Why L&S No Longer Does Alterations

For most of our fifty years on East 61st Street, alterations were a part of what we did. A client would bring in a suit from elsewhere — a department store purchase, an inherited garment, something that had served him well but no longer fit — and we would shorten a sleeve, take in a waist, re-hem a trouser. We did this work carefully and we did it well. But we did it because it was available to us, not because it was what we were built for. Beginning July 1, 2026, L&S Custom Tailors no longer performs alterations. This is a decision we have been working toward for some time, and it deserves a clear explanation.

Every hour spent adjusting a ready-to-wear garment is an hour not spent building a new one from scratch. Alterations demand the same skills as bespoke construction — pattern reading, cloth handling, precision cutting — but they do not produce the same result. A retailored suit is still someone else's suit with your measurements approximated into it. The shoulder is still set for another man's body. The chest canvas, if it exists, is still cut to a block. The work of fitting is done against a template rather than from first principles. We take pride in our craft, and after five decades we have come to understand that our craft is the making of things, not the adjustment of things.

There is also a practical argument. The clients we serve best are the ones who want a suit conceived for them alone — who want to sit with us for an hour choosing cloth and discussing silhouette, and then return three times over six weeks to see a garment emerge from nothing. Those clients deserve our full attention. Dividing our schedule between bespoke commissions and the constant flow of retail alterations — a hem today, a lining tomorrow, a collar repair next Thursday — fragments that attention. Removing alterations from our offering allows us to do fewer things better, and to serve the clients who want those things without compromise.

For clients who have come to us over the years for alteration work, we understand this represents a change. We are grateful for that relationship, and we will gladly recommend trusted alterations specialists in the neighbourhood who handle fine menswear with the care it deserves. For clients who have always wanted to commission something of their own and have never quite made the call — this is an invitation. A first consultation costs nothing. A bespoke suit, built for you and no one else, lasts twenty years. It is not the same kind of appointment. It is a better one.