By Bryan Ergle
I am, relatively speaking, short. I have embraced this.
I am also extremely broad shouldered. If you think this combination makes shopping for menswear easy, I would love to switch places with you for a few days! The truth is, though, that menswear is made to cater to everyone. The sizes, be there the small, medium, and large, or the 44 regular and 48 long’s of the world, are all tailored to fit an average. The irony is, very, very few people fit into those average measurements. As a result, whether you’re built like me, or build like a Hollywood star, virtually nothing is likely to fit you perfectly. Nowhere is this more apparent than in men’s suits.
While casual wear, such as polos, are fairly easier to find a reasonable fit, most men who value their image will still tell you that you often have to hunt across brands to find ‘the large’, for example, that is cut quite the way that best compliments your body. In suits, though, there is no such quarter. You must start with your chest measurement – 48, in my case – and go from there. Good luck, and may God be with you. That’s about all you’ve got!
No matter how close you may try to come, things are likely to never seem to quite fit in a way that compliments you and your body, and that’s for a reason – the suits are made in sets. For example, the cut of all of the slacks from 30-40, are likely to be the same, with only change made to the waist. If you’re a 40, that may mean the seat ends up being tight, and if you’re a 30, it’s so baggy you could wear a diaper. Jackets typically come in three lengths – short, regular, and tall – and often short or tall are limited to certain measurements. Narrow chested and tall? Broad chested and short? Oh well, you don’t fit! Even when you do come close, the length isn’t perfect for you – it’s perfect for an imagined average – and tailoring the bottom of a suit coat is a pricey affair.
Ironically, in trying to fit everybody, manufacturers have all but ensured that their suits almost fit some, but actually fit nobody. This is a lesson that I learned the hard way.
Growing up, my grandfather was a president of a medium-sized company, and wore suits daily. Hart Schaffner & Marx were his go-to, and I was, of course, raised understanding that those were high quality suits. And they are of good quality, for an off-the-rack (OTR) suit. But they suffer from the same sizing issues as any other. Later, after purchasing two HS&M suits, one from a department store and another from a high-end menswear store, I discovered Hickey Freeman, an even higher-class OTR suit… but still, it was off the rack. I didn’t wear suits often, because they felt unnatural, and I felt like I looked ungainly. I didn’t get that nice, suited look that you see on TV shows, in movies, or on the red carpet. It didn’t make sense to me, uninitiated as I was at the time.
A few years passed, and I was enjoying the popular, new at the time, show The Blacklist, starring James Spader, as an exceptionally well-dressed criminal mastermind named Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington. He was in three-piece suits in every episode, and it looked amazing. Spader was not a 6’4”, athletically built model, either; at this point he was middle aged, but carrying it well. So why did the suits work for him, but not for me? I actually reached out to the production team to find out how they made their suits for the show, and what might be different, to help me start to understand. I won’t name names, just in case anyone might get in trouble, but someone was 
kind enough to get back to me with the fact that their suits were not, as I expected, custom-made in-house, but rather, made by a suit maker in Brooklyn, NY, not far from their shooting locations… and they put in touch with him.
That is how, about a month later, I found myself standing on a narrow street in the Flatbush neighborhood, staring at a rather nondescript four-story brick building, with graffiti on the walls, and identified only by a faded green sign over the slightly rusted iron doors… Martin Greenfield Clothiers.
I had no idea what to expect, or really, what to do, exactly. I had spoken to someone from Martin Greenfield’s via email, but didn’t know much about them when I arrived. It wasn’t as if there were articles at the time discussing what to expect when buying a custom suit, or what to do, or whether or not it was a good idea financially! I climbed to the third floor – the first door I found open – and discovered the start of journey that would change my life, including leading here, to Well Sewn.
