Denver Bespoke: Custom Tailored Suits

Steampunk Wedding Attire

Photos by www.lynnterry.com

The Victorian era was an age of excitement, experimentation, science, and progress.

Everything seemed possible and imminent.

The material world was like a door about to be unlocked. The mind was a mystery that science could pry into.

We love to make steampunk clothing because it represents this moment and uncovers the analogies between the Victorians and today’s world.

The Victorians were simultaneously more certain than we are today and less certain.

They believed that they were on a road to infinite progress and change, but were only just at the beginning of the path.

Today’s DIY and geek culture feeds off of a similar spirit.

We are all engineers hacking the material world, unlocking the potential of atoms through the power of bits.

Lianna and I are so much on the side of techne—on the side of a knowledge that allows us to do and to make.

Photos by www.worldstudio.ca

Our process of production and design combines computer CAD work for a completely custom fit, individual fabrics we design and print using advanced inks, and computerized machinery for cutting vinyl, with all of the traditional arts of tailoring and dressmaking that require nothing but a needle and a thread.

Our muslin fitting process for the suits is again a combination of the old and the new.

We mail our customers traditional cotton mock-ups of the suit to try on before making the final pieces.

The customers send us back digital photos of themselves trying the pieces on, and we feed this information back into the computer to change and manipulate the pattern until it is exactly right.

The pictures show many of the styles that we have made or are making for steampunk weddings along with some wonderful pictures of the weddings themselves.

The black suit with the red cravat shows what we call the “Steampunk Anime Suit”.

This suit is made from a wool gabardine with satin face lapels.

The style looks and feels Victorian, but the details are completely modern.

The brown suit with red pinstripes and red satin face lapels, shows a Victorian style vest and pant, but with numerous Western style details and snaps.

The brown suit with a sage green piping shows a morning frock that cuts away into tails.

Photos by www.joshgruetzmacher.com

It has peak lapels, a pant with a back belt (which can be adjustable or decorative) and a handmade top hat to match.

Photo By www.MarkBrooke.com

The awesome wedding photos show two weddings where the grooms wore wool tailcoats and silk vests, a wedding with a double-breasted Prince Albert frock made from silk noil and velveteen pants (for a Victorian-era meets 1960s look) and an outfit with a black wool double-breasted vest with pearlized leather pocket welts.

The sketches show a bride and groom ensemble that we have in the works for this summer.

University Coats

It has a leather corset on the bride and matching leather tuxedo stripes on the groom’s pant, and also a set of concepts for modern looking university coats.

Contact AJ (aj@denverbespoke.com) to talk more about ideas for your wedding.

Be sure to check out the photographer’s websites for more photos. Lynn Terry did the photos for the wedding with the black vest and gold welts. Terry Martin the wedding with the skipping groom.

Josh Gruetzmacher the San Francisco wedding with the white slik frock. And Mark Brooke, the groom with the tails and peacock lapels.

Vegan Suits, Vests, and Frocks

For the growing number of vegans buying fine wedding attire and business suits can be difficult.

It can be nearly impossible to find a suit that is made without the use of animal products.

Nearly every part of a traditional suit is made from an animal product.

The buttons are made from horn or shell, the body from wool with a wool melton undercollar and goat hair canvas for inner structure.

Linings and bindings are often made from silk.

Although we do make traditional suits from wools and silks, we have developed a process specifically for vegan customers that eliminates the use of animal products but makes for a suit that has all of the fine qualities of a traditional suit.

We have now made dozens of suits using this method and have had wonderful results.

The pictures that accompany this posting show four recent projects that we made for weddings around the world:

A gray retro look suit made from a rayon blend pinstripe fabric, a cotton vest and pant suit with synthetic moleskin trimmings to replace leather, and a polyester morning coat for formal wear.

Any of our suits in any style can be made in vegan-friendly versions and we can even make quality custom leather jackets using the best faux leathers.

We muslin-fit almost all of our suits, which means that we mail you a prototype to try on before we cut the final suit.

This allows us to guarantee a perfect fit even via long distance given that a custom paper pattern has been adjusted exactly for your style and body type.

To get started we sketch ideas for you until we hit upon the perfect suit and mail you swatches of fabrics that you might like.

Contact A.J. to find out more: aj@denverbespoke.com

All of these suits were featured on the wedding blog RockNRoll Bride. So definitely check out that site for more pictures of our work. The photos of the first suit are by John Benevente. Those of the vest and pant suit by Our Labor of Love. And those of the morning coat wedding by PhotoPink NYC.

Tweed, Flannel, and Melton Coats

We make some of the best coats in the world. What is more every coat is custom made.

Black Mens Coat

We can make a coat with the exact style of pockets, style of lapels, length, and fit that you desire.

The pictures show some of our favorite recent coats.

The featured coat is a black cashmere greatcoat that is double-breasted with wide lapels, a broad collar that flips up, a pleat in the upper back and three pleats on the skirt.

The coat weighs a full 5lbs and has a plush luxurious hand and slight sheen.

One of the back pictures catches the coat blowing out in the wind (which is a magnificent look).

We can make hundreds of variations on this coat, changing the pockets, the back details, the fabric, length, stitching, or can design something totally from scratch.

The second coat featured is an inverness coat cut from a medium grey donegal tweed.

This caped coat is a modern take on the traditional inverness with relatively slim panels, wide sleeves, and a drop shoulder.

Inverness Coat

The cape is also detachable for those times when you don’t want to carry the extra weight.

The third coat pictured is a plaid hunting jacket.

This jacket was made for a customer who loved vintage 1930s style shirt jackets, but wanted something with a slimmer fit, a concealed zipper and storm flap, and a full satin lining.

Every part of this jacket has a double layer of wool coating. The upper body has the cape. The lower front is made a double layer with wool pocket bags, and the back again has a full wool underlayer that forms a long pocket.

The left breast pocket is separated into compartments for shotgun shells (or pens, tire gauges, nail sets, etc).

The result is a vintage look jacket that is completely and utterly warm and insulated and has a luxurious feel to it.

Different types of fabrics are perfect for different coats and three of the most common types of coating fabrics are tweed, melton, and flannel.

Tweed is made from relatively unfinished wool yarn and has a slightly fuzzy appearance–the grey coat above is a birdseye tweed.

Flannel has a soft brushed appearance and is what the plaid hunting jacket is made from. Melton is a deeply felted coating fabric, that is heavier, denser, and more water resistant than tweeds and flannels. This is what the black coat is made from.

So when you write us to have us start working on the perfect coat, tell us everything that you can think of about your climate, the types of pockets you like, how often you will wear the coat, and your sense of style and we will get together the best fabrics and design something just for you.

Contact AJ to get started now (aj@denverbespoke.com).

Custom Business Suits

We are proud to be one of the few tailors in the US that makes garments from scratch in our workshop.

Most places that offer “tailoring” merely alter existing ready made garments.

Others offer made-to-measure suits by brands such as Tom James that are produced in centralized factories.

But we run a tailoring house on a different model.

If you wanted to understand the single biggest reason that men’s business attire has remained relatively frozen in time since the 1920s and 1930s, you need look no further than the gradual eclipse of the tailoring house by ready-made fashions.

At one point in time, everyone dressed differently. Individuality and personality were bywords.

Pockets were shaped and placed to store the exact items that a given individual carried every day.

Pants and jackets were styled not by a mystical set of rules, but rather to flatter and to express.

But with mass produced suits, every style suddenly needed to appeal to 100,000 customers. A programmer was supposed to wear the same suit as an executive and the executive was suppose to wear the same suit as the programmer.

We make unique suits for unique people.

Because we can make every style of pocket, every style of waistcoat, can cut pants with an immeasurable number of fits.

Because we don’t have any standard rules or molds. Because we make suits from any number of novel fabrics, we can offer a virtually infinite amount of choices.

Many of the projects that we take are those that have been turned down by other tailors because the factories that they contract with are unable to handle anything that deviates more than a hair from the mass model.

Unlike most tailors, we understand the needs of creative professionals.

We will work with you to design a suit from the ground up that expresses what you need to express at the events that you attend.

The navy suit pictured in this posting is a recent suit that we made for a local customer who had been unable to find a pant style that he liked at the shops. He wanted a suit that was traditional, but not in the way that “traditional” suits tend to be.

He very graciously allowed me to snap a few pictures for our site.

The suit is made from a 10.5 oz gabardine that is extremely durable and perfect for travel. With hand pick-stitching on the lapels and handmade buttonholes on the jacket and the waistcoat.

The grey flannel suit is another recent business suit project. This piece was made from a gorgeous pinstripe flannel fabric.

All of our suits are made using a couture muslin technique. For this process we make the suit first in a rough cotton muslin.

Then we either mail this to you and have you send us pictures of yourself trying it on, or fit it on you in person if you can make it to Denver. We analyze the way that the muslin hangs and create a new pattern based on what we learn.

This allows us to get a perfect fit in person or long distance.

Contact A.J. (aj@denverbespoke.com) to get started designing a custom suit.

Custom-Tailored Silk Suits

Most suits are made from wool. And for a good reason.

Wool is wonderfully durable, crisp, wrinkle-resistant.

It can be felted to become weather resistant, brushed to hold in heat, or given an open weave to breathe and wick in the heat.

We love wool, but sometimes we want a bit of novelty and one of the places we turn is to silk.

Just as some people mistakenly identify wool only with itchy and bulky hand-knit sweaters, silk is often pictured only as a light and shimmering satin.

But silk textures can differ completely depending on how the silk is processed and the fabric woven.

The pics show a couple of our most recent silk suits.

The tan and slate blue herringbone suit was made for a recent wedding on the coast of Scotland.

We designed the suit with classic seaside suit details with a hint in the top-stitched pocket style of a 1930s sport jacket.

But like all of our pieces we strove for a look that would feel timely.

The fabric for this suit is a thick silk tweed.

It is utterly dry to the hand and without luster. In this state, silk serves as a kind of warm season tweed.

Unlike a wool tweed which is much more of a fall/winter fabric that insulates, a silk tweed breathes beautifully.

The cobalt suit is closer to what most people think of when they think of silk.

It has lustre. It shines. The fabric is a silk duppioni.

The word duppioni comes from the Italian for “two pods” and the unique texture of the duppioni lies in the fact that it has many irregularities or “slubs” that are formed in the places where two silk worm pods were woven touching each other.

This fabric is particularly interesting in that the weave is iridescent with both blue and purple yarn. This gives the fabric extra depth.

Of course, a silk duppioni suit is not a work suit. Traditionally a duppioni suit would be worn in the tropics or on a cruise.

We made this suit for a wedding in Arizona where bright saturated colors look amazing in the sun.

But a silk duppioni suit like this, especially one with an iridescent tonic weave, is a great suit for the summer nightlife in any city.

If you have a unique suit in mind, we can make it.

Contact A.J. (aj@denverbespoke.com) to get started working on a custom piece.

All of our suits are muslin fit—we make a cotton prototype of the suit to fit on you before we even touch the fabric. You send us digital pics of yourself wearing it, and we can customize the pattern to look great on you.

The pictures of the wedding in Scotland are by Red Row Studio (www.redrowstudio.etsy.com) so if you are getting married in Scotland or want to buy some fine art prints, check out the wonderful work.

Custom Leather Jackets

A leather jacket is always an investment.

You want skins that will wear beautifully for years, aging, weathering, and gaining in character.

This means using full grain whole skins as a starting point.

Many cheaper jackets are made from split and bonded leathers or leather with the grain stamped onto it.

Here are a few pictures of recent jackets. The golden orange jacket is make from a full grain bull hide.

It is perhaps 2 to 3 times as heavy as your average jacket, but this makes for an ultra durable jacket that is appropriate for motorcycling.

The jacket is trimmed with shearling at the collar and bottom band.

Note the placement of the pattern pieces on the skin with spine of the bull running right up the back of the jacket, and the collar piece cut from the flank for maximal texture and flexibility. The jacket is lined in a durable cotton shirting.

The second jacket shown here is cut from full grain lambskin and hair calf.

The customer who ordered the jacket is an engineer who had very specific specifications for the look and designed the jacket with the unique half moon cutaways on the under arm, back gussets, and double zippers.

The black leather fencing vest in the third set of pictures has textured solid metal buttons. The vest is backed in a heavy cotton twill. This piece is also cut from heavy motorcycle weight leather for maximum protection.

All of our pieces can be fit with cotton muslins.

For this process, we make a rough draft of the pattern and cut and sew it in cotton before making the final piece.

For non-local customers, we send this to you first to try on.

You can send us your feedback on the style and fit along with digital pictures that will allow us to fine tune the final pattern before we even touch the leather.

We are a Denver-based fashion company that specializes in complex custom work.

Please contact A.J. directly (aj@denverbespoke.com) to discuss your own ideas for the ultimate leather piece.

Window Pane Plaid

Chocolate Peak Lapel Suit

We make all sorts of suits.

Wedding suits, business suits, sportswear.

A windowpane is a simple plaid pattern that is less sporty than many plaids.

Some plaids only work as a sports jacket or stand alone piece. Make a whole suit from the plaid and it quickly becomes too much.

But many windowpanes look incredible when make in to a two or three piece suit and are just as dressy as a pinstripe or a solid.

The pictures show a few different pieces we have made recently. A retro brown suit with peak lapels and a wide back collar cut from superfine wool gabardine is complimented by a windowpane vest in a lightweight tweed with olive and peach in the weave.

The three piece suit with hacking pockets on the jacket and vest has a particularly brilliant weave. Up close the fabric has an almost optic effect with a mini-houndstooth check pattern and light blue windowpane. From a certain distance, the suit reads as light grey.

But when you pay attention to the weave of the fabric, the whole suit becomes brilliant and distinctive.

The third piece is a stand alone sports jacket that is perfect for the business casual look. Here again, the fabric is amazing and fine and pairs up beautifully with many colors of slacks. The rich corozo nut buttons give the piece an additional touch.

If you are thinking about a suit or other piece, contact me and I can get together some swatches for you. We can get some of the most amazing fabrics out there, whether you want something minimal and classic, something funky, or something that will stand out in a business environment.

We can get a great fit locally or long distance by using our muslin fitting method. We first make a cotton mock-up of the pieces and send these to you for feedback and digital pics, then we correct the patterns to fit your body perfectly.

We can make suits with any set of details (pockets, lapel shape, body shape, buttons) imaginable. Contact me (aj@denverbespoke.com) to get started on a custom project.

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- Walter Plunkett (costumer for Gone with the Wind) fitting Vivien Leigh in a sport jacket. Note that the armholes have gussets, and that the back has a yoke, a belt, and pleats in the skirt. This is the kind of jacket you need if you are going to be squatting in your sport jacket.
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