Behind any wearable piece of clothing is an expert tailor who knows how to elevate your style and form.
The best kind of tailor is one you can trust: garments are receptacles for memory, making your mom’s hand-me-down skirt just as important as the wedding dress you need altered before the big day. Ask around, and you’ll find that every New Yorker has their favorite place for getting clothes fitted just perfectly. Within a matter of days (or even hours if we’re talking express service), that droopy silk caftan you picked up on a whim is approved for wearing to happy hour, and those long tweed pants you’ve been stuffing under your sweaters suddenly become fit for a fall weekend getaway. Any garment’s shape can be drastically altered by releasing hems, shortening sleeves, or even adding darts. Function can be changed as well — layers are removed, pockets tacked on, and lining added.
Leaving your new second-hand steal or beloved hand-me-downs in a stranger’s hands doesn’t have to be intimidating. Especially if they know what they’re doing — and New York has no shortage of affordable, reliable tailors who are masters of their craft. Vintage clothing can be reborn in the hands of a tailor. Even ready-to-wear items can become more wearable with a few modifications. From going uptown to off the beaten path in Brooklyn, the passerby community has your tailoring needs covered.
The Stanton Tailor Shop — Lower East Side
Recommended by Tina Bhojwani, Tamara Santibanez, Marina Sulmona
It is no wonder Stanton came as our most recommended tailor shop – it has become a Lower East Side institution, and its owner, Pablo Vargas, is equally beloved. In 1984, Vargas, then 22 and recently arrived in New York after immigrating from the Dominican Republic, applied to work at the shop after coming across an ad in the newspaper. Seven years later, he bought the business. It is the kind of storybook ascent that only deepens the shop’s mythology, and customers flock back time and again, whether they need a dress hemmed or a trusty pair of jeans mended.
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Shopboy — Tribeca
Recommended by Sukey Novogratz
Shopboy has operated as a tailor since 2017, but founders Kendall and Desmond Brooks have since expanded the store into a ‘curated retail and gallery space’: the back of the shop still houses the tailoring business and atelier, while the front is dedicated to rotating exhibits and retail. What’s more, the duo utilizes scraps from the tailor shop to conjure up their Shopboy Atelier pieces in what is their own unique brand of circularity. The ecru interiors and billowing floor-to-ceiling curtains are added enticement for style-conscious customers.
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Ignacio’s — Upper East Side
Recommended by Claire Brodka and Sukey Novogratz
Tucked into the second floor of an Upper East Side townhouse, Ignacio’s unobtrusive green awning denotes the kind of reliability necessary for any business to become a neighborhood mainstay. It is conveniently located just steps away from Madison, so you can lug over your shopping bags and have your new Hermes or Bottega fitting like a glove — or you can make a special trip to drop off that lone pair of trousers that just never fit right.
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Bode — Chinatown
Recommended by Maria Geyman and Clémence Polès
Bode’s tailor shop is situated next to their flagship store in Chinatown, and the storied space — deliberately rustic, with checkerboard tile floors, spare wood shelving, and a retro diner-drip coffee machine — straddles a line between local tailor and friendly neighborhood café. In an homage to the previous occupant, Classic Coffee Shop, which served the locale for over 40 years, the store serves cardamom-infused coffee, tea, and Indian sweets to anyone who drops in. Most importantly, your garments will be safe in the hands of the Bode crew, who are masters in dealing with antique textiles – pop into the neighboring store for proof.
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Ramon Tailor Shop — Lower East Side
Recommended by Lyndsey Butler
Ramón Nuñez has been in business since 1978, when he began tailoring clothing out of his apartment after immigrating from the Dominican Republic. His current Forsyth Street location has become a word-of-mouth phenomenon, and he remains attuned to the ebb and flow of the neighborhood: not only is he a favorite amongst the fashion set, but his custom designed pants, shirts, and suits have a long order list. Drop off your tailoring and stop by neighboring restaurant Gem, where Nuñez has clothed the chef and much of the waitstaff for years.
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Alpha Tailor Shop — Lower East Side
Recommended by Lynette Nylander
Alpha is another Lower East Side staple. The location comes as no surprise, considering that in the early 1900s, this same city enclave – and these same narrow tenements – were once home to NYC’s burgeoning garment industry. Now, Alpha’s robin’s egg blue walls accent an otherwise unadorned room, where the requisite sewing machines line the ever-bustling space. It is the kind of no-frills establishment that city dwellers cherish: all effort is concentrated on the clothes.
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The Tailoring Room — Lower East Side
Recommended by Jenna Saraco and Claire Brodka
The Tailoring Room, a parquet-floored storefront on Clinton Street, is long-loved for their careful handling of everything from bridal attire to closet staples. And the view of the room in question is unobstructed, so you can watch as the tailors work their magic and tease out hidden sartorial potential.
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Victoria Yee How— Chinatown
Recommended by Beverly Nguyen
Tailoring may be a classic profession, but Yee Howe is a modern multi-hyphenate. From designing lingerie and self-publishing zines to hosting a dessert club out of her Chinatown apartment, she has put her stamp on countless creative industries. After operating as a self-taught tailor for over 20 years, her clients are high profile — she has worked with brands the likes of Dior, Chanel, and Givenchy — and she continually elevates the traditional craft to artform status.
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Chasing Tailoring— Williamsburg
Recommended by Angie Venezia
A sun-streaked Williamsburg loft with art on every wall, plant life wreathing every shelf, and vintage accoutrement on every surface, Chasing is more reminiscent of a curated antique emporium than a tailor. Owner and head tailor Arthur Arbit has worked on everything from ‘1920s museum quality flapper dresses to modern couture masterpieces’, meaning he more than dabbles in both preservation and complete transformation. Meanwhile, in-house designer Nathalie Kraynina operates her womenswear line out of the same space, so if you’re ready to part ways with that long-cherished vintage number, she can send a new one your way.
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Ardian’s Tailor — West Village
Recommended by Donna Baxter
Ardian’s is easy to miss. A self-effacing doorway set into the side of a red-brick building is all there is by way of introduction, and yet Ardian’s services require little peaco*cking: he has carved out a niche in the West Village, and his clientele are devoted. In the words of one Google reviewer, ‘if you’re lucky enough to stumble into Ardian’s shop, you’ll have a tailor for life’. There’s no better testimony than lifelong devotion.
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Natural Cleaners — Greenpoint
Recommended by Lexi Cunningham
Natural Cleaners has been in the heart of Greenpoint since 1986, and it is now on its second generation of owners — a family business model that makes for carefully honed craftsmanship and a dedication to lifelong customers, as well as Brooklynites who only just stumbled across the storefront. In more recent years, the store has transitioned to offering only ‘nature-friendly cleaning systems’, in the words of their unmissable green awning.
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We took to Instagram and our Discord community to ask for more recommendations: add Cardelino Tailoring (recommended by Melissa Flashman), Divine Touch Dry Cleaning (recommended by Angie Venezia), Laura & Melinda and Alba Dry Cleaners (both recommended by Arianna Aviram), Luxtailor, and Village Tailor to your list of must-tries and check out our passerby map for even more.
Words by Erika Veurink & Sydney Russo
fashion, guides
Claire Brodka
New York City
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