Custom(er) Stories

"My Institchu experience was unreal, from the minute I walked through the doors in the St. Georges Terrace store in Perth, being greeted by the awesomely talented and friendly Institchu Style Consultant Bailey Ireland, all the way through to having the finishing touches made and walking out with my brand new tailored piece. I love everything about it, from the custom lining all the way through to the extra pockets and also having my name woven into the side panel. It's amazing!"

"I leaned pretty heavily on advice from our epic Stylist, and he took me through all of the options. We settled on a really beautiful lightweight brown wool that’s got enough texture to channel that sort of mood I wanted, but it will be super breathable for a hot Noosa wedding."

“How good is a custom suit.”

“I got to choose the fabric, the lapel, the lining, the buttons, the shirt style, type of collar and numerous other custom details. There is something immensely special about having something custom made and each time I’ve worn this suit, I feel like a total Boss.”

"You know I love a powerhouse suit."

"Survivor is a game where you must prepare for the worst and hope for the best. It's surreal, the whole process from applying, to auditioning, to being picked and finally landing on the beach somewhere on a remote beach with 24 strangers."

"Although most of my life has been spent in rugby kit and getting dirty, I really enjoy fashion—there is nothing better than putting on a nice tailored suit and walking out the door feeling a million dollars. One piece of advice I was given when I was younger, before you play. "Look good = Feel good. Feel good = Play good."

"We’d camp every school holidays when we were kids and I caught my first wave at 4 years old. Surfboards were always just as exciting to me as surfing was. I would always repair my own boards and then at 15 years old I shaped and built my first one on work experience and that’s when Haydenshapes started."

“I love the cold and especially winter clothing and fashion. Nothing beats getting to layer thick knitted sweaters and down coats. My tip would be don't just settle for a hoodie in Australia. It's lazy! It still gets cold enough in winter to have a high neck sweater and a cool coat.”

“I was lucky enough to pick up the blazer I designed with the team at InStitchu earlier in the year and it turned out so perfectly.”

“The suits I customised were influenced by Italian menswear, I went for a sartorial style suit. For the pants I chose a high waist fit with pleating detail. The jacket featured peak lapels and a double breasted closure. I also added monogramming to really showcase that this was my own custom design.”

“I don’t know if one job has been a highlight of my career—I’m so grateful to my career for allowing me to live overseas and have experiences I never would have had without it. One that stands out is being part of a panel with Jane Fonda at the Cannes film festival. She is someone I look up to and I loved our conversations.”

I find a lot of suits I choose for myself are statements not staples. I love bright colours and statement patterns, something you do not see every day. I think anything you can do to personalise the suit, like a contrasting or printed lining in a colour you love, or a monogram to truly leave your personal mark on your suit.

After pretty much planning our wedding in Jervis Bay on Sydney’s south coast, we felt that it wasn’t really ‘us’. So, we threw caution to the wind, canned it and booked a destination wedding. Jess had always dreamed of a ‘destination’ wedding, enjoying a big holiday together with family and close friends in tropical paradise

Covid changed the way many of us thought about what a wedding really meant or what it could be. As things changed quickly and hopes of a destination wedding quickly faded, we decided that what we really wanted to do was to just get married!

"I’ve always loved fashion. I was actually a suit salesman for quite a number of years myself. I tend to dress to my mood. Sometimes I just want to be cosy and I wear a lot of loose fitting hoodies and chinos. But on the flip side I love to get dressed up. There’s something about wearing a nicely fitted suit that makes you feel a little extra confident about yourself."

"For 13 years, Luke owned and operated restaurants in Japan, Singapore and Indonesia under the Salt brand and has written five best-selling cookbooks and an autobiography ‘The Making of a Chef’. He has also notably cooked for former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Sir Richard Branson, actor Tom Cruise and at the Danish Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary’s wedding. Luke's restaurants today include Glass Brasserie, Luke’s Kitchen, Luke’s Steakhouse and Luke’s Burger Bar to name a few."

We both travelled a lot and wanted a cosmetic case that was chic, personalised and able to fit all our brushes and toiletries. We couldn’t find any in the market so we decided to make our own, and that was the start of Mark and Scribe.

I'm from Melbourne, born and bred, so that's where I've spent the majority of my life. I got a scholarship at the NBA Global Academy so I moved to Canberra for a few years as a teenager, and then it was off to Adelaide to play for the 36ers. As for the next stop: I guess we'll find out soon!

I feel like men used to collect new looks each season, we were the biggest offenders of fast fashion. But it seems now more than ever men want to focus on pieces that are actually suited to their individual style, tailored to their shape and will last longer than a year.

Such a pleasure to have the dream team from JS Health, including three-times best-selling health author, and the creator of the JSHealth App and JS Vitamins, Jess Sepel and husband Dean Steingold at our Woollahra Showroom last month.

"I think all of us have vision, or expectation, of how it would feel to get a suit made for a special occasion. It isn’t something that most of us do often - it isn’t something that surfers do often anyway - so you want the experience to be pretty special."

We caught up with celebrated local Artist and InStitchu Customer, Alesandro Ljubicic to talk about his expressive, colourful paintings, the inspiration he finds in nature, and how he balances business in the art world.

Off the back of a milestone win against UFC great Jose Aldo, Aussie Alex Volkanovski has established himself as the number 1 ranked featherweight fighter in the world.

There’s always something going on at Bondi. I’ve done a few successful resuscitations over the years, which is always rewarding.

"I'm a true believer in the saying 'hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard'. I was never the most talented athlete but I backed myself and tried to get the most out of my body every single day."

"When you feel confident in how you look, you give off an energy that is contagious"

"If you feel comfortable in the clothes you’re wearing, you’ll feel confident and empowered. When you feel and look good it’s great motivation to keep going. It’s all about loving the skin you’re in!"

"Being a Paralympic Swimmer and having broad shoulders, I’ve always struggled to find shirts that fit. That all changed when I discovered InStitchu—my shirts from InStitchu fit perfectly and make me feel great—and when you feel great you perform great. The service from InStitchu was second to none. The team were amazing to deal with and the whole process was seamless."

"I am 6'3, 267 pounds with 33 inch arms and thighs that don't fit well in suits! I worked on Wall Street in the NFL off-season and it was always tough to shop for clothes, however with InStitchu, I got a great experience in the city, as well as a suit that fits me perfectly."

"For me creating a custom look is like signing something with your signature. Its unique to you and over time it subtly changes. My InStitchu suit's foundation is unique to me, and over time I slowly subtly change the finer details. InStitchu has always been flexible with my creativity when designing a look, and this is what ultimately gives me confidence when I put it on."

"When the red carpet calls, I have to answer with a sharp look that makes the celebs want to talk to me! My custom suits and shirts from InStitchu ensures my bold and vibrant style matches with my personality. I'm most confident when I know I look ready to rock a big event and InStitchu helps me accomplish that."

"My motto is, 'Look good, feel good, play good'. With my custom InStitchu suit, looking good and feeling good is easy. I've never had a suit that had the perfect fit until now. Playing good is left up to me!"

"Fashion is such an integral element to first impressions and is definitely a key starting point to the angle of my menus—if I see a man in a nice suit, I can imagine that he may enjoy a gin martini and if he’s drinking hendrix, he’s probably very well travelled. If he’s wearing a nice summer shirt, I offer them a classic daiquiri—something more casual."

"I love a pinstriped suit! It feels stylish and old-school. I like to wear it as a three piece suit or just the double-breasted jacket and pants. In my opinion it makes you look professional and interesting. Being Norwegian I also love my winter fashion, layering, overcoats, boots, scarves and gloves."

"I was raised by wolves, so dressing in style doesn’t come easy. Thanks to InStitchu, I was able to find the perfect tailored suit for the upcoming season that fit me perfectly."

"With good grooming, suiting, styling, comes confidence."

"Dressing sharp means that you show pride in your appearance, that in itself affects how you feel about yourself. It can even get you to be in the right frame of mind on the footy field—it's a lot about preparation—if you look after yourself, dressing well is a big part of that."

"My first suit was a spezzato (where the jacket and trousers are different fabrics), and it was in the 80’s, so it was a strange look for then, with big shoulders and long, relaxed baggy trousers—very different from nowadays! I remember it fondly also because I got it around the same time that I first arrived in Australia, in 1986".

"Style is feeling good in your clothes, and my personal style is mixing things together but when it is just about the suit, it's very classic, minimum accessories, I just love to let the suit speak—especially if it's custom, tailored."

"I'm usually on the field, however when off the field, I want to look my absolute best. InStitchu was an easy and fun process to have my custom suit made. I love how the fit turned out for my body and loved being apart of the creative process."

"Fashion means feeling comfortable in yourself based on what you're wearing—it's an expression of personality, it's telling the world who you are. One of the most important fashion choices you make in the day is choosing what fits you best."

"Studying fashion design heavily influenced my love for suits. My approach to suiting would be more relaxed and casual - suits with a t-shirt and sneakers, or a tailored blazer with jeans on the weekend. Street style at fashion week is usually where I get my style inspiration from. Strong silhouettes from Balenciaga to soft tailoring at The Row and everything in between."

"Style to me is personal. It’s about creating your individuality. When creating a suit at InStitchu I get the opportunity to customize my look based upon what makes me feel comfortable and confident. Battling the streets of New York, I need my armour and InStitchu has got my back."

"For me, personal style is supposed to be about looking, and feeling your best in a signature way. There are certain things you gravitate towards that give people a sense of who you are without having to say much. I enjoy a bit of polish, I enjoy clean, beautiful, and well fitted clothes. I also find that I feel most confident particularly when I wear a custom designed suit."

"I have long arms and legs but a slender torso, so InStitchu's made-to-measure suits and shirts worked well for me and got me feeling my best for fight night. Look good, feel good, do good is a motto I strive for."

"Being Italian, style and fashion have always been important to me. It is much more than a look or a trend, it is broader than that; it is in fact a lifestyle. I guess that looking sharp and on point, is both self awareness and confidence, no matter what the occasion is. And we, Italians, make use of fashion and style to make statements, which in turn is probably the reason why I chose my beautiful custom InStitchu pants and jacket. And we, Italians, make use of fashion and style to make statements, which in turn is probably the reason why I choose this beautiful pair of InStitchu pants and jacket."

"The Showroom customer service experience at InStitchu is amazing. Having access to style advice from my Stylist was great when putting together my custom suit. I don’t get a lot of chances to suit up so knowing that an expert has styled me gives me plenty of confidence when I do!"

"Style is more than the clothes you're wearing, its how they make you feel, how they make others feel looking at you and it’s a chance for you to openly express your personality through the joy of fashion, which is why custom is such a great option. Not only does it allow you to bring your vision to life but it also let’s you be in the design seat for the process. As a Celebrity Stylist, I can’t say enough about helping my clients achieve magical moments on red carpets or within their appearances but showing them through the design aspects only allows them to feel more comfortable in the clothes they are in!"

"I have never had a suit that fits properly before and custom, tailored wasn't really a part of my usual language. So when I put on my first InStitchu suit, I really did feel like a new man!"

"As someone who is big on the nightlife industry in New York, I know how important it is to dress well to get into the clubs and bars in this city. InStitchu helps me do my job in comfort, and in style, and I've got people asking me each night where I'm getting my well-fitted suits from."

"Style to me is a form of speech. What I wear is what I want to convey to the people around me. I want my message to the world to be personal and show who I am. When customizing a suit with InStitchu, my message is spread through the thread and I make a personal connection with my garment."