Duane & Johnson — The Atelier
Custom
Tailoring
Duane & Johnson began as a tailoring house. Everything else we make came afterward, out of the same discipline. Tailoring is our grammar. Miami is what we are trying to say with it.
We cut for a city that is formal and relaxed at exactly the same time — a beautifully cut trouser and an open collar in the same sentence. A jacket that holds its line at nine in the morning and is carried over a shoulder by four. Cloth chosen for the heat, construction soft enough to live in, proportion precise enough to survive the light here.
Every commission moves through staged fittings rather than a single appointment, because a garment should be cut to your natural posture — the way you actually stand, sit and move — not to a measurement taken once. Suiting, jacketing, trousers, outerwear and shirting, made to stand alone or work together, and added to over years.
Tailoring
Made-to-Measure
Made-to-Measure carries the cut and proportion of our bespoke line into a machine-made garment. It is the most direct way into the house, and the fastest.
Our approach to a conventional process sees us collect an extensive range of body measurements in tandem with your working posture, balanced against our fitting garments in your nearest fixed size. The choice of cloth is yours.
Your garment is crafted in that cloth and is brought to you for a fitting. Precise adjustments are noted and performed locally, to be handed over during a final fitting.
Semi-Bespoke
Semi-Bespoke is how most clients come to understand what bespoke actually is. The same hand — hand-cut, hand-sewn, over a full floating canvas — on a shorter calendar, without the staged fitting in the middle. You feel the difference in the garment before you commit to the full process.
A paper pattern is drafted from your unique measurements and finely tuned to your working posture. Where accuracy asks for it, we also work against our in-house fitting garments.
From those measurements a completed garment is created in your chosen cloth and brought to you. You will then have a fitting, where adjustments are performed locally before handover at a final fitting.
Bespoke
Bespoke is the fullest expression of the house, with absolute focus on your individual proportion, posture and preference. A pattern is drafted that exists only for you.
Hand-cut and hand-sewn, a full floating canvas construction is formed from a paper pattern taken from your own measurements and finely tuned to your working posture — so the jacket is right standing, sitting, and in the car at four in the afternoon.
From those measurements a half-finished garment is created in your chosen cloth and brought to you. You wear it. It is carefully marked up, then reworked and completed by hand until the fit is no longer a compromise.
Cloth
Chosen for a city that is warm eleven months of the year. High-twist wools, open weaves, linen and cotton that hold a line in heat rather than surrendering to it, alongside the heavier English and Italian cloths for travel and evening.
Fittings
We come to you, by appointment, across South Florida. Most commissions take two to three fittings. We keep your pattern on file, so every garment after the first begins further along than the last.
Who we cut for
Private clients dressing for weddings, portraits and occasions that deserve the attention — and professional athletes whose proportions no rack has ever accounted for.
Questions we get asked
How much does a custom suit cost in Miami?
Made-to-measure begins at $1,750, semi-bespoke at $2,550 and bespoke at $3,650. Cloth moves that number more than anything else — a high-twist wool for the working week and a cloth woven for evening are not the same money. Nothing is quoted before you have seen what you are buying.
How long does a commission take?
Five to eight weeks for made-to-measure, seven to nine for semi-bespoke, ten to fourteen for bespoke. Expect the longer end of each before the winter wedding run, when the mills and the calendar are both at their busiest.
What is the difference between made-to-measure and bespoke?
Made-to-measure adjusts an existing pattern to your measurements and your posture. Bespoke drafts a pattern that exists only for you, cuts and sews it by hand over a full floating canvas, and corrects it on your body at a staged fitting. The cut and the proportion are the house's in both cases; what changes is how far the garment is built around you.
Do you come to me?
Yes. We measure and fit at your home or office, across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, by appointment. The workroom is in Miami. There is no obligation to commission — plenty of first appointments are someone seeing cloth, getting measured, and deciding afterwards.
What cloth actually works in Miami's heat?
High-twist wools, open weaves, linen and cotton. Most suiting cloth was woven for a colder city than this one, and it shows by eleven in the morning. The heavier English and Italian cloths still have their place here, for travel and for evening.
Do you cut for difficult proportions?
Yes — a good part of the work is exactly that. Long through the arm, deep through the chest, an athlete's back. Nothing off a rack accounts for two of those at once. Bespoke is usually the honest answer when proportions sit outside what an adjusted pattern handles well.
Consultations
We come to you. Appointments are taken at your home or office across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, without the immediate expectation of placing an order. We would rather meet you, put cloth in your hands and talk through what you actually need before anything is committed to.
Chad@duanejohnsonmtm.com · Monica@duanejohnsonmtm.com
Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach — we come to you, by appointment.