At the time, this kind of commission was the privilege of a select few, often royalty. Today, anyone with the means and the desire can live a bespoke life, in which every detail is customized and status is made-to-order. The emerging class of high-spending billionaires continues to grow; sales of superyachts, for one, rose 80 percent from 1999 to 2004. So top-tier consumers are looking for ways to stand out. Rather than signal their wealth with the latest Rolex, Ferrari or Prada bag, they seek a one-off, custom-made product—sometimes by an up-and-coming designer—that no one else will ever own. “It’s a reaction against mass production,” says filmmaker, jewelry designer and luxury insider Liz Goldwyn, the granddaughter of legendary Hollywood studio chief Samuel Goldwyn. “It’s a wiser investment to buy one really well-made piece than five things that don’t fit you well. It’s almost a return to the past, to more personalized service, getting away from things that scream, ‘Look at how much money I have!’ "
The journey toward a bespoke lifestyle often starts with a suit. Savile Row is the most famous example of high-end men’s tailoring, and remains one of the first splurges in which titans-in-training indulge as soon as their incomes allow. But it is hardly the only one. Today the traditional world of men’s couture is being reinvigorated by one of fashion’s biggest talents, Tom Ford, who brings a modern attitude to old-style dressing. The former Gucci designer—who helped spark the luxury craze of the ’90s by turning logo-emblazoned leather goods into the decade’s biggest trend—opened a flagship store in New York last year to launch a signature men’s line. Ford intuited that the moment was right to focus on bespoke, the final frontier for luxury connoisseurs seeking the cachet of owning products unavailable to the masses. Though the Tom Ford line offers a selection of off-the-rack suits starting at $2,900, his latest venture specializes in made-to-measure. A custom-tailored suit can stretch to a stratospheric $8,600, while day shirts come in 350 colors, 35 fabrics, 10 different collars and 2 cuff styles.
Ford’s store seeks to bring a ritualized grandeur to the shopping experience, with an in-store butler, a roped-off level for custom clientele and ready-made suits stored in glass cabins. “When a man gets dressed, he telegraphs something about himself to the world,” writes Ford in an e-mail. “Each choice communicates a potent message. Hours of drafting, cutting, hand stitching, and finishing [are] poured into the process of [custom-] making clothes and shoes. The payoff for all this effort is something invaluable: effortlessness on the part of the wearer. It’s not the designer or fashion house that is the focus of attention; it’s the man himself.” Ford’s proposition—that made-to-measure luxury goods project a refined version of some essential inner self—is a seductive marketing pitch, and it encapsulates the mind-set that propels people to spend small fortunes on bespoke products.
He isn’t the only menswear designer making inroads into the made-to-measure market. Rising star Thom Browne, famous for his precise hand stitching and abbreviated suit silhouette, derives approximately 50 percent of his business from custom-tailoring. In India, almost every high-end designer, including Tarun Tahiliani and Rohit Bal, stay in business because of made-to-measure. Their rich clients require a slew of one-of-a-kind outfits to accommodate their hectic social schedules.
Once suitably suited, the superrich tend to shift their attention toward bespoke modes of transportation. As technology has advanced, private boats and planes have become more desirable, pushing the boundaries of both engineering and design. Through his company Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan, perhaps the world’s most accomplished aerospace engineer, has custom-designed flight craft for more than 30 years. He gained attention in 2004 for his creation, SpaceShipOne, a privately funded spaceship which caught the attention of Sir Richard Branson, who quickly partnered with Rutan to build a small fleet of suborbital spacecraft. Rutan has the technical expertise to cater to a client’s wildest fancy, whether it’s a vertical takeoff or round-the-world capability. But, like the most rarefied bespoke service providers, he is so specialized that he does not advertise or promote his company; if you’re the type of client who qualifies for his services, you no doubt already know who he is.
Wally specializes in custom-tailoring yachts to clients’ specifications, designing some of the industry’s most lavish and well-engineered vessels—the high-seas equivalents of Italian sports cars. One of its latest creations, the WallyIsland, is 108 meters long and has a 1,000-square-meter forward deck that can be outfitted with a large garden and swimming pool, multiple helipads or any other feature a client desires, earning it the sobriquet of “gigayacht.” The WallyIsland accommodates up to 24 guests and 40 crew members, along with a library, cinema, spa and gym, and can be used as a full-time residence; it’s much larger, in fact, than most people’s houses. It gives its owners the flexibility and freedom to live a luxury-drenched life wherever they decide to sail, all for a price rumored to be about €127 million.
Bespoke design goes well beyond masculine pursuits. For more than a century, haute couturiers have created fantastical ensembles for well-heeled grandes dames in search of one-of-a-kind wardrobes. Today the world of couture has been diminished, with famous designers like Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent retired, and a shrinking number of clients willing to invest the time and money the process requires. The tradition persists, however, among celebrities and other high-society members, who continue to place orders with houses like Chanel, Lacroix and Dior for elaborate evening gowns that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. As the old guard fades away, many of the new clients hail from the Middle East and Russia, boasting freshly minted fortunes and seeking material goods that confirm their newfound social status.
Less publicized than couture designs but just as coveted are the custom creations of jewelers such as Graff, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. These companies have built their reputations by applying master craftsmanship to the most precious stones available. While the bulk of their business lies in the mass-market demand for semiprecious pieces and jeweled watches, they remain open to custom orders. Other lesser-known but equally accomplished companies are upholding the one-of-a-kind tradition. Gem Palace, the family jeweler to most of India’s royal houses, has outposts around the country. At the headquarters in Jaipur, designer Munnu Kasliwal reveals his family’s labor of love to private clients, among them Bollywood starlets and socialites. Prices stretch into the hundreds of thousands for a ruby cuff in which the stones’ colors are exactly matched and seamlessly set to resemble smooth enamel, or an enormous collar laden with hundreds of carats of uncut diamonds. Kasliwal’s clients understand that good things come to those who wait: one piece can take up to five years to produce. The payoff for that patience is a museum-quality statement piece—and one that, unlike a Cartier tank watch, no one else in the room is likely to have.
The rise of the bespoke handbag neatly encapsulates luxury’s evolution. Customized crocodile Kelly bags from Hermès and alligator cases from Asprey can run tens of thousands of dollars, but they are instantly recognizable and socially “legible” in a way that growing numbers of high-society women find distasteful. Rather than join a waiting list for the latest “It” bag, they might prefer, for instance, an elaborately beaded custom bag from the British label Bracher Emden. Its appeal lies in the fact that everyone doesn’t have it; it makes an individual-style statement rather than demonstrate the wearer’s insecurity as a fashion victim seduced by logos and glossy marketing campaigns.
The new bespoke movement extends beyond goods to experiences. Food is perhaps the most ephemeral of luxuries, but today having a private chef is not just the domain of macrobiotic Hollywood celebrities. The superrich are increasingly hiring personal cooks to cater to their dietary eccentricities and fuel their dinner parties. In the past three years, the ranks of personal chefs have swollen by 22 percent, says Gayle Kenagy, CEO and president of the United States Personal Chef Association, to a total of about 5,500. Celebrated chef Marut Sikka has planned exotic menus for dinners featuring VIP guests such as Bill Clinton; his creations include Mughal-inspired kebabs topped with shaved pearls and plates trimmed with 24-karat gold leaf. Sikka is skilled at working around pet likes and dislikes, providing a meal that meets the most exacting criteria. “Everybody has their own kinks—one person only eats a certain cut of meat, another doesn’t want salt in their food, another only wants a certain rare type of chili,” he says. Each of his meals can cost up to $1,200 a person. Sikka has insight into what motivates this kind of expenditure. “Why do people fly first class or open a rare bottle of wine? Food falls into a similar category of luxury intangibles,” he says. “You eat stunning food because someone has spent hours or days on it, they’ve created it just for you. And that allows you to reach a new height of pleasure.”
Perhaps the most extreme examples of the evolution of the made-to-measure market are the custom doghouses on offer from La Petite Maison. Ranging from miniature versions of an owner’s mansion to architectural styles that suit the dog’s pedigree—an “authentic” Swiss chalet to house a St. Bernard, for instance—these intricately detailed canine palaces include features like recessed and exterior lighting, air conditioning, dry-walled interiors and custom furnishings. Reaching as high as $35,000, they bring home the reality of the stratification between the spending patterns of the ultraprosperous and the middle and upper-middle classes.
The superrich continue to spend undaunted, in search of lifestyle options that fit like a second skin. As the global demand for mass-market luxury goods surges, the truly rich and famous will seek out ever more exclusive objects to fetishize. Goldwyn maintains that it’s the subtle evidence of the “human touch” that makes one-of-a-kind goods so alluring. “There’s something really special, for instance, about seeing the inside of a [couture] garment—detail that’s never revealed to the outside world,” she says. “It’s the absolute antithesis of wearing a Gucci bag with a big buckle on the front.” At least until the neighbors catch on.
