In Conversation With The Cloakroom

Priding themselves on taking a Japanese approach to tailoring, The Cloakroom is focused on delivering world-class tailoring where quality is integral. Creating artisan garments, every Cloakroom piece is beautifully crafted and made especially for each customer.

“We want to take everyone on a journey when they come to one of our stores. This means we want to immerse them in our world and create a product that feels like it is an extension of who they are.”

Tell us a little about The Cloakroom and the philosophy behind the brand?

We opened our first Cloakroom store in 2007, and over the last 15 years, we have slowly expanded to include stores in Australia, Canada, and Japan. Our philosophy is to create beautiful garments that are comfortable to wear and that make you look great. Our approach is very much inspired by a Japanese sensibility, a more considered approach to dressing. We leave it to others to do the very ‘soft’ and casual tailoring. For our house style, we prefer a sharp and clean look - never too tight and never too drapey or floppy.

What sets you apart from other tailors/suiting brands?

We don’t pay too much attention to what other tailors do. We are focused on delivering a world-class tailoring product and experience to our customers. This means creating garments that are comfortable to wear and make you look and feel great. We strongly believe quality is integral to creating lasting value in our customers’ minds. As a result, we work with only the best fabric suppliers, who assist us in executing our client’s visions in a very deliberate and distinctive way.

What does The Cloakroom pride itself most on?

Our Japanese tailoring is unique. Most tailoring that happens in the world comes from Italy, China, or the UK. Making our suits in Japan is not the norm, but it enables us to create artisan garments that are beautifully crafted and made especially for each customer.

Tell us about The Cloakroom experience. From the initial consultation to the delivery of the final garment.

We want to take everyone on a journey when they come to one of our stores. This means we want to immerse them in our world and create a product that feels like it is an extension of who they are. At a consultation, it is vital that we really get to know someone. This means not only asking the right questions but listening to what someone wants to get out of the experience. How do they want the garment to make them feel? We look at fabrics, discuss styling options and always get a customer to try on a garment in our house cut so they get a clear idea of how the finished garment will look and feel.

Fabrics are shipped from Italy, the UK or France to our tailors in Japan and a pattern is created based on the fitting. The garment is cut and assembled by our Japanese tailors and then sent to the store that has ordered it. Then the client tries on the garment, and any final adjustments are made by tailors locally to that store.

How do you work with clients who might not really know what look to go with on their wedding day?

The trick is to have an open mind and not be too fixated on it being a certain style or look. It is more important that we understand the ‘feel’ of the day. A tailored suit needs to be an extension of who you are, so we will take as long as we need to ensure that the style and fabric that we land on is the best for the occasion. It also helps that we’ve dressed thousands of grooms over the years.

Speaking of weddings, what ‘trends’ do you predict for the 2023 wedding seasons?

2022 (and 2021) has been all about the tuxedo. We have seen the very traditional black shawl lapel version of this right through to the more dapper cream jacket version (with black pants). This is not a style we are expecting to slow down, but we do expect to see men embrace a bit more colour. Already in the last 6 months, we have had a lot of customers looking at greens and all shades of chocolate and brown. This month just gone, we had a customer order a beautiful pink jacket to wear to his brother’s wedding.

What are some of your own personal favourite ‘trends’ in suiting right now?

While we don’t recommend it to all our customers, a well-cut double-breasted suit is one of the few current tailoring trends that we can get behind.

We’ve spoken briefly about The Cloakroom process; let’s touch on the all-important time frame. How long prior to the wedding do you recommend couples get in touch?

Typically, we expect a suit to arrive in 6-8 weeks, no later.

Finally, you have locations across the globe; tell us where our couples can find you.

In Australia, we have a store in Brisbane and a store and bar in Melbourne (separate businesses in adjoining spaces). We also have a store in Tokyo and a store and bar in Montreal. Our team is also willing to travel within those countries upon request.

You can find The Cloakroom on THEODORE Magazine by CLICKING HERE, at thecloakroom.com.au or over at Instagram @thecloakroom

All photography supplied by The Cloakroom.

More For You