Today, I am excited to announce that the long-awaited He Spoke Style x Michael Andrews collection has finally launched! This collaboration has been years in the making and we know there have been many months of anticipation. I appreciate everyone's patience and support as we have worked tirelessly to get to this point.
The story of how we got here is really the story of my own sartorial journey. Starting the He Spoke Style menswear blog in 2013, I could never have predicted that today I would be partnering with a highly-respected custom clothier to launch our own online made to measure clothing service. Wow. Let me let that sink in for a second.
In this video, I'm sharing the complete story of how I took He Spoke Style from blog to online made to measure business, what that means for you guys, what that means for HSS, and invite you to let us know what you think. Enjoy!
I live in Baltimore, and about eight years ago,
I got in my car and started heading south to Washington, D.C.
I knew why I was going,
but I wasn't exactly sure how it was going to go
or really have any idea of how significant
this trip would be.
That's something I wouldn't realize
until many, many years later.
So I was headed down to D.C.
because a custom clothing company from New York
that I had read about and heard really,
really great things about was setting up shop in D.C.
and was actually offering a pretty nice discount
for first-time D.C. clients.
This was during the very beginning of He Spoke Style
and at a time when I really started to get serious
about developing my wardrobe and investing in it.
So, seemed like a good trip to make.
I parked just off DuPont Circle
and walked a few blocks to a small townhouse.
I rang the doorbell, was buzzed in,
and taken upstairs to the second floor.
There, I was greeted by a very elegant room,
dark hardwood floors, slate gray walls,
fireplace, a couch, a few perfectly placed rugs,
a single table with four chairs around it,
a couple tailor busts elegantly styled,
a wet bar, and a hutch stocked with fabric books.
Next, a gentleman came in, shook my hand,
and we sat down together at the table.
This was my first time meeting Mike of Michael Andrews.
Now remember that this is kind of the beginning
of me seriously getting into men's style
and actually only my second time doing a custom suit,
which is to say that I was not prepared at all.
I kind of knew what I wanted, but not really.
And when it came to all the details, so many options,
I was just completely overwhelmed.
In fact, I'm not ashamed to admit that a lot of things,
I didn't even know what they were at the time.
So my appointment kind of took a little bit of time,
probably more time than Mike was used to spending
on a single client who was, you know,
only gonna buy one suit and two shirts.
After all that time, I finally decided
on a brown Donegal tweed three-piece suit
that I did with a notch lapel, flat pockets,
suede elbow patches, which is honestly something I'd wanted
since my undergraduate days, double vent,
side adjusters on the trousers with a two-inch cuff.
And for shirts, I did a blue microstripe
and another striped shirt that had like kind of a blue
and brown double stripe.
I loved that suit when I got it,
and I got it just in time
for the fall winter season of that year.
It was 2013.
We featured it many times on the He Spoke Style website,
showing its versatility.
It's a suit that is still in my rotation,
and actually the tweed jacket
that you've seen on the channel frequently
is the jacket from that suit.
Now, over the years, as I continued growing HSS,
I had the opportunity to try many different
made-to-measure and custom suit programs.
Some really well-known, some online only,
some small shops, pretty much the entire gamut
of what was available.
But one thing that remained constant
throughout all that time
is that I always kept coming back to MAB.
The other products were okay, some hit or miss,
but usually there was like something about the product
that I just couldn't get past,
like it would always come in too small or short
despite a very rigorous measuring process.
Some of the programs have a complete lack of control
over certain things that were sort of non-negotiable for me,
like a lapel width, for example,
or having a cap on how big you could make the cuff
on your trousers.
And then there was the fact
that a lot of these companies seem kind of faceless.
You know, maybe they advertise the personal attention
that you would get,
but part of the joy of the sartorial world
is those relationships that you create
with the people responsible for making your clothing.
You don't want the process to be simply transactional.
It should be about sharing a passion for style
and the craft of tailored clothing.
And to be honest, the holy grail is getting to a point
where you can just tell your guy what you want
and then expect that with little to no input from you
that he knows exactly what that is
and that when the garment is delivered
that you are completely satisfied.
That is why MAB was different for me.
And it's one of the reasons that I kept going back to them
so consistently over the years.
Michael Andrews was and still is a relatively small team
of warm, caring, passionate, and just nice people.
All my favorite suits were from MAB.
I'd never experienced such a personal level
of customer attention.
I mean, they'd remember birthdays, anniversaries,
and it wasn't just like some bot decided to send me an email.
Corey and Mike would literally text me
to let me know that they had remembered.
Because of that synergy
and because of the way our values align,
caring about quality,
caring about the people that we connected with,
it was, I would say, about two years ago
that we started having conversations about partnering
in a more meaningful and lasting way.
Michael Andrews has a great product that I personally love.
Though aside from a few regular trunk shows here and there
in a handful of cities and the showroom in New York,
they only had that in-person experience,
which made it very difficult, if not impossible,
for the people who followed me to see what it was all about.
And add to that,
that they were only offering a bespoke garment.
That meant the price was higher than I knew
that many of you might be comfortable with.
My goal has always been to make it easier for you guys
to dress well, look your best, feel your best,
and in the process, have more confidence in yourself
and to use that confidence to do whatever it is
and achieve whatever it is that you want to.
And part of that is to be able to share
and give you access to the clothing
that has had that effect for me in my life.
That is why we put our heads together
to find a way to bring Michael Andrews into the HSS shop
to give you an online custom clothing experience
that only they can deliver and at a price point
that is better in terms of the level and quality
of what you are getting than the competition.
Now, let me talk a little bit
about what really differentiates Michael Andrews.
They have their own workshop
and they actually own their workshop.
They make all their patterns in-house,
which is cool because it allows me to create some pieces
that I envision to give you some more unique options
here and there than what you would normally find
from similar companies in the custom clothing industry.
Over the years, Michael Andrews has also created
a network of partnerships with other top tier craftsmen,
which gives them a much greater depth of knowledge,
experience and ability
than any other custom clothier out there.
And because of that, that's why we're able to offer you
a curated selection of not just suits, shirts
and sport coats, but also shoes, knitwear, belts,
ties and accessories.
Of course, when you're talking about custom clothing
and especially online custom clothing,
the most important thing aside from quality
is the fit of the garment.
And here is a place that I know Mike
and his team absolutely deliver.
As you go through the process,
you'll work closely with them to achieve a fit
that is as close to their in-store bespoke as possible.
We've been testing this out for well over a year now.
And to be completely honest,
I was a little scared in the beginning
because I didn't want this service
to have any sort of compromise at all.
And when we got those first garments back,
we were all absolutely blown away by how good it was.
This whole new adventure is all about you guys.
And what this partnership does
is that it gives us an infrastructure to deliver you
an exceptional product with world-class customer service.
And because we've brought on MAB as our partner for that,
it frees me up and gives me a greater ability
to continue to give you guys even higher quality content
than you've become accustomed to.
I know some of you are gonna have questions
about objectivity and so on and so forth going forward.
What I can promise you
is that nothing on this channel will change.
It's not gonna become a huge commercial.
I've seen other people go down that path,
and that is not what is going to happen here.
I'm gonna continue sharing the things
that I'm passionate about across a variety of categories,
and you will continue to get all the knowledge,
tips, and inspiration you need to dress well,
have more confidence, and unlock your potential.
Everything is now live on the site.
And what I really wanna do
is encourage you to check it out, browse the collection,
but most importantly, give us some feedback.
We want the experience to be the best out there.
We wanna make the site better every day.
And you guys are the ones
who can give us the best feedback.
So please, hop on over there,
check it out, and let us know what you think.
