GOTTA CHECK THIS OUT
Sid Mashburn spent the past half-decade trying to make a suit for those who can’t spend four grand—and he’s finally cracked the code. The result has all the hallmarks of the primo stuff from the 1960s: natural shoulders, handsewing, and a fit that looks at home from Mississippi to Milan
Mashburn (left) at his store with customer James Hamrick and tailor Quang Dau.
Sid Mashburn talks about men’s tailored clothing with deeply held conviction. Born in Brandon, Mississippi, he swears he dreamed of working in a gentlemen’s shop when he was in junior high, and he clocked his first shift as soon as he earned his driver’s license. In a way, that’s when he first began formulating the suits you see on this page. “When you work in those stores, you pick up the biases of the older guys around you,” Mashburn says. “A suit jacket with natural shoulders, that was like breathing. And a full canvas”— that means the middle layer of a jacket’s fabric floats instead of being fused to the outer layer—”that is non-negotiable. Unless a jacket has a full canvas, it won’t break down the way it should. It’ll never become your jacket.”
And the cut of this ideal suit? How should it fit? “It’s slim but not skinny,” Mashburn says. “It would’ve looked good ten years ago and still will ten years from now. I want something I can wear in Mississippi without getting stares; thenIwanttohopa plane to New York or Italy and be equally at home. I want a suit that doesn’t know a time period and doesn’t know geography, either.”
The Mashburn crew play touch football—without taking off their jackets.
After stints designing for J.Crew and Lands’ End, Mashburn opened his eponymous Atlanta store in 2007, and ever since, he’s been tirelessly working to make his vision a reality. The goal was to find a way to make a garment to rival the $4,000 Sartorios that he sells in his store for a price that more of his customers could wrap their heads and wallets around.
At first, it looked like the suit he sought might be extinct. Most factories simply don’t share Mashburn’s values anymore—those non- negotiable principles regarding shoulders and canvas. Then he found a partner in Southern Italy. (He declines to get more specific.) Now the Sid Mashburn suit— natural shoulders, a full canvas, and modern tweaks like side vents, darts, and a ticket pocket—is jumping off his racks, thanks to prices that start at $995. It’s exactly what Mashburn’s been after: a suit that’s as evergreen as the logo he sews inside it.
1198 Howell Mill Rd., Atlanta, Georgia
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