Pampering the Groom: A Custom Suit

It's not about you. It's about the two of you.

The majority of wedding blogs cater to women. With all the focus on the bride, it can be easy to forget that there's a groom too. No one ever exclaims "Say Yes to the Suit!" And a lot of men rent their wedding attire for the day. But it doesn't have to be that way. Grooms too can "Say Yes!"

In the first of this series, "Pampering the Groom," let's tackle the custom suit. Before we start, let's get the standard disclaimer out of the way: Neither cubes nor I have any affiliation with Proper Suit or Gilt SF. cubes needed a new suit so we took this opportunity to give grooms an idea of what you can expect when getting a custom suit. Prices start at $450.

After you've relaxed a little - gotten a bite to eat and a libation (wine or beer), it's time to make three decisions: 1. Fabric for your suit. 2. Fabric for your shirt (and/or vest). 3. Cufflinks.

The only trick with choosing a fabric for your shirt or vest is deciding whether you're complementing or matching the color palette for your wedding. Remember to bring swatches. If you're tackling this task together with your fiance, she'll probably have the swatches. It never hurts to ask for the swatches before you leave the house. If colors are one of her things, she'll be thrilled that you're thinking ahead.

Experts point out differences in materials and guide decisions such as two vents (Italian styling) or one vent (American styling) in your suit jacket. And to ensure your suit will fit perfectly, they take your measurements. Note it's not sufficient to just give them your suit size. Turns out that men's clothing is also subject to vanity sizing. (Who'd have thought?)

Typically your suit will arrive in two to three weeks. If you order a custom suit from Proper Suit around Chinese New Year, it will take a little longer - four to six weeks. The company Proper Suit works with shuts down for two weeks to celebrate the holiday.

Is your groom going the custom route?

Next up in the Pampering the Groom series, we'll talk about custom shirts.

Dressing the Groom: The Suit Redux

After some rescheduling hijinks, we finally managed to sync up with Scatha for my final suit fitting on the Saturday before last.

As I expected, Miss Velvet Cream worked her magic, and the suit, much like our cake, is made of awesome.

The suit has an edgier look to it featuring D-ring closures, a Mandarin collar, and Scatha's signature patchwork effect, but fits like a classically tailored suit, which is to say, very well.

The suit is complemented by a vest, which features more aggressive patchwork texturing and, possibly my favorite touch, a ring pocket!

As a finishing touch Scatha sewed on the innards of a pocket watch, and two keys (not pictured).

I'm so looking forward to the chance to wear my suit down the aisle, probably the only thing that I'm anticipating more is finally getting to see Eden in her dress. A fine suit is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

The Suit

I'm generally not a big fan of stuff. Give me a decent laptop and a soft place to lie my head, and I can be content. That said, there are a handful of things that are like kryptonite to my anti-stuff sentiments. These include PUMA sneakers, cookware, and high end suits. Consequently, I am very excited that I get to wear a one of a kind Miss Velvet Cream piece for my wedding.

As readers know, Miss Velvet Cream is reconstructing Eden's mother's wedding dress for the event. To parallel this we asked Miss Velvet Cream work her reconstruction magic on an existing suit. This necessitated a shopping trip with MVC to find the base suit she would start with, but before we went shopping Miss Velvet Cream took a spectacular number of my measurements.

We expected a full day of running around the city to check out some of MVC's favorite thrift and consignment shops, but, as it happens, we lucked out. The first store we hit was Sui Generis in the Castro, and, after trying on three suits, we nailed it with a fantastic designer suit at a very reasonable price. Even more exciting than the suit is what Miss Velvet Cream plans to do with it. She showed us some pictures of this amazing patchwork process she did for another client, and we've discussed some interesting possibilities for the cut of the jacket. Stay tuned!