Bespoke is no joke: why I buy custom made clothes.

A b-school colleague told me that once I went bespoke, or custom-made, with my work clothing that I would never going back to buying off the rack. I must admit, he was right.

I never really ever thought about seriously buying custom fit clothing for work. I guess I don’t know why as I have a 44 chest and a 32 waist. I figured it would be too expensive without really investigating it. It was went I went to buy a couple of suits that I began to realize that for about $600 I could get a custom suit made with a good super 120 wool.

Well, after soliciting some more fellow b-school opinions, I settled on Fit Wel custom clothing in Brentwood, Los Angeles. They measured, I ordered and waited about 4 weeks. When I finally received my suits and shirts, I tried them on and felt like a million bucks. I have never had clothes fit so well, well!

I will never go back to buying off the rack. Additionally, buying custom clothing is helping me with my transition to less is more. As I continue to simply my life by adopting GTD or reading the latest posting on zenhabits.net, I am realizing that I need to focus on having fewer things that declutter my life. So with my clothing, I am donating all the old and just having a few things. Additionally, and as a former traveling consultant for KPMG Consulting, I could only take 5 shirts and pants on the road at any one time. So how many shirts, pants, suits do I really need to have? I can spend a little more on custom made, look better, feel better and continue to declutter my life.

So how can you get in on this? Go to a tailor, have them measure you, then find a reputable tailor from Hong Kong online. I really like Cosmo Circle Custom Tailors in Hong Kong. Send them your measurements. Buy a few shirts and see how you like them. I guarantee if this is done right, you will never go back to off the rack! Trust me, this pays off in business school and in the workplace. People who know can tell a cheap suit, especially in investment banking and management consulting.