floating rather than glued and returns to its shape when the jacket is hung. We do not offer made to measure Los Angeles, which is the adjustment of an existing block to approximate a figure, and we say so plainly because the distinction matters most on a garment you will wear in front of a camera all day.
Getting it there
Carry the jacket on. Almost every problem we hear about comes from a suit that travelled in the hold. Fold it properly, use a garment bag you can stow in an overhead locker, and hang the suit in a bathroom with the shower running for ten minutes when you arrive. Our note on how to pack a suit so it arrives ready to wear gives the fold in full.
Build a day of margin into the plan. Arrive at least two days before the wedding and try the whole outfit on in the hotel, shoes and shirt and tie together, while there is still time to attend to anything that needs it.
Timing, which is the part people get wrong
A destination wedding has an earlier deadline than a local one, because the suit must be finished and in your hands before you travel rather than before the ceremony. Our making time is four to twelve weeks. For a wedding, six months ahead is perfect, three months is comfortable, and six weeks is a rush we can sometimes take, but a rush is a poor idea when a flight sits between the final fitting and the day.
A civil ceremony here, a welcome dinner or a second celebration in Los Angeles afterwards is often a second commission, and the two are worth planning together. Our timeline for grooms is set out in when to order a wedding suit, and the broader range of what we make for weddings is on the wedding suits Los Angeles page.
The wedding party
Groomsmen scattered across several cities are the usual complication. Anyone who is in Los Angeles, or who can be here for a day, we measure in person, because every garment is cut from an individual pattern and a client always meets Robb or Ben. We will tell you honestly at the consultation how much of the party we can dress in the time available rather than promise a number we cannot keep. How we handle a party is set out on the groomsmen suits page.
We dress women as well as men, so brides, mothers and women in the wedding party are as welcome as the groom, and a woman's suit for a wedding abroad answers the same questions about heat and travel. If the celebration turns formal after dark, a dinner jacket is a separate conversation and the custom tuxedo Los Angeles page covers it.
Come and talk it through
The consultation is an hour, free and by appointment, at 221 Culver Blvd in Playa del Rey, with free parking outside. Bring the date, the place, the time of the ceremony and any photographs of the venue, and we will tell you what the weather there will ask of a suit. Every garment carries one year of complimentary alterations on the garments we make, and we keep your pattern, so a second commission later is straightforward.
To book a fitting, use https://calendly.com/info-robbp/bespoke-mr-james-fitting or call 310-503-3592. The wider range of what we make is on the custom suits Los Angeles page.
Questions we are often asked
What should a groom wear to a destination wedding?
Something chosen for the weather of that place in that week, not for a photograph taken somewhere cooler. For heat, a high twist wool or an open weave in mid blue, light grey or soft fawn, half lined, with a softer shoulder. For a cooler coast, a mid weight worsted or a flannel three piece. Black is the one colour we steer grooms away from outdoors in strong sun.
What suit fabric travels best?
A high twist wool, sometimes called a fresco. The yarn is twisted hard and the weave left open, so it breathes and it sheds creases almost on its own. Wool and mohair blends hold up well in humidity. Linen blended with wool or silk gives most of the coolness of pure linen with far better recovery, and pure linen will crease, which is part of its character rather than a fault.
How far ahead should I order a suit for a wedding abroad?
Earlier than for a wedding at home, because the suit has to be finished before you fly rather than before the ceremony. Six months is perfect, three months is comfortable, and six weeks is a rush we can sometimes take. Our making time is four to twelve weeks, and we would rather have an unhurried final fitting than send you to an airport with a suit we are still adjusting.
Will a suit crease in a suitcase?
Any suit will crease if it travels in the hold. Carry the jacket on, fold it properly into a bag that fits an overhead locker, and hang it in a bathroom with the shower running for ten minutes when you arrive. A full canvas jacket recovers better than a fused one, because the canvas floats inside the chest rather than being glued, and a high twist cloth recovers better than a soft one.
Can you dress my groomsmen if they do not live in Los Angeles?
We measure every person in the party in person, because each garment is cut from an individual pattern and a client always meets Robb or Ben. Anyone who is here, or who can come for a day, we can dress. We will give you a straight answer at the consultation about how much of the party is realistic in the time you have rather than promise a number we cannot keep.
Should I wear a tuxedo at a destination wedding?
Only if the celebration is genuinely formal and begins after six in the evening. A dinner jacket at a midday ceremony on a beach reads as a costume. Where the ceremony is in daylight and the dinner is black tie, that is two garments, and many grooms choose an ivory dinner jacket for the evening and a light suit for the day.
Do you make suits for women in the wedding party?
Yes. We dress women as well as men, and a woman's suit for a wedding abroad answers the same questions about heat, humidity and travel that a groom's does. Brides, mothers of the couple and women standing with the couple are all welcome, and the consultation works in exactly the same way.