"Wanna Know if a Guy is Well Dressed?"

The late columnist George Frazier posed that question years ago and the answer, he said, was "Look down." But in business and the professions, a man's shoes are just the starting point. When one successful man is sized up by another, it's because there's been a positive first impression that warrants a further look. Their eyes start at the face, go down to the feet and sweep back to the face. And everything they see should pass muster.

I'm generalizing today about the professional who travels a lot to meet other professionals in his work. The kind of guy who buys four to six suits a year and would be uncomfortable or worse if someone said he looked like a dandy. The man whose clothing is intended to convey a sense of accomplishment without attracting attention to itself, because the last thing business clothing should do is get in the way of a transaction with another person.

If a well dressed professional is wearing a suit, it will usually be a two button notch lapel model that, if it's not bespoke, has been made to measure by a maker like Zegna or Oxxford; conservative in cut and color, fitted, and made of obviously high quality materials. His cream, blue and blue striped shirts are also made to measure because that's the only way he can be sure to show a half inch of linen at his collar and cuffs. He's usually wearing a pair of polished oxfords, and his necktie is quiet - in fact, his boldest gesture is probably a quarter inch of white linen in his breast pocket.

The guy in the illustration above fit the bill when men were flying in propellor-driven planes, and would be every bit as good today if he left the hat at home.

Reader Questions

From Michael
"I'm visiting New York and wondering what fabric stores you would recommend for suitings. I'm looking to spend no more than $100 per yard."

Brooklyn's Tip Top Super Fine Fabrics buys end bolts from good houses and you can usually find suiting lengths of excellent goods less than $50 a yard. It's well worth the journey.


From John
"I enjoy quality clothes but do not always know how to find what I want. I recently saw a khaki/brown prince of wales sports jacket on someone and would like to purchase one. Ralph Lauren and Paul Stuart (my two favorites) do not have it this season nor do they have it in their swatch books. It seems like such a simple pattern (khaki and darker brown check) - where can I go to get one made?"

The principal challenge you face in getting your jacket is finding a fabric that's like the one you saw.

Minnis has this wonderful 13 ounce flannel glen check for Fall.


They have summer versions too. This one is an eight ounce cloth.

Whoever you choose to make the coat should also have fabrics for you to look at. I haven't used them but many New Yorkers seem to like Ercole in Brooklyn or Mr. Ned for mid-range tailoring.


From Rick
"I have my own law practice in the high tech area and have several clients in the Bay area that dress very casually. I, on the other hand, have always loved fine clothing.

I live in Colorado, so most of the folks I run into are wearing shorts, fleece, and Crocs. I could do that, and never look any different from the crowd. But that is just not who I am or who I represent. But it would look equally ridiculous for me to don a suit and tie every day that I sit in my office or when I travel to visit my clients. What would be an in-between look?"

Let me suggest that you could dress like a venture capitalist and your clients would be fine with that. That would mean "Friday" suits worn with a light sweater instead of a necktie and/or odd jackets with polos and dress trousers, like Luciano Barbera in the photo above. You can wear great shoes without raising any eyebrows.

Take a look around your local Oxxford or Zegna made to measure source. Zegna, for example, is reasonably priced, stylish, and the delivery time is under six weeks. Many Valley executives wear it.

Then acquire a couple pair of Vass, Edward Green, John Lobb or comparable shoes. And get some high quality mock turtlenecks to wear with your jackets. I'll bet you like the look.

A Visit with Sam Malouf

I recently spent an hour with Sam Malouf, the family member that manages Malouf's of California. Malouf's is one of only two Bay area representatives on Esquire's Retail Top 100 Menswear Specialty Stores list (the other is Wilkes Bashford).

Malouf's is an unusual specialty store in that half of its business is men's wear and half is for women, and rarer still in that it emphasizes made to order clothing. I was happy to learn that Sam and I share the belief that most men would be better fitted if they chose made to measure shirts and tailored clothing over ready to wear, and the rest would benefit from the greater choice available.

Sam happily articulated the reasons he offers half a dozen made to measure lines of shirts alone, including Geneva, Talbott and Charvet. The store's made to measure tailored clothing lines includes Brioni, Oxxford, Zegna and Samuelsohn. There are also half a dozen shoe lines, topped by the only inventory of Edward Green in California aside from Polo's private labelled offerings (I originally learned of Malouf's from EG's Hilary Freeman).

That's not to say that Malouf's doesn't have a variety of sportswear. Any clothing specialist in the Bay area needs a great selection of casual clothing. Outside of a few pockets in the City of San Francisco, the local culture is tie-less - even the bankers wear neckties only when they are raising money. When they're meeting with people looking for investment, they wear odd jackets with open shirt collars. Sam told me he sells an odd jacket or blazer for every suit, and that sports shirts and trousers are his most popular work wear items.

But Malouf's also has the lines it needs to sell classic business clothing at several price points. There are three full-time tailors and a seamstress on site, and two men on the sales floor that are trained to measure customers. Even that is sometimes not enough when the store has an event that might be attended by half a dozen area CEOs who each expect individual attention. Right now.

Some things are the same in every city.

Bespoke vs. Made To Measure

A good suit was once said to be 'well cut', and the fit of a bespoke garment depends on the skill of the man cutting the pattern. The cutter, as he is known, takes the instructions and measurements from the customer and feeds work to the tailors who sew. The measurements, up to twenty of them for a jacket and six more for trousers, are used to make a pattern with chalk on stiff brown paper, like the one Thomas Mahon is making in the photo to the left. The pattern is used to cut the cloth (some tailors chalk the cloth without making a pattern but this adds time to the second and subsequent suits).

This matters because properly constructed bespoke suits usually fit better. Made to measure suits are cut using standard block patterns with dimansions that fit a so-called average man. That works well for average men, and is less satisfactory for the many men with a sloped shoulder, well developed shoulders and a trim waist, or an unusually long or short torso relative to height.

If the pattern were the only difference between made to measure and bespoke suits, keeping them straight would be simple. But it's not, and it isn't, for there is no such thing as a standard construction. Just as we have machine made shoes on bespoke lasts and hand made shoes on standard lasts, so Kiton and Oxxford hand sew jackets to standard patterns while hundreds of individual tailors make custom patterns and then make bespoke jackets with sewing machines. Unfortunately, machine sewing makes a relatively lifeless coat. Hand sewn jackets look better in an almost indescribeable way, moving as if they are part of the wearer.

That said, the differing qualities of machine and hand sewing are for another essay. For now, suffice it to say that if you're trying to classify a suit as made to measure or bespoke, ask if a paper pattern is made before the cloth is cut. If the answer is yes, the jacket is bespoke and you can focus on the quality of construction knowing that the fit should be as good as it gets.

Artisan Made Clothing

It usually happens sometime in a man's thirties. He makes partner, gets the big job or realizes that his business is a success. His closet has the basics and the question becomes he goes from here with his clothes?

If the man cares about clothes, by this time he's probably already having some of them made for himself. Certainly his shirts, because everyone should have their shirts made. Maybe a made to measure suit or two from a quality maker like Kiton or Oxxford. But now he's ready to try the best. And the best is artisan made clothing.

What I call artisan made clothing may be made partly by people operating machines, but it can only come from an individual artisan who fits the customer personally and then leads a team that does the important parts of the work by hand. That's because both hand work and personalized fit is critical in the finest clothing. The graceful curve of the sole on a hand made shoe cannot be duplicated by shoe-making machinery. The collar, shoulders, and armholes of a jacket must be sewn by hand or it won't move fluidly with the wearer.

Hand fitting by the individual artisan is just as important. A shoe may need a bit more room in the toe, or a jacket may not fit closely at the neck on the first or second try (unlike the perfect fit of Jimmy Stewart's coat in the Hitchcock film Rope). Vass shoes are made by hand, but they are not individually lasted and may not fit a particular pair of feet. Fitting is also where the best efforts of the factory-based suppliers can break down. A local fitter often lacks the skill level of the craftsman at the factory.

If a choice has to be made between tailored clothing and bespoke shoes, the benefits of tailored clothing are normally considerably higher. Unless a man has unique feet that require a custom fit, bespoke shoes can be a periodic luxury. Few men will be happy with ready to wear, on the other hand, after wearing their first bespoke suit or odd jacket.

A personal relationship with a couple of artisans requires a considerable investment unless a man lives near a city such as Paris, Naples, London, or New York. Some artisans travel, but not everywhere and usually only twice a year at best. So the customers have to travel themselves, unless they are willing to wait a year or more from order to delivery. That's given rise to a new type of traveller, who combines holidays with fittings.

At a certain stage of life, artisan made clothing becomes worth the trouble.