David August

[Manself]

Do any of the Lounge's Pacific coast members know of 'Lifestyle Clothier' David August? I'm told he's 'hot' in Hollywood right now - although you can take from this fact what you will. The website is not terribly inspiring but I'm interested to know if anyone has bought or commissioned anything from this shop?

[carl browne]

David August is the creation of David Heil, its founder. He started out in Orange County, California (my neighborhood). I went by his operation several years ago in it's previous iteration, David Rickey. I don't believe he's a trained tailor, nor is his product bespoke. It's measured in the shop and then farmed out overseas to be made. I don't know how much discretion you'd have on cut. Quality seems pretty good, from what I could tell, but I don't know about the fit because I never tried it. The firm holds itself out as a one stop shop for absolutely everything--suits, shirts, ties, shoes, accessories, casual clothes, everything. This is an enormous boon to Hollywood and sports figures who don't know anything about dress--anything would be an improvement. But I find the philosophy to be a bit oppressive--takes all of the fun out of it, in my view.

You might have good results. I think his look is a little too slick--lots of lightweight, shiny cloths with high super numbers, heavily fused shirt collars and cuffs, low-vamp woven leather Italian loafers made for the American market, and as you might expect, a little too much emphasis on "outfits." I suspect most of this can be mitigated if you know what you want and insist on it.

They seem to be very focused on providing good service.

[Manself]

Thanks for this. It confirms the impression that I took away from a browse through the website.

[carl browne]

I wonder what the status is of true bespoke tailors is in Southern California. Through the 1990's I used Giacomo Trabalaza--A great old Milanese tailor with enormous charm, who made me some beautiful things, some of which I still wear. Is there anyone like that still around? Giacomo died a year or two ago, and I'm at Richard Anderson now. I'm not interested in making a change, but I would like to see a prosperous Trade in my neighborhood.

C

[Yale Cameron]

CB, I learned about Enzo Caruso from Sleevehead's blog. He is based in santa monica. According to sleevehead, he does full bespoke with 3 fittings or so. He is an italian tailor whose family came from Calabria. I have not used him myself, but being based in Phoenix I am considering trying him. Sleevehead had a picture on his blog with a sport coat in the third fitting. It looked quite nice, clearly in a soft tailoring style.