Photograph courtesy of Michael Andrews Bespoke
Few backstreets in New York have likely seen as many well-dressed and besuited individuals pass through as Great Jones Alley. There, a stream of white-collar visitors enters the nondescript entrance of custom tailor Michael Andrews Bespoke. Behind the doors of this flagship store, clients find a towering space where marble tabletops, a stocked bar, and walls of luxury garments unfold before them. It is here that founder and CEO Michael Andrews and his team have been crafting custom suits for Fortune 500 CEOs, Broadway casts, Marvel actors, and numerous other high-profile clients for 13 years.
Andrews’s custom tailoring has not been reserved for New Yorkers, though. He and his team also make regular visits to Washington, D.C. and Abu Dhabi, and have recently expanded their purview to include Andrews’s hometown of Atlanta, the first U.S. city in which the company will be implementing regular trunk shows. Last weekend, Andrews was in Atlanta for his fourth such visit, bringing with him an array of luxury fabric and suit racks laid out in a polished suite of the Four Seasons Hotel.
Photograph courtesy of Michael Andrews Bespoke
After graduating from Georgia Tech in 1996, Andrews went on the get a JD/MBA at Northwestern, a path which eventually led him to join the ranks of King & Spalding’s New York office, one of the few law firms that still requires full business attire. His subsequent search for the ideal work wardrobe yielded no success, launching his journey toward creating the perfect suit, not just for himself, but for any person desiring meticulously made custom pieces.
In an industry with a tradition of loyalty and exceptional customer service, longstanding relationships remain the foundation of bespoke tailoring. It made sense, then, for Andrews to expand his business’s reach into Atlanta’s relatively untapped market, a place where he was born, raised, and began his career path.
Because of the nature of bespoke, Andrews’s work is not characterized by a singular design element, but rather by the exceptional fit and detailed personalization of each garment. With made-to-measure suits starting at $995 and full bespoke suits starting at $1,995, the team works personally with each client to sift through the endless possibilities that custom tailoring offers.
Photograph courtesy of Michael Andrews Bespoke
Photograph courtesy of Michael Andrews Bespoke
Since its inception a little over a decade ago, Michael Andrews Bespoke has expanded beyond men’s suits to include custom denim, outerwear, and most recently, womenswear. Though bespoke suiting has long been reserved for gentlemen—think London’s legendary Savile Row—the demand for well-made women’s suits has grown as the number of women in leadership and corporate professions has increased. Andrews explains that while the demand for men’s suits is on the decline, the market for custom professional womenswear is blossoming.
“The days of guys wearing suits to work five days a week is not what it used to be,” he says. “In every aspect of the economy, women are taking their seat at the table, finally, and they want to dress the part.”
Photograph courtesy of Michael Andrews Bespoke
The womenswear line will launch company-wide on September 12, soon after which Andrews will be returning to Atlanta to accept appointments—women included. It seems the team at Michael Andrews Bespoke has determined a way to honor old-world tailoring traditions while adeptly maneuvering a modernizing world.
Andrews will return to Atlanta in late September to take appointments. Exact dates have yet to be announced, but clients may make future appointments through the Michael Andrews Bespoke website. Order times vary depending on the type of garment, but a client’s first suit typically takes between eight to twelve weeks to be made, with the time shortening to six to eight weeks with subsequent suit orders.
