Suit Up

Suitsupply (Amsterdam) isn’t just selling slick menswear – it’s selling a lifestyle. Everything about the Dutch brand, including its stores, marketing and apparel, is intended to be a reflection of the modern male consumer.

He knows what he wants; he doesn’t need his wife, girlfriend or mother to select his attire. And he’s on a mission to find the suit jacket he saw on social media and customize the look with a matching sock and pocket square combo.

“Guys today are educated on the [proper] fit and the fabrics,” says Nish de Gruiter, vp, Suitsupply. “That’s the big [difference], as compared to 10 to 15 years ago.”

Founded in 2000 in an Amsterdam dorm room, where ceo Fokke de Jong tailored and sold suits to his fellow students, Suitsupply’s number one goal from the start has been providing a custom fit. Because of this, each of the retailer’s locations includes a tailor’s workstation for on-the-spot alterations – more serious fixes are guaranteed within three days.

“You can buy a $5000 suit [from another store], but if it doesn’t fit right, it still won’t look good,” de Gruiter says.

From formalwear jackets, waistcoats and tuxedos to accessories, shoes and casualwear, the retailer seeks to be a one-stop shop for all occasions in a man’s life. Provocative online and in-store marketing campaigns, paired with the brand’s bold merchandising and store design, provide the appeal of an upscale fashion house for a fraction of the price.

AGAINST THE GRAIN
While the brand has a strong e-commerce and social media presence (it even has a shoppable Instagram feed), it’s also put major effort into opening new brick-and-mortar stores that create connections with customers and keep them returning for personalized service.

Since suits are not typically an impulse purchase, most of its locations are scouted slightly off the beaten path – not only to obtain lower rent, but to discover more interesting architecture options. The retailer has expanded rapidly this past year, debuting three new stores this summer alone. Each store is designed with common brand themes, but the destination drives the overall concept.

In July 2015, Suitsupply opened its Shanghai location, renovated from a formerly residential, colonial-style French Concession mansion. In a part of the world where remodels are rare and massive stores with expensive materials are favored, the project was a departure from the norm.

“We don’t want to be mainstream,” says Floor Enneking, Suitsupply’s head of store design.

DAPPER DIGS
Joining Suitsupply seven years ago to redesign the brand’s interiors, Enneking has played an integral role in the stores’ recognizable styling. With her background in fashion design, Enneking uses her expertise in pairing patterns and colors – which she equates to being as instinctive as dressing herself – to convey a residential in-store vibe that’s intimate and less intimidating.

“I like to have a young and energetic feel that’s colorful and sexy – it’s all [about] giving the feeling of home,” explains Enneking. “But it’s always with a twist.”

The Shanghai store features warm-toned woods, bold geometric wallcoverings – which Enneking designed – as well as contemporary drop lighting and an abundance of foliage, delivering the aesthetic of a swanky bachelor pad. A unique commodity for a store in China, a tranquil garden wraps around the building, where shoppers can rest or sip cocktails while they wait for alterations.

Adding to its roster of nearly a dozen U.S. locations, Suitsupply opened inaugural stores in Miami and Dallas this past June. The Miami location, marketed as the brand’s 6000-square-foot penthouse, is demarcated at its entrance with a discrete sign, and visitors enter via an outdoor elevator. It features a minimalistic interior and prominent merchandising of its sun-and-sand casualwear lines. It also has a relaxing outdoor terrace with ivy trees, where shoppers are invited to hang out and play a game of foosball.

“If you’re out after work, you really want to go out and have a drink outside,” says Enneking. “The palm trees and the colors – it’s something which is really Miami-like.”

HANDSOME HALLMARK
No matter the location, every Suitsupply store features signature touches, including oversized lightboxes emblazoned with the company’s seasonal marketing campaign images, which brighten the spaces and introduce splashes of color. The scenes speak to its playboy audience – or at least those who’d like to live the fantasy while they’re there.

Another brand trademark is the merchandising. “Men are lazy shoppers … guys don’t want to browse through piles and piles of merchandise,” says de Gruiter. “They want it laid out by color and size, so it’s an easy process overall.”

Each store incorporates compartmented fixtures like focal gradient tie and dress shirt walls that are clearly identifiable in the large spaces, directing shoppers to the garments. Further simplifying the experience, sales associates – educated by the company’s internal Suitschool training program – guide unfamiliar and well-versed suit shoppers alike.

Most differentiating about its stores are what they’re not: “Ninety percent of menswear stores are looking more or less the same; they’re using a lot of steel, marble [and] dark colors,” says Enneking. “Suitsupply is a very recognizable store … we give a different, young vibe in the colors and brightness.”

Now, a world away from Amsterdam, with more than 70 locations around the globe, public acclaim from celebrities who swear by the brand and a handful of new stores in the works, it’s obvious that Suitsupply is just getting started.