Summer Prep: Lessons in Tailoring With Louis Geramita

Younger generations of menswear lovers are now turning away from the fast fashion scene and doing something considered radical in this era— coming home to traditional craftsmanship and guaranteed style.

I find that the best teachers are always the most interesting individuals, and unbeknownst to me, bright and early on a Monday in May, I was about to encounter the next mentor we’ve all been waiting for on our collective path to style cultivation. Welcome to Tailoring 101: Sartorial American.

When I met Louis Geramita that morning at his shop, Primo Tailoring, I first noticed the sense of serenity that flowed across the threshold and out onto the street as soon as I opened the door. Smiling warmly, he greeted me as he finished up styling an attractive double breasted jacket on one of the mannequins near the front.

Immediately, he began to explain the layout and décor of his shop—a spacious but cozy environment with the exposed brick I love, and tastefully arranged antiques peeking out from between racks of clothing. He used to work in home improvement, and it showed in his taste in interiors. Everything, like his own attire that day, was meticulously arrayed: the cufflink and tie displays in the middle of the shop, the leather weekender bags casually hung up here and there, and the vintage bar cart with refreshments near the tobacco scented candle burning on his consulting desk.

But I soon figured out that there was more to Mr. Geramita than just aesthetics—there was substance. It wasn’t until he sat back in his seat for our interview, with the quiet self-assuredness of a true gentleman, that I knew my exploratory break was over and it was time for a lesson in masculine elegance.

L&F: I think you are first and foremost, an artist, Mr. Geramita. Where do you draw your inspiration?

Louis Geramita: I usually draw a lot of inspiration from different places. Usually it’s through things that I am interacting with on a daily basis, like music or architecture. Interior design is a really big one for me. There’s also a couple of other creators and menswear accounts that I pull inspiration from, but it’s mostly those other art forms that kind of influence how I then turn it into my own art form.

You made quite a career pivot, coming from home improvement.

Yeah, so it’s kind of a weird journey of how I went from home improvement to tailoring. I really enjoy the process of being able to work with my hands, seeing things that I am doing, get done in front of me. And that’s why I first chose home improvement and construction work because it was very much hands on. But what I realized very early on into that career, was just that my body started hurting. My knees started hurting. My back started hurting. And I said to myself, if I’m going to be in this long term, it’s really going to take a toll. And around the same time, I started to fall in love with menswear, and the history of the tailoring, and how it connects to military history.

So, I was trying to figure out a way to transition into a different career path while finding this joy for menswear, which kind of got me onto this track of tailoring, because it’s still very hands on. I’m still working with my hands, but it’s not as intense on the body you could say.

Was it easy to find a mentor? Most wouldn’t know how to break into such a traditional craft without having to go to an art school.

Yeah, that’s actually a common thing in the industry, and for me one of the hardest parts was just finding out how to learn how to do it. One of the big references I used was YouTube, Googling things. I was very fortunate that I had my mother-in-law who actually got me connected to an apprenticeship under two tailors in the area. And that’s where I learned a good chunk of what I know today. A lot of it was trial and error on my own, and finding other people to teach me, either on the internet or through travel.

I was thinking we could put together a capsule wardrobe, because I know you love the American Prep style. What are we starting with first?

Oh, I love that. So, depending on what...and this is the same process we go through when we do our custom stuff too... We really want to dissect what the person’s going to be doing in the clothing that they’re wearing. Some capsule wardrobes maybe don’t need a full suit in them, if you’re going to be doing very casual or very manual labor work. But if we’re doing just like a general, any day kind of guy outfit, usually I like to start with a navy suit. That’s pretty much the use-all color in terms of suiting. You can wear it to funerals, weddings, job interviews... You can, if you are on more of a budget and you need to break up your clothing, you can wear the jacket as just a blazer, and wear the pants as just a blue pair of trousers. So that’s the first thing I usually recommend.

A crisp white shirt would be next, whether it’s more formal like the one I’m wearing, that takes a tie, or a simple button-down collar. Just again, it depends on how formal you want it to be or where you’re wearing it to.

At that point, we’ll go to a classic pair of khaki chinos. They should be a nice medium to light brown pair that you can wear in the more casual settings with a tee and a pair of sneakers, and also dress up with a sport coat. As long as you have a pair of these, you’ll be totally good.

Usually from there we take it to a light blue shirt or like a striped oxford shirt. Those actually are a game changer in terms of versatility, for men or for women. I think anybody really rocks them. And then for footwear, I usually go for a lace up dress shoe in a brown color, and a loafer. If you want to keep it more casual, just add another pair of sneakers, or if you live in a really warm climate you can opt for a sandal kind of look if you need to.

So all of that kind of forms the base, but if you want to get a bit fun with it, then you can add a brown sport coat to layer in with everything, and the number of outfits you can make with that alone is actually pretty impressive.

Is this what you have in your own personal closet?

I do, for sure. So, blue suit, brown sport coat, khakis, is pretty much my uniform that I wear often. I try to keep my wardrobe actually pretty lean, because I don’t want there to be too much. I don’t like to buy clothing just to buy clothing, I buy clothing as an investment. So all of those pieces I keep in my personal wardrobe.

What do you think is the particular advantage of wearing well-tailored and even bespoke looks?

Absolutely. So, for us tailors, we think that there is a scientific benefit to looking good and dressing well. It isn’t only for the first impression aspect of everything, where you’re meeting people and you don’t know who you’re going to run into, but also, it has been proven that it has a lot of effect on your own mental state of mind and how productive you can be. So we say, wearing good clothing always helps you perform better, but then the caveat is: Wearing well-tailored, well-fitting clothing helps you look better. You can go to any department store and buy a suit off the rack, but it’s gonna be boxy and frumpy, and it’s not going to actually give you any of those benefits because, it’s just not comfortable.

We hear guys all of the time when they’re first getting into suiting saying that they don’t like wearing suits or sport coats or even trousers, because it’s not comfortable. But once they get into a pair of custom-made pieces of clothing, it completely changes the game on how comfortable it can actually feel. So that’s why I think it’s so important to invest in the higher quality better fitting pieces, because you’ll get the benefits of looking good, but it’ll actually be comfortable.

I might not be able to tell where you got your suit, but I can always tell from a mile away if it’s not fitting right.

Exactly. And that’s where you can either get it custom-made, or you used the word bespoke... There are places over in London that are still doing it. There’s a few still left in America that are doing true bespoke which is the top of the line that you can get. But once you get to that level...yeah... it doesn’t even feel like you’re wearing a jacket anymore.

So, what’s the difference? I thought bespoke and custom were interchangeable?

Oh yeah, actually that’s a pretty common misconception in the industry. Bespoke usually has a couple of characteristics: for one, the person measuring you, and fitting you, and creating the garment is usually the same person, and then, it’s all going to be made in the city that you live in. Those are usually the two most common characteristics. So, for example, what we do here at Primo Tailoring, is pretty much everything but it being made in the same city as you live in. So, we take your measurements, we draft patterns, then we send them out to one of the three or four factories that we work with, and then they make the garment and return it. So, because we use that process, we like to classify ourselves as custom-made or made-to-measure, whereas bespoke would all be done in this building. The person fitting you would be the person who was making the final garment.

And there’s also a level of quality that comes with it. Technically, if you just want to use the word for what it is, bespoke is anything that was handmade for you. So, a sixth grader in their sewing class could make a jacket for you and it would be bespoke, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to fit you and feel the same way on you as a bespoke garment made by a highly trained master tailor. In the industry, we also leave that caveat in there too. You have to earn the level of bespoke, and rise in the ranks in order to be able to call it that, rather than just throwing that term on.

That’s the cream of the crop.

That’s the absolute top of the line! That’s our end goal for the business, to be making every garment completely in house, but it is a logistical hill to climb to get there.

You know, a lot of people tend to think that menswear is limited to pants and a jacket. What would you add to easily make a full suit stand out so you don’t blend in and end up looking like “one of the suits”?

Oooooh, now there’s a fine balance, and there’s a benefit to menswear being rather limited, if you will, because it’s really easy to get dressed. The stuff that men wear today is pretty much the same as what we wore a hundred years ago, and it’s looked good for a hundred years, so you really shouldn’t screw it up.

(He grinned).

But if you’re really wanting to show your own personality in a piece, and not feel like you’re just blending into the background, for a suit one of my favorite things to do—and the easiest— is to spice up the neckwear. Wearing a tie that’s going to be more of a conversation starter or something a little bit more unique is a really fun way to make a suit more interesting, and also make it more personal.

Another interesting way is to play with the fabric choices of your suit pieces. So, you can go for something that is a little heavier duty, that has some texture to it, or some really interesting patterns. And you can also have a bit of fun with the style of the suit and the cut of it, and how you tailor it. So sometimes you can go for a fun flare at the bottom or maybe you can get a longer, drapey fit for the jacket, to just add some visual interest to the outfit without having to get super gimmicky about the look.

With menswear being rather limited, maybe that also means the line gets finer.

Yeah, you know, and a lot of people enjoy it. Especially now I think the trend for menswear is very flashy and in your face, which is okay. Personally, I tend to go for things that are understated but can still pack a punch in some unexpected ways. The way the silhouette of your suit fits is one of my favorite ways to make a suit your own, without screaming in everyone’s face with plaid in all bold colors.

(He chuckles.)

Then, what’s your favorite style of modern suiting?

Well, there’s a lot that menswear goes through in terms of the ebbs and flows of style. Previously, it was very tight and skinny. We prefer, a well-fitted, but draped fit is what they call it. So, it’s nothing too tight but nothing too boxy. The double-breasted suit style has been really cool, and it’s been coming back. That’s something that we show a lot.

Let’s talk materials for the Summer. What fabrics and weaves are your go-tos?

Some of my favorites for the Summer are going to be fresco fabrics, which is like a very loose weave, but it kind of has the same properties as a full wool suit. Linen and cotton are always staples. Pretty much the rule for the Summer is to stick with natural fibers as much as possible. So these are going to be your full wools, your full cottons, your full linens. Once you start mixing in the polyester, yeah you can get some technical fabrics, but usually it starts to retain that heat a little bit more, whereas a natural fiber is going to actually cool you down. One of my favorite fabrics for the Summer, which I really fell in love with last year is a great seersucker fabric. The way that it’s created is that the fabric itself actually has little ridges and bumps that act as a natural air conditioner while you’re wearing it. Plus, again, it’s another way to make your suit more interesting. It just adds texture, and if it comes with those iconic stripes... We saw it a lot in the Kentucky Derby which happened not too long ago. I love throwing seersucker into pretty much any of my Summer looks.

If I gave you full reign to create and style a custom look, what kinds of elements would you play with?

Whew! Well first I would start with the cut and the fit of the garments. You know a lot of guys like to wear their trousers below the natural waist when wearing their suits. We really enjoy the high-rise, pleated trouser look, because not only does it look better, but it feels much more comfortable as you’re sitting and going through your day. So, I would probably have fun with the rise of the trousers and the pleats. I think it’s amazing.

We also like to do things with the jackets that give them more of that lived in look. So lowering the button stance, lowering the gorge, which is like the peak of where your lapel sits. Lowering some of those is something that usually men or even women are a bit more hesitant to do, but it’s something we love to experiment with.

I’d also have some fun with the fabrics. I’d love to go with a bolder contrast, without again, being too gimmicky about it. Having fun with the neckwear is something that we’re really ex- cited to do this Summer.

And I know you also do women’s suiting. How do you transfer this idea of menswear onto a feminine figure?

A way that we can easily adapt menswear for a woman is that we will often give it a boxier look. One of the things that we’ll change in the tailoring, however, is it’s gonna be little bit more cropped, a little bit more nipped in at the waist, and the features will actually be a bit simpler in its design because that’s a really cool way, I think, to make the garment flow better.

“I don’t like to buy clothing just to buy clothing, I buy clothing as an investment.”

What advice would you give to ladies who are thinking of diving into full-on menswear looks? What accessories do you like to see?

A lot of people recently in the space of ivy, preppy menswear—they call it Sartorial Menswear—A lot of the women in that space are really playing with neckwear recently to get that masculine look and feeling. Also, taking some of the masculine pieces and finding a way to incorporate it into your own style works great. For instance, taking some of the suiting material and making pleated skirts with it, with a blazer on top with a dress shirt and tie. 

Footwear is big too, sticking with the loafers to achieve that classic look in your everyday life. So if you want it to be more of that masculine feeling, you can lean into more of those traditionally male brands, and then find a good tailor to help you fit it to your body type.

What do you think is the spirit of the American suit? Because there are Italian suits, English style...

Well the original American suit, otherwise known as the Sack Suit, was a very boxy and large fit. There was never really much interest in the American style of doing things. But I think that now the advantage of American tailoring, which has been the advantage for almost any American industry, is the ability to blend many different cultures and styles. What we do in the shop is very much a mix of an Italian relaxed fit, and a British structured look. We take the best of these two styles and turn it into something new. One of the things that I like to tap into, that our Southern friends are great at, is bringing in a bit of that Western aesthetic. So, a very Western belt paired with a handkerchief for the neck is a look that I would think is pretty iconic Americana.

What would you say to those who may not think tailoring is an affordable service or that it isn’t necessary?

If your aim is to look good, you need a tailor. It’s a necessity. Usually if you’re buying something off the rack and you’re not getting it tailored, it’s because your standards for how it should fit are not high enough yet. So we would say that anything off the racks should be tailored to some extent to fit you as an individual.

As to the cost-effective question, tailoring is quite the reverse of that misconception. You can go to the thrift store or buy something at a larger retailer for a reasonable price, then bring it in to get it tailored for under a hundred bucks to make it fit better. Now, that’s more on the alterations tailoring side. If we’re talking more of on the custom tailoring side, that is going to be a little bit more of an investment, but what we look at is more of that cost-per-wear. So if I’m buying a high quality suit that’s going to cost me maybe two thousand dollars, how many times am I wearing it, right, you can wear that suit for years and years and years, meaning every time you throw it on, it’ll only cost you about a cent to wear it that day. Whereas, if you buy something at a cheaper more fast-fashion focused business, that thing’s gonna wear out way quicker, meaning that it could end up costing you up to a dollar each time you put it on, which becomes much more expensive than if you buy something of high quality.

So, on the tailoring alterations side, if you’re savvy about it, it’s actually pretty affordable to get your things tailored. On the custom tailoring side, once you make that investment in your pieces, they become staples in your wardrobe and you end up spending less over time, which we think that people don’t always focus on when they’re planning out their wardrobe.

And you can get most any- thing tailored, like jeans.

Oh, for sure. Actually, that’s one of the reasons why I have the tailoring alterations department here, because not a lot of people might be ready financially to make the leap to custom clothing, but they can go to the thrift store, which is what I do very often, and get it tailored and be in a very nice fitting, high quality look for under three hundred dollars.

It’s all about quality over quantity.

Quality over quantity. Always.

Want more style advice from Louis Geramita? Join the Social Club, at Primotailoring.com