Suit yourself
Alexander Peters is a new Island retailer in the bespoke suit industry, a niche product in custom suits
At six-foot-eight, Alexander Peters understands all too well the difficulty of finding a suit that fits just right.
“Some people just don’t fit into any of that off-the-rack stuff,” said the owner of Raffiné Custom Clothiers in Charlottetown.
“That’s another driving factor to create this business, because I could never find anything that would fit me, let alone anything that would look good and fit me.”
Peters opened the bespoke clothing business at 142 Great George St. in May.
Bespoke suits are designed and tailored specifically to a person’s body and involve selecting everything from the fabric, style of lapels, liner and cuffs, buttons and even the colour of the thread.
Once the selections are made and measurements taken, it can take anywhere from four to seven weeks for a suit to be put together and sent back to the retailer.
Bespoke suits usually start at $2,000 or more, but Peters sells in the range of $1,200 to $1,800 to be competitive with the P.E.I. marketplace.
He also likes to keep prices low to encourage people unfamiliar with the product to give it a try.
“I like to bring it down to a price point where you don’t have to be a movie star to wear these clothes. But, you can feel like a movie star.”
Peters keeps costs and prices competitive by operating out of a stylish, eight-by-10 foot showroom, which is more than enough room for customers come in, make their selections and be measured while songs like “Stand by Me” play in the background. Suits ordered through the business are tailored in Toronto or China.
Peters said his target market is both businessmen and women, professionals and anyone “who is used to quality in the big city and could not find it here.”
Moores Clothes for Men has been selling custom suits since 2015, including at its Charlottetown location. Sales amount to about $250,000 a year in Atlantic Canada, or 10 to 15 per cent of sales compared to on-the-rack suits, according to Phil Bennett, Moores regional manager in Halifax.
Bennett wishes Peters well with his bespoke focus, especially since the new business owner is a former employee at Moores in Charlottetown.
But with the cost of production and low demand, the company isn’t planning to venture into the bespoke industry.
“If 10 to 15 per cent of our customer base is buying a custom suit at the price we sell them, what percentage of them are going to want to buy a bespoke suit? That number is getting smaller and smaller all the time,” explained Bennett.
The company decided to get into the custom suit industry because men were looking for a better assortment of products as well as the need, especially from millennials, to “express their personality through their clothing,” Bennett said.
Custom suits at Moores range between $499 and $1,300. Bennett explained custom suits are adjusted to fit a person’s body while a customer chooses the style of fabric, liner, lapels, number of buttons and personalize it with “flare.” It takes about five weeks to receive a custom suit, or a rush order can happen in 12 business days.
The difference between a custom suit and a bespoke suit is like building a house with a preexisting floor plan and personalizing it with new countertops or larger windows to building a house from scratch with each part personalized, he said.
Bennett said the custom suit industry is growing on the Island, especially as the business community grows. But weddings are also a big part of sales.
“We’ve created a pretty strong wedding business out that part of the custom side,” he said. “What I’ve found is that even though Charlottetown may not be the biggest whitecollar community, it does have a pretty good appetite for wanting that selection.”
Peters estimates he has sold about three or four full suits, 10 shirts (at $250 each), four sport coats and two pairs of pants. Peters said business has been steady and he’s making a profit.
He also sees the wedding industry as a target market and hopes to tap into it next year.
Shaun Patterson, a business instructor at Holland College, said Peters could face some challenges as a new business owner with a niche product in P.E.I.’s small marketplace. Even so, Patterson is encouraged that Peters may have found a “gap in the marketplace that is underserved.”
“I think what it will come down to is, does he have his business set up in such a way that he understands that he can survive with this small piece of the market as he is growing his brand and growing his name?” he said.
“Whether it’s a successful business or not, with these young entrepreneurs, it’s always exciting to see young people coming up with really new, fun things and new business ideas and bringing them to the Island and sort of has this face of change in this new generation.”