A few years ago, Peter Frew came to New York with an important professional skill. He was one of maybe a few dozen people in the U.S. who could construct a true bespoke suit. Frew, who apprenticed with a Savile Row tailor, can -- all by himself, and almost all by hand -- create a pattern, cut fabric and expertly construct a suit that, for about $4,000, perfectly molds to its owner's body. In a city filled with very rich people, he quickly had all the orders he could handle.
When I learned about Frew, I assumed he was some rich designer in an atelier on Madison Avenue. That's what Frew hopes to be one day, but for now the 33-year-old Jamaican immigrant works out of his ground-floor apartment near Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn, and makes around $50,000 a year. His former living room consists of one large table piled with bolts of cloth and a form with a half-made suit. As Frew sewed a jacket, he explained how he customizes every aspect of its design -- the width of the lapel, the number and size of the pockets -- for each client. What makes a bespoke suit unique, he said, is that it's the result of skills that only a trained hand can perform. Modern technology cannot create anything comparable.