Netjets US Autumn 2022

THE FUTURE
OF TAILORING
Bespoke is back in a big way, and a new generation of sartorial
talent has taken the reins at major houses across the globe, giving us
a peek at the cuts of tomorrow. // By Christian Barker
JACI BERKOPEC (2)
DURING THE PANDEMIC, the demand for bespoke tailoring
plummeted. That’s hardly a surprise. Who needed a new
suit or tuxedo when in-person business meetings, trips to the
office, social events, and formal occasions were out of the
question—and for some, even leaving home was forbidden?
According to the renowned New York men’s outfitter Alan
Flusser—who has dressed all manner of Wall Street tycoons—
during the lockdowns, his clients were hiding out at their holiday
houses in the Hamptons. “They’re telling me they haven’t put
a pair of trousers on for months; they’ve been living in T-shirts
and tracksuit pants,” Flusser said when we spoke in 2020.
His response was to down tools and offer protégé
Jonathan Sigmon the chance to take over the business.
Flusser wasn’t the only old hand to call it quits. There’s
been a great deal of baton-passing going on in the
sartorial scene of late, with numerous leading tailors
retiring and a new generation rising to take their place.
One such ascendant figure is Paolo Martorano (paolostyle.com),
who got his start working for Flusser, before honing his skills at
Paul Stuart and subsequently running the bespoke department
at Alfred Dunhill U.S.A. Five years ago, he hung out his own
shingle, setting up a bijou by-appointment atelier on West 57th
Street in Manhattan. Things were going fantastically well before
the pandemic hit. “By March 2020, we’d done about 80 percent
of 2019’s revenue. Business was just exploding,” Martorano says.
Then came the dip. Fortunately, as life has returned to normal,
demand for sartorial finery has bounced back—bigger and better
than ever, in fact. “Since the second half of 2021, the occasiondressing
business skyrocketed. Everyone wants to go out, everyone
wants to be dressed up,” Martorano says. “Weddings are almost all
black-tie now and we’re making a ton of tuxedos.”
As companies have begun returning to the office, “People are
coming to me for suits and they’re buying the most elegant suits
I’ve ever sold in my career,” Martorano says. “They’re going for
BACK AND BESPOKE
Paolo Martorano, right and facing
page, has emerged as a major player
on the New York sartorial scene.
NetJets
57