Alan Flusser Custom

Alan Flusser Custom sells a point of view as much as a suit. Flusser's books, from Clothes and the Man (1985) to Dressing the Man (2002), set out rules of proportion and color that many American men learned from, and the shop applies them: an updated drape with a soft, natural shoulder, a lightweight full canvas, a thin shoulder pad, ease through the chest and back, and trousers that sit near the natural waist and taper gently.

It is a custom shop rather than a bespoke tailor in the strict sense. Each pattern starts from a house block, adjusted for measurements, posture and silhouette and refined with each order. There are three makes. Club, from $2,700 for a suit, is largely machine-sewn with hand finishing. Gentry, from $3,300, has a hand-padded chest and lapels and is made at a partner workshop outside the United States; Put This On reported in 2021 that it works with workshops in Tianjin, China. Heritage, from $4,600, is made by hand in a New York workshop and can begin with a muslin fitting. A first fitting and a final fitting follow.

The shop has changed hands without changing its style. Flusser retired in 2020, and Jonathan Sigmon, who joined in 2013 to run operations and was director from 2016, now owns the business. The showroom at 3 East 48th Street is a quiet third-floor salon, visited by appointment, and shirts, from $525 with a three-shirt first order, are made a few blocks away.

Choose it for a classic American drape suit with real guidance on proportion and color, and the Heritage make if you want it sewn in New York. Those who want a pattern drafted from scratch and more fittings should look to a bench bespoke tailor; those who want a younger, Neapolitan look will find it at J. Mueser.