Black Lapel
Getting a bespoke suit made from a tailor is an experience I believe every man should experience at some point in his life. Before I got married, I went to a tailor in NYC and hand-picked the fabric, cut, style, and features of my wedding suit. It was awesome, but it *really* spoiled me.
Spoiled me how? Well, after that experience I had this one navy blue suit that fit perfectly. It was cut and sewn to fit my body’s exact specifications. I probably own 8 different suits but ever since I had that suit made I’d only wear the one navy suit…until now.
I was recently introduced to The Traveler Suit by Black Lapel and after reading about their made-to-measure business model my interest was piqued. Full disclosure, they gifted me a suit for the purposes of this article so that I could go through the process of customizing one of The Traveler Suits but neither I nor BroBible was paid for this so full objectivity is still in play here.
What caught my attention about The Traveler Suit at first was, well, the name. I see that name and I immediately think ‘smart fabric’ and ‘wrinkle resistant’ which is exactly what this suit is promising. The Traveler Suit comes in both Navy and Gray, and is made from a high twist yarn performance wool that fights back wrinkles so the suit stays looking fresh all day in meetings or while traveling.
Black Lapel
It’s literally impossible to have a fully wrinkle-free suit while maintaining the fit and structure of a well-tailored suit. But, The Traveler Suit is about as perfect as you’re going to find in that realm because of the high twist yarn performance wool.
This all-natural wool is built to stretch with your body, another mechanism to fight back wrinkles as you travel and/or stay active all day. The specially formulated weave of the wool is designed for breathability and comfort along with ease of movement, and this makes it the ideal travel companion for any business traveler and/or dude like myself who often travels to weddings and needs to pack a suit.
Black Lapel
Black Lapel
Black Lapel
Black Lapel
This incredible wool is also liquid and sweat resistant and this is a total game-changer for Summer weddings. Sure, you can wear this made-to-measure suit all year long. It’s a 4-season suit. But when you’re wearing it to Summer meetings for business or while traveling for weddings then this suit is going to fight off the sweat (or rain) and that’s something you never knew how badly you needed it until you had it.
What separates The Traveler Suit from a typical off-the-rack suit? Just about everything, from start to finish. We already covered the fabrics so let’s talk about the inside features and then we’ll get to how you ensure the perfect fit (hint: a ton of easy measurements).
The Traveler Suit comes with a hidden money pocket on the inside of the jacket, ideal for international business travelers who need to carry local currency. There are 2 zippered pockets which can be used to store your passport, wallet, or valuables. There’s an easy-access sunglass loop on the inside of the coat which is CLUTCH for Summer weddings.
Now, for the personalization aspect. If you’ve never customized a suit before and want to go with Black Lapel’s recommendations you can choose to do that or you can go step-by-step and choose every tiny detail on your suit. This includes picking the jacket type (1-3 buttons/double breasted), lapel type (Notch vs Peak), vents on the back, slant and type of jacket pockets (slanted/straight, piped/flapped), color of the jacket liner, monogramming, pleats on the pants, cuffs, you can add a vest, pick stitching to make it look more tailored, ticket pockets, accent stitching on the boutonniere and sleeve buttonhole, the rear pant pockets, belt loops, and your choice of suspender buttons.
These are the same choices you’d make if you were going to tailor but you can do this all on BlackLapel’s website (or at their NYC storefront). And once you’ve picked out every detail to your liking you move on to ensure that you’ll get the perfect fit. You do this by using a soft measuring tape at home. I had my wife measure me and she’d literally never held a measuring tape before. I wanted her to do instead of going to an alterations or suit shop to get my measurements so I could see just how easy the process was (if it truly is easy) and to test out the reliability of those measurements.
Each suit takes 4-5 weeks to be cut, stitched, and sent to your home once you’ve put in your measurements and to my astonishment it fit perfectly when it arrived. I’ll be honest, I really didn’t have much faith in the process when I was going through it because I’ve used a similar online ordering system for renting a tuxedo before when I was a groomsmen in a wedding and that tux showed up fitting like butt. This suit, however, fits perfectly. And I guess that’s why they ask you for a literal metric shit ton of measurements.
I will advise that when you’re inputting your measurements you *LOG IN TO THE BLACK LAPEL WEBSITE* because I went through the full process once and lost my measurements. It wasn’t that big of a deal because it only takes 15-minutes (at most) to take all of your measurements and there’s a handy video for each measurement that will show you exactly how to take the measurement so you know that you’re doing it correctly.
The measurements you input include: Height, Weight, Back Posture, Shoulder Type, Shoulder Angle, Fit Preference (Slim Fit, Tailored Fit, Standard/Relaxed Fit), Neck Size, Jacket Length, Chest Size, Stomach Size, Shoulder Size, Sleeve Length, Biceps, Wrists, Pants Length, Thigh Width, Knee Size, Rise, Hips, and Waist.
Finish that and voila, your suit starts being prepared. Flash forward several months and your suit arrives looking pristine and fitting perfectly. They have a ‘Flawless Fit Guarantee‘ that states if your suit doesn’t come fitting exactly how you want they’ll credit you $75 to work with a local tailor on alterations to ensure that it fits perfectly. So, for instance, if you want the pants to be slightly more slim-fitting you can have them taken in or something like that.
Black Lapel
Black Lapel
Alright, my dudes, I can keep sharing pictures of The Traveler Suit from now until sunrise but I just wanted to put this on your radar because I’ve truly become a believer.
If you spoke to me a year ago I would’ve told you that the only way to buy a perfect-fitting suit is by visiting a tailor but I was wrong, and I’ve seen the light. This process ensures the perfect fit and the wool means you won’t sweat and it won’t wrinkle.
You can shop The Traveler Suit on Black Lapel’s website if you want to browse around and start customizing. Or if you have any questions you can hit me up on Twitter at @casspa or you can hit up Black Lapel on Facebook or Twitter.
The BroBible team writes about gear that we think you want. Occasionally, we write about items that are a part of one of our affiliate partnerships and we will get a percentage of the revenue from sales.