Will Tailoring Make a Comeback in LA?
On the history of suiting in Los Angeles and my personal campaign to bring it back
Suiting has never been synonymous with Los Angeles style, but it did matter here once. Think of the sharp silhouettes in movies like Heat and Chinatown. Frank Sinatra off-duty in Beverly Hills or Palm Springs. Sy Devore dressing Hollywood’s elite. The glamour of Bullocks Wilshire. Pat Riley on the sidelines of a Laker game. Tailoring used to be part of LA’s visual identity.
Today it feels like most guys avoid suits entirely. Among friends, colleagues, and my Buck Mason clients, I hear the same thing: “My life is too casual for a suit.” Even at weddings and dressier occasions I see guys try to frankenstein an outfit with a casual button-up, overly tapered polyester trousers, and bargain dress shoes. The bar is low when it comes to putting on a jacket and trousers.
I will acknowledge that it can be challenging to find good suiting in Los Angeles in contrast to places like New York, London, Tokyo or Hong Kong. You have to know where to look. You also have to understand what you’re looking for, which is a different conversation entirely. A lot of places in LA will sell a $300 suit that looks decent on the rack but feels like cheap plastic, fits terribly, and will eventually lose its shape due to shoddy craftsmanship. Tailoring and sartorial culture just isn’t quite the same here.
But something seems to be shifting. Some brands and stores in LA have begun to quietly close the gap with relaxed tailoring and casual styling that makes suiting feel approachable for Angelenos. Buck Mason’s Carry-On program makes the idea of wearing a suit less intimidating with its unstructured and unlined construction while still maintaining the feel of American Ivy tailoring. Suitsupply’s offerings of casual fabrics and unconventional color palettes align more with LA’s laidback, lifestyle way of dressing rather than stiff, corporate attire. Small batch brands like Goodfight and 3sixteen are also giving their takes on what modern tailoring should feel like in a more practical sense.
When I zoom out from the LA scene, the shift feels even clearer. Instagram moodboards are filled with early Giorgio Armani tailoring, ’90s JFK Jr., and Black Ivy references, while brands like Soshiotsuki and Aimé Leon Dore continue to refine how tailoring can be worn in a relaxed, approachable way. Across menswear, the suit is being reworked with softer shoulders, relaxed trousers, and more thoughtful proportions. Less Wall Street or car salesman, more everyday. This idea of casual tailoring itself isn’t new, but it’s been inspiring to watch these ideas make their way back into the fashion zeitgeist.
So why now? Why in 2026 are we seeing this renewed interest in tailoring? I don’t have a singular answer for that. Cultural shifts in clothing rarely come from one place, but a few things seem to stand out to me.
After a decade of athleisure and hyper-casual dressing, it feels like some guys have become fatigued and are ready to put a little more thought into what they wear. There’s a renewed appreciation for heritage, craftsmanship, and things that are made to last. Over the past few years, conversations around fit, proportion, and silhouette have become much more common. Once you start paying attention to those elements in your clothing, tailoring becomes a natural next step. A suit or tailored jacket isn’t just “formal” clothing, it’s one of the clearest ways to shape a silhouette intentionally. It changes the way you feel and how you show up in your personal life.
That idea has always resonated with me, which is why I’m excited to see brands taking a more thoughtful approach to suiting. In LA, tailoring isn’t something you’re forced to wear, it’s something you get to choose. From my perspective, the interest in suits is growing. Runways are leaning into tailoring, clothing brands are reimagining it, and people in my own circle are starting to experiment too.
So let’s bring tailoring back to LA. Not in a stiff way that feels like a costume, but in a way that fits your own life. Try it next time you’re out to dinner in your neighborhood, or at that monthly art walk, or trying that new coffee shop, or weekend brunch with your family, or walking through the farmers market. Whatever that looks like, wear it in your own way. LA cleaned up well once and we can do it again.
As always, thanks for reading. If you’re from LA and you wear tailoring in your everyday life, I wanna hear about all the ways you wear it and why.
Take care,
Brandon
All product images in this post are the property of their respective owners and are used here for informational and commentary purposes only. All rights to these images belong to their respective owners. If the owners request removal, the images will be taken down promptly.