How we started
I'm JD. Sovereign Suit Co. is me, my youngest son JJ, and my nephew Gavin, out of Las Vegas.
This started in June of 2018 with a problem and a friend. I'm 6'6" and 240, and nothing off a rack has ever fit me. Not suits, not shirts, not pants. I was talking about it one day with a friend who had just moved here from Hong Kong, and he mentioned a relative back home in the made to measure business. He offered to connect us. I figured I was getting a phone number. What I got was a tailor with his own shop and his own workshop.
So I started making clothes for myself. Suits, shirts, trousers, cut to me for the first time in my life. I didn't plan on it becoming anything.
Going all in
Once I was in, I went all the way in. I started sourcing my own fabrics, linings, buttons, and trim. I tried other tailors and suppliers in Thailand, Italy, and here in the States, all offering the same service on paper. Price was never the issue. What I was looking for was how easy they were to work with and the quality that came back. Very few cleared that bar.
Then I was introduced to a tailor in Beijing, and we hit it off right away. He spent his career in the top Italian houses, traveling the world before family brought him home. He bought into a large tailoring house outside Beijing and built his own shop, where he now cuts and sews for dignitaries and some of the most influential people in the city. He opened his shop to me and helped me source the way only a local can.
I consolidated to those two. Hong Kong for excellent quality at an honest price. Beijing for the top shelf, up to and including a fully hand sewn garment.
The transition
I never set out to sell anything. But when you show up in a suit that actually fits, people notice, and they ask. Friends first, then friends of friends. So I started making suits for other people, very casually. Nothing marketed, nothing pushed, no sign on a door. If I knew you and you asked, I'd help.
I want to be honest about that stretch, because it matters. I never made a profit on it. Most of the suits I made in those years I gave away, and plenty of people in this town can vouch for that. Menswear was never how I paid my bills. It was something I loved doing for people I cared about, and that's all it was for a long time.
Then life got busy, and I set it down. The tailors became something I reached for only when I needed a suit myself.
The restart
Then my youngest son JJ came to me and said he wanted in. Gavin came with him. Two things I care about more than suits are my family and doing things right, and here was a way to do both. That's Sovereign Suit Co.
What we're building is a community around the brand. A place to talk styles, brands, fit, fabric, and all things pertaining to a gentleman. Where it goes from there, you'll see. The tailors I've trusted since 2018 are part of it.
JD, Sovereign Suit Co.