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Archive for April, 2010

Apr 26

20 Comments

Made To Measure Suits Up Jeff Powell

Jeff Powell, a great friend since my teens, is a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy. Since he is a graphic designer and mostly works from home, he never had the need for a suit…until now.

Jeff was invited to a wedding, considered renting a suit, then asked me what his best bet was. I immediately suggested we go out and buy him one. Even if he only wears it a handful of times a well fitted suit is a fantastic investment.

The biggest concern for Jeff was budgeting. He had to come under $300 including everything from shoes to tailoring. To add more fuel to the fire we had a time constraint of less than two weeks to get it all together. I set out to research what were the best stores to go to since he has a more athletic frame than myself.

I also started thinking of what color the piece should be and settled on a nice simple gray. Since we live really close by to one another in Brooklyn, I took him to Target. Why Target? Because a man of Jeff’s build would look ridiculous squeezed into anything H&M or Zara has to offer. Merona suits are not badly made at all and for the money Jeff had to spend they fit perfectly into his budget.

We managed to find everything at Target except for the shoes. I tried desperately to get him to go for brown but he felt he would get way more use out of black. Amazingly we found a great pair of Dexter plain toe black leather uppers for $29 at Payless.

The suit looked too baggy and I could not get him to Imparali in time for a fitting so we found a great little tailor close to his apartment who did all the alterations for $75. Since Jeff is of a more athletic build, we needed to go for a fitted but not too tight look on the suit itself. I asked the tailor for a lot. The sleeves were too long, waist was not suppressed, pants were ballooning, etc. He was really accommodating with all my bossy demands, though, and really got how I wanted the suit to look on Jeff.

I was not too happy with the break on the pants and I feel Matt at Imparali could have done a much better job but overall with the time constraint involved, I think the final result was pretty awesome.

The shirt and tie color I feel was a great contrast to the gray and compliments his skin tone really well. We originally tried on a blue combination and felt it was a bit too stiff. Jeff being a graphic designer understands the importance of a good color pop. We also found a pack of 3 Merona pocket squares for $4.I lent him one of my own tie bars:

We also made sure the back of the jacket had no neck roll and that there was a nice bit of cuff peeking out from the sleeves:

All in all Jeff is very happy with the results and it was such a great experience for me to aid someone in purchasing their first suit. He even said that it makes him feel “damn good” when he’s in it.

Here’s the itemized list for everything:

Suit Jacket by Merona: $60

Suit Pants by Merona: $25

Shirt by Merona: $25

Tie by Merona: $15

Belt by Merona: $15

Pocket Squares (box of 3) by Merona: $4

Socks by Merona: $3

Shoes by Dexter: $29

Alterations by Santiago Tailoring: $75

For a grand total of $236.

If you live in the New York area and would like your own Made To Measure manly make over, feel free to reach out to me at madetomeasureny@gmail.com.

To check out the work of Jeff Powell please visit: www.negativeink.com.

Apr 16

2 Comments

Style Icon: Nick Cave

Nick Cave and The Badseeds popped up on my Pandora and I was not only reminded of how much I love the music but how much I admire the style choices of Mr. Cave.

I remember reading a few articles about how even though he is a musician who tours and spend most of the time in the studio, puts on a suit everyday. A fine example is the photo below of him walking his children to school:

Being a musician myself I really admire his ethos. As rough and tumble as his life has been he believes in the power and ease of looking sharp which is at times a rarity in the world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Here are some shots of him that always remind me I don’t have to work in an office to wear a kick ass suit (and on my day off rock a SUCK MY DICK t-shirt).

Apr 14

25 Comments

Spring Cleaning: The Right Fitting Jeans

Every man’s body is completely different which means that if a menswear magazine tells  you to go out and buy skinny jeans, you shouldn’t necessarily follow their advice.

For years I squeezed into tight jeans only to realize much later on in life that they actually made my body look awful. You see, I have large hips and legs so, in photos especially, skinny jeans would make my lower body look freakishly larger than my upper half. I stubbornly pushed myself into these jeans day in and day out until I finally had the revelation to get a more relaxed leg.

Relaxed doesn’t necessarily mean baggy but those of us who have a larger lower half need to think about a little extra room while sustaining a tailored fit. Done right, a proper cut will make you look trimmer than skinny jeans ever will.

I dug through all my jeans and sold or donated every single pair that made my legs look like giant sausages and I was left with only one pair of Levi’s. Doing as much research as possible I found that THE GAP was the best choice for good quality denim at a reasonable price.

It feels really nice to have finally scaled down my denim collection to three solid pairs that will last as long as I keep going to the gym.

From L-R: Gap Authentic Fit ($54), Gap Standard Fit ($54), Levis 514 ($40)

Putting it all together:

Jeans: Gap Standard Fit ($54), Sweater: Uniqlo ($19.50), Jacket: Uniqlo ($29), Hat: $10, Shoes: Merona ($30)

Apr 13

3 Comments

Spring Cleaning: Revamping A Shoe

For about two years a pair of black casual style brogues from Aldo have been sitting in the back of my closet.

I found them on sale for about $20, wore them on a handful of occasions, then realized I disliked them greatly because they had flat soles that made them look more like sneakers. Away they went to the nether regions of the dust collecting corner.

I asked a shoe repairman near my office how much it would cost to put heeled soles on them. The cost was $60 in total because he had to add welts to them. I’m going to research shoe repair in my Brooklyn neighborhood because I feel it will cost a lot less here. Usually there is a $20 difference in cost between service in Manhattan vs. Brooklyn.

In the end, I really enjoyed receiving the finished product and this was a great exercise in shopping my closet and discovering an item that I wanted and was right there in front of my face. After a good polishing, some shoe trees, and the new soles, it’s like I have a brand new pair of dress shoes.

(I ended up removing those loops in the back of the shoes post taking these photos)

Revamped Aldo Shoes: $80

Resoled shoes: $80 in total.

And how they look with a suit:

Suit: Land's End Tailored Collection, Shirt: Indochino, Tie: Indochino

Apr 12

10 Comments

Spring Cleaning: Suit Hangers On The Cheap

I find that I hoard a lot during the cooler months and tend to make some impulse buys that end up getting sold on EBAY or given away to charity. Doing this put a lot into perspective for me about being more disciplined with my spending habits.

After this year, though, I’ve managed to consolidate my clothing to the point where I only have what I wear on a regular basis. I’ll go more into detail about what I got rid of and how during the week’s posts.

After the mass exodus I was left with a bunch of mismatched hangers that made my wardrobe look a tad disorganized. And while I feel a product like THE HANGER PROJECT is just too ridiculously lavish and not within a reasonable budget for any of us mere mortals, I still wanted to find some great quality wooden hangers for my suits.

Enter TARGET which had these really nice ones by Michael Graves. They are rubberized on the shoulders and pants bar for non slip and come in two very attractive stains of dark and light for the very affordable price of 3 for $4.99. Built extremely sturdy they also provide large shoulder width to keep them from misshaping. I could not find them on the website so they may be in store only.

Michael Graves Hangers at Target: 3 for $4.99

These hangers create a uniformity that is very pleasing to the eye. I, being a bit anal retentive, used the light finish for my light suits and the dark finish for my darker suits.

A good hanger is one of the most important maintenance items to acquire for your suits, slacks, and shirts. If you are still using plastic or wire hangers, please replace them with these or something similar.

Clothing is an investment. Protect it wisely.

Apr 7

13 Comments

Happy Birthday To Me And Thanks To You!

Hi all!

It’s been a slow week only because I have needed a break from blogging. I will be back next week with more updates.

On another note, today is my 33rd birthday! And in the spirit of being thankful for the ones around me on this day I want to sincerely give my praises to all of you who have been reading, commenting, and enjoying Made To Measure, NY.

My greatest gift besides my beautiful fiancee is all of you.

Here’s to making another year a great one.

Sincerely,
Dennis Cahlo

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