$5500 DOMENICO SPANO Gray Flannel Bespoke Suit 46 S

Domenico Spano creates clothing for men who love clothing .

"Clearly, his suits stand out from the crowd, a look he describes as “sophisticated 1930s Hollywood, with a natural but extended well-defined shoulder (not rounded, not square) and a shape that enhances the male form.”

“From my father-in-law, I learned fabrics,” he recalls. “Plus my head was filled with visions from 1930s Hollywood. From the beginning, the customers liked my taste so I embraced custom clothing as a profession.”

From his father-in-law’s shop, Mimmo went to work at Dunhill, introducing clothing there, then to Alan Flusser, then to create his own label clothing at Bergdorfs and now at Saks. “Luckily, my customers have followed me wherever I’ve worked. They are my motivation. And my reward.”

At Saks, Mimmo has more than 1000 good customers, about 150 of whom are “big spenders,” e.g. one gentleman just bought five vicuna suits at $20,000 apiece! Still, Mimmo explains that there’s value in custom clothing because there’s no middleman and no sales commission. “Plus the customer chooses from thousands of gorgeous swatches, several of which I design myself with the mills. As for the suit model, I make it the way I like it. These days, it’s mostly three-buttons but with a lower stance so the center button is on the waistline. I like a peak lapel because it enhances the chest. Almost all our suits have sidevents. And I’m seeing a move to double-breasteds, mostly six-on-two with peak lapels.

“When I first meet a customer, I ‘dream’ him dressed a certain way and 99.9 percent of the time, he’s very happy with the result. (If not, I don’t let him take the suit; I always make a new one….)” A Saks custom suit generally takes about six weeks from start to finish, four once they have the pattern. Prices start at$5500.

Interestingly, Mimmo spends little time chatting with his customers about clothing. “We talk politics, literature, music... not suits. We connect as people. I don’t think men really need to know that there are 2,135 stitches in a suit. It’s more about the romance of dressing well, about how wearing the right suit makes you feel…” he explains, with feeling."