Today we’d like to introduce you to David An and David Kim.
Please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We both have been friends since our college years, but oddly enough were always surrounded by formal wear. Whether it was from working on weddings, going to events, meeting for clients for our legal company (we used to fight traffic tickets), we always found out that getting a properly fitting clothes were always a challenge to come across (I have a football body from my high school football days). Either they were crappy online models that simply took forever due to all the remakes, or they would be extremely expensive for subpar fabrics. Naturally I was more encouraged to enter fashion considering my family always revolved around it. My sister designed for a good number of leading high-end fashion retailers, and my parents were tailors before and throughout my childhood.
Has it been a smooth road?
It was not. We originally started with an online based model, and quickly realized that there are too many challenges to try and teach our customers how to measure themselves properly. We’ve noticed even a great deal of local tailors do not even know how to properly measure considering there are certain observations that need to be taken into account. This posed a challenge considering we spent most of our starting capital to building it around this. However, through referrals and some guerilla style marketing we were able to restructure and get to where we are now.
We have refined our measurement process several times through our apprenticeship with our master tailor James Andrew our of La Habra (well-known master tailor that is trusted by many celebrities and even other tailors for his knowledge and work – family of tailors dating back to early 1900’s). Ultimately, customer service and satisfaction was our number one priority (we used to work in corporate restaurants and that aspect was drilled into our minds. also, I (David an) have a hospitality mgmt./legal college background. So we’ve even had one instance where we drove 3 hours to drop off a suit that needed a last minute minor adjustment the day before a wedding (he decided he wanted it adjusted a tad more 1 day before the wedding).
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We specialize in making any formal attire (tuxes, blazers, slacks, shirts, suits, tailcoats) from scratch, and guarantee a perfect fit with every garment. We are most proud of the level of customer service we offer and the quality of the product we offer as well. We pride ourselves in making sure every single customer is completely satisfied with not only the garment they receive but the entire experience as a whole. We also provide free traveling consultations for all of our clients as well (old school style where the tailor comes directly to the client for measurements, fabric selection, and general advice). Our rates are definitely one thing that sets us apart from our competition. The closest store rate with a similar introductory quality starts at around $900, but that rate isn’t even inclusive for all the options and they don’t even provide traveling consultations. We only have a select few up charges while most other company’s upcharge nearly everything. I mean we have our fair share of very high end suits going up to $7k (Similar quality on our highest end lines at local stores will run up to $15k), but even our introductory build is comparable quality to a $900 suit off the rack. Our master tailors for our highest end suits made suits for even several well-known billionaire’s such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. However, we completely understand that a vast majority of individuals have no need for such expensive suits, and simply wanted to provide a full-service experience with great quality at significantly better rates.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Our particular store works and supplies to the LA County and city as well, but one challenge with setting up a full store in LA is the cost for a decent space is relatively high. Yes, we are a niche so if you do have the capital to set it up, LA definitely has a demand for more reputable suit tailors. LA does not need anything to improve this considering it already has a very high demand for something like this. However, a lot of the local shops do unethical practices due to the competition which really is quite appalling. We visited several shops to see what types of fabric they used, and the build quality, when we were pulled aside only to hear that they put 100% wool tags on most of their suits that are actually polyester imitations so they can easily sell them. Also, they are stating they are made in more labor expensive regions (i.e. Italy/England) when they are all dished out from places like Vietnam. Lastly, most of the suits listed as canvassed, were inspected to have either a cheap felt canvassing (higher end suits provide a traditional horse hair canvass), and some of them simply weren’t even canvassed at all. I really hope the city of LA cracks down on all these fraudulent stores.
Pricing:
- New client custom suits start at $499+tax (Includes all adjustments – Perfect Fit Guaranteed).
- New Client Egyptian Cotton Custom Shirts start at $109+tax
Contact Info:
- Address: 1 Park Plaza $600
Irvine, CA 92614
(Corporate Office) - Website: www.trutailorcocustomsuits.com
- Phone: 562-846-6649
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trutailorco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trutailorco/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/trutailor-co-custom-suits-irvine-14
Image Credit:
TruTailor Company Custom Suits
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
