In the past, buying a suit for me has been less of an experience and more of a necessity. I never really put much thought into what or why, and especially never cared about the where. If it fits, if I liked the color, and the price was solid, I would buy whatever it is that I needed for whatever event or situation was coming. But when it’s a wedding…your own wedding…off the rack is not going to cut it. My then soon-to-be-wife was so excited about her dress and at three months out, I hadn’t even given a second thought to my suit.
Shit.
So one weekend I decided to go check out some higher-end options, walking into a warehouse of suits to see what I could find that would cost me a little more and fit a bit better than the options in my closet. Walking around the store, followed by a very eager sales rep, I became overwhelmed with the sea of blacks, blues, and grays. Being a broad shouldered guy, my selection was even more limited to a small corner of the store, and while custom could have been an option, it was not in my price range or time requirements. Begrudgingly, I selected this boring gray suit option that was neither the cut I was thinking nor the look I was hoping for but accepted it none-the-less as what I could get in my time frame. Off the rack, with minor hemming here and there, I was out $1300 for something I felt zero connection with emotionally.What was done was done and I headed home.
As I sat at home that evening, browsing Instagram as I tend to get sucked into, an ad flew through my feed for INDOCHINO, a company claiming to be able to do a custom suit for less than $1000. As a matter of fact, what caught my eye was the sale for $389. No way. I scoffed it off as it must be made of rayon or something very heavy and cheap, but was curious none-the-less. Heading over to the good ole sub-Reddit r/malefashionadvice, I decided to see what was being said about this group. Overall, the responses from the biggest male fashion critics in the community were positive, and not one mention of rayon, crappy blends, or weird issues.
So I bit the bullet. I contacted the INDOCHINO social media team about my timeline to see if it would be possible to get a suit in time, and they came back with ‘if you’re sized by next week, yes’. The ball was in motion. While I could opt for doing my own measurements, I decided to jump into the full experience and booked a fitting at their Beverly Hills store the next week. I had enough miles to get out to LA for the day as well, which made this an interesting day trip planned out. Disappearing from work for the day to get a suit sized was different…it was exciting. I hadn’t felt this before when it came to suit shopping.
Arriving the next week at the Beverly Hills INDOCHINO, I met Shayna Green, the Showroom Manager who was going to guide me through and get me fitted. From the very start, the experience was different from the warehouse. I walked into a sea of options, colors, and styles. Shayna would ask questions about what I wanted and would guide to the best options to fit that, but never pushing me to choose. It was all up to me, from the stitching to the liner, number of buttons to the collar peak. This was the full custom experience I had never known I wanted or needed. I was hooked.
After selecting more details in a suit than I thought were possible, Shayna directed me upstairs for the fitting portion. Step-by-step, she measured everything to get the perfect fit. This was the part that made me so glad to have a professional taking care of it as I knew my ego would have gotten the better of me if I had measured at home. Others, probably not, but this moment made the early morning flight worth it alone.
After all the numbers were recorded, Shayna grabbed a few test pieces for me to try on, from which she was able to adjust her numbers based on how I wanted something to fall on my body or fit. Going for a specific look with a suit, I respected the time and evergy put into this whole experience all while being blown away by the price. I was more involved with my fashion choices in this moment than I had been in all my previous suit buying experiences combined, emotionally connected and excited about what was to come.
At the end of the hour I spent at the Beverly Hills INDOCHINO, Shayna had not only gotten me emotionally invested into a suit but shown me the value of the custom. I walked out that day with a tie and pocket square and a receipt delivery estimates of 3 weeks before my big day. Now, I will have to say I was lucky to be able to get this suit in time, and would not recommend waiting to when I did for the full custom experience. I was lucky, admittedly. And with INDOCHINO’s integrated system, now they had my numbers recorded so I could order another suit with different options at any time, sized just for me, all through their online system. And with more showrooms opening up all over the US, I could always pop into one of them to update my numbers if I needed to keep my profile up to date, or even have a local tailor give me new numbers to submit through my online dashboard. Now that is an experience to remember.
All in all, this whole experience with travel from Denver to LA, breakfast at Randy’s Doughnuts, and the suit came out to less than the off-the-rack warehouse suit I had previously guilt purchased.
No more warehouses for me. INDOCHINO has my business for life.
This is a sponsored post. The opinions shared are my own.