Have you thought about buying a custom suit online?
It can be scary to purchase an expensive new suit that you don’t even get to try on before buying. To make things worse, there are so many suit makers to choose from. You don’t want to waste your money, but you need a suit that fits.
That’s why I publish reviews here on TheModestMan.com. I want to help you avoid buying low-quality, over-priced and ill-fitting clothes.
This review is for Arden Reed, an online custom clothier based out of New York City. They sell suits, shirts, pants, blazers and accessories. Co-founder Carlos Solorio – a fellow man of modest height – recently sent me a gift certificate for a free suit of my choice. I went with the Vintage Light Grey Suit, which retails for $467.
In this review, I’ll talk about the fit and quality of the suit as well as shipping time and customer service. I also include some photos of the suit so you can see how it looks right out of the box!
Disclaimer: Arden Reed gave me this suit for free. They did not, however, ask me to review it on this blog. This review – and every review on TheModestMan.com – is completely unbiased.
Customer Service
I did not have any problems with my order, so I did not need to contact customer service. That said, Carlos responded to almost all of my emails within 24 hours.
Delivery Time
Arden Reed says that all orders ship within four weeks of purchase. They try to exceed this estimate, which was the case with my order. I don’t know if this is typical, and some orders probably take longer than others, but my new suit arrived at my doorstep in less than three weeks.
Measurement System
The biggest problem with buying made-to-measure (MTM) clothes online is getting the right measurements. The whole point of buying custom clothing is to get something that fits perfectly, and this can only be done if you start with the right measurements.
Most online suit makers have a self-measurement system that consists of videos, written instructions and/or photos. Arden Reed’s measuring process is excellent. They even have a downloadable PDF guide that you can use to store your measurements.
Each measurement is clearly described in a series of short videos, but I highly recommend that you let a friend measure you. Certain measurements are very difficult to get by yourself. You will also need tailor’s tape.
If you are worried about messing up your measurements and getting a suit that doesn’t fit properly, worry no more! Arden Reed has a Perfect Fit Guarantee, which means you can get your suit altered at a local tailor and they will reimburse you. Or, if major alterations are needed, they will simply make you a new suit.
Most online suit makers have solid guarantees, but this is one of the best I’ve heard of.
Fabric Quality
Most guys don’t care too much about thread count or where their suit fabric came from. Honestly, I don’t care too much about that stuff either. But you do want to make sure that any dress clothes you buy are sturdily constructed from high quality material. Otherwise, they will fall apart after you wear them for a while.
I don’t know about you, but if I pay hundreds of dollars for a suit, I want it to last for more than a year!
Arden Reed doesn’t have any info about the fabric they use on their website, but founder Mike Abadi discusses the details on this Style Forum thread. For those of you who care about wool-blends and canvassing, definitely check it out. For the rest of you, the bottom line is you don’t have to worry about Arden Reed suits falling apart after normal wear.
The Fit
The best part of a good review is the photos. These photos were taken right after the suit was delivered, so no alterations have been made. However, a couple of alterations are definitely needed. Can you tell what they are? Scroll down for the answer…
If you guessed that the pants are too long, you were right! They aren’t way too long, just a half inch or so. This would be okay for most guys, but shorter men should make sure that their dress pants are hemmed nice and short so they don’t break at all. In other words, there should be little or no crease above the ankle.
Also, there are too many wrinkles in the arms. This likely has to do with something called sleeve pitch. I will be taking this suit to my tailor to address this and any other issues that he identifies, and I will post “after” pics to show you how it fits after tailoring.
Bonus Points: If you noticed that there is no shirt cuff peaking out under the jacket sleeve, good for you! Ideally, your shirt cuffs should be visible under your jacket sleeves at your wrists. The problem here is not the length of the jacket sleeves, it’s the length of the shirt sleeves. I’m wearing a new custom shirt whose sleeves are too short. It will have to be remade with longer sleeves.
Extra Bonus Points: Can you tell what’s missing from my outfit? It’s the belt! These pants fit perfectly on my waist and don’t require a belt to hold them up. I will have my tailor remove the belt loops.
My Recommendation
I am very happy with my new Arden Reed custom suit. It was delivered quickly, and the quality is solid. We’ll have to see how it fits after alterations at my local tailor. The good news is, AR will reimburse for these alterations.
If you are in the market for a new suit, I recommend that you consider Arden Reed.
What do you think about my new suit? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!
Hi Brock,
That’s a good looking suit. I’ll have to give Arden Reed a look when I’m next in the market for a MTM suit.
In terms of fit, a few things stand out to me. The shoulders are a tad bit wide – not so much that the suit doesn’t work, but losing an inch would sharpen up the fit. I’d also suppress the waist and slim the sleeves in addition to the alterations you’ve already mentioned. Every bit helps for us short guys!
Just had to mention my personal experience with Arden Reed, which has not been good so far. The first problem with these guys is the lack of good photos on the website. They’ve made improvements over the last month or two but it is still very difficult to get a good idea of what fabric you’re buying. The selection is also limited when compared to other similar sites like indochino or knotstandard (I’ve ordered from both before).
However, my biggest problem with these guys is their customer service. To their credit they have been fairly responsive, getting back to me without about 24 hours of receiving an email. However, being responsive doesn’t make up for simply refusing to provide the products I ordered and they originally agreed to provide. I placed an order for a suit and shirts using a deal voucher I purchased online and everything went through fine through the online billing page. Because I didn’t have all my measurements ready at that time I sent them an email saying to hold the order and I’d submit the measurements. In response I was shocked to find an email saying they were only give me one of the two shirts I had ordered. I’m still communicating with them trying to resolve the situation but at this point they refuse to honor the contract we reached. Bottom line, they might make fine suits but I don’t know yet because I’m having to waste time arguing with them about simply giving me the things I paid for. With plenty of other options that provide fine service in MTM suits (such as both the other sites I mentioned above) it is tough to see why we should work with this new startup.
I decided to try them after I received a deal through thrillist. I ordered on March 14th and confirmed that delivery was only going to take 3-4 weeks, I have a job interview on May 3rd and I wanted to give my tailor 2 weeks to make alterations. It is now week 6 and all I have is an email saying that they should make my May 3 deadline, but I probably won’t have any time to take the suit to the tailor. I just find it annoying that they are flooding social media about their new kickstarter project about some scanner truck and they can’t even fulfill the orders they have now. I will definitely stick with Black Lapel and I am glad I only wasted $234 on this bad bet.
Hey Ken,
Really sorry to hear this. I’ve relayed this to Carlos, one of the founders of Arden Reed. I hope they work to make things right with you and Nathan, because (as Nathan said) there are plenty of MTM companies to choose from.
Keep me updated (brock@themodestman.com).
-B
Brock,
To make a long story short, I am getting a refund from thrillist. I think this situation highlighted 2 lessons for me. 1) Don’t cut corners or go cheap when you really need something. 2) Stay with what you know.
kb