Mr. Kelly has been perfecting his trade since 1972 and has a laundry list of high end clientele to back him up. Everyone from football players to Cabinet Members (and one American Greed featured con man whose bill is still sitting at over $10,000) have walked through the doors of La Rukico, and they always come back.
Why You Should Visit Mr. Kelly
First and foremost, Mr. Kelly is a cloth merchant, which may not mean much to you in passing, but what it means when you’re visiting his shop is that you are going to get the best price imaginable on the highest quality fabric. Thankfully, instead of using this to his advantage he passes the savings onto you, and believes everyone should be able to get exquisite quality at affordable pricing. Mr. Kelly uses well known name brand fabrics, including Zegna, Brioni, and Thomas Mason. But getting a custom 200 thread count shirt in the Zegna store is going to cost you around $600, La Rukico will give you the same fabric and custom fitting for $200-$300, not bad, eh? Another way this custom shop saves you some cash is by outsourcing the work to Hong Kong, where they can construct, cut and finish the suit with impeccable quality for less money, and they are damn quick. A return customer can have their suit ready in as little as eight working days, and only 21 days for new customers. If you’ve had a custom suit made for you before, you know that is an excellent turnaround time for something sent from NYC to Hong Kong and back.
The Quality That Makes It All Worth It
Some of you may still be questioning whether or not any shirt can be worth $300, and the short answer to that is, absolutely. Of course, Mr. Kelly was nice enough to expand on this answer for us and break it down a little bit. First of all, luxury is worth the price. There are few things in life that can make your skin happier than throwing on a 200 thread count shirt. The second biggest, perhaps even more important to some, is the color. Luxury fabrics retain color much better than cheap off the rack shirts you’ll find at department stores. Cheaper shirts made with overseas fabric are often treated with cheap chemicals and in time will turn white shirts grey. This simply doesn’t happen with Zegna cloth, or something of equal standards. Third, the shine. Zegna has spent millions of dollars on research and development to ensure their cotton has that unbeatable shine. The kind that lets you know that shirt is worth a few bucks. And of course high end fabrics like this don’t wrinkle nearly as easily as cheap shirts, but that goes without saying.
The Fitting
Custom tailoring is not just a work of art but a process. This isn’t done by looking you over a few times and giving you some guess measurements. These men of skill are precise and detailed. A custom shirt fitting takes seven to eight measurements along with photos of your front and back to avoid any confusion down the line. Mr. Kelly regaled us with a story of a gentleman whose one arm was four inches shorter than the other. Thanks to the photos added the boys in Hong Kong knew that the different measurements were correct and not just a typo that was overlooked. This kept the process moving swiftly and accurately, and the client didn’t wind up with a shirt hanging four inches off the end of his fingers.
The best thing about custom tailoring, in my opinion, is the complete customization. I’m not talking about the fact that it fits you like a glove, which it does, but the little details you can choose to add along the way. The buttoned sleeves on your suit jacket, the colors of the stitching and lining, and the monograms you can add to make it truly yours.
The Mr. Kelly Experience
Mr. Kelly is a man of passion. He loves clothing, and wants you to leave his shop feeling great. That’s why his customers refer their friends and family back to the store.
One of the members of our Life, Tailored recently had Mr. Kelly put a shirt together for him. He picked 200 thread count fabric from Alumo, which uses a special treatment to avoid irritating your skin. And Mr. Kelly threw his initials on the tag, so the shirt is truly branded to him. And there are few ways to feel cooler in a new shirt, than one that is tailored to you with your name in the collar.
Well done, Mr. Kelly.
Visit Mr. Kelly at La Rukico Tailors
152 E 48th Street, New York, NY 10017
www.Tailor.com