Wearing the Pants: An Interview with Amber Doyle

by Sonya Abrego

High-end tailoring is, by nature, a refined enterprise. It’s bound to “good taste” and sophistication by way of historical precedent; the English tailoring tradition dates back to the 17th century and has continually extended its global reach.

Currently, the oldest member of the Savile Row Bespoke Association — a selective group whose members adhere to an “exacting time-honored set of rules” — is London’s Gieves & Hawkes, established in 1771. When I refer to “high-end tailoring” I mean both custom made and bespoke suiting. Custom-made is a made-to-measure suit that starts with a client choosing a pre-made style off the rack, and then having it custom fitted; bespoke suiting means a unique pattern is drafted specifically from the client’s body and each element of the suit’s construction is done by hand.

Both styles require an investment of money, time, and interest — having a suit, let alone a suit with a perfect fit, is not an entirely commonplace habit for many of us, but the practice has long factored into the lives of the very well-dressed.

I’m drawn to tailoring because I appreciate beautifully-made clothing. When a garment works perfectly with the wearer’s body it always catches my eye. This isn’t to say that my personal tastes are strictly bound to established conventions, or that I see the past in a favorable nostalgic light — there are many ways to be well-dressed. When a maker perfects their skill with clothing, that often involves subverting traditional conventions, which can mean anything from applying antiquated techniques in fresh contexts to focusing meticulous and time-consuming attention on details that slide under the radar of most observers.

I also enjoy the way a suit offers up a sartorial puzzle — today some of the richest CEO’s (Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg) make appearances in golf shirts and hoodies, as though they would do anything not to appear uptight or stuffy. Maybe it’s a way of feeling that they’re just like anyone else in their comfortable casual wear, or maybe it’s an arrogant rebuff — like they don’t have to try look good, but either way, now that the aristocratic well-turned-out gentleman is squarely behind us in terms of the status game, an elegant tailored suit has the chance to say something new. It can mean different things to different people, and isn’t so closely tied to social climbing.

Since the nineteenth century, the measure of a man had a lot to do with the make and measure of his suit. Suits might have been a standard, expected male uniform but quality, refinement, and taste were communicated through tailoring, and it was a visual language people understood. For the better part of past decades people would have been familiar enough of the basics of fabric, cut, or fit to distinguish superior tailoring in their midst. Even today, when a suited figure springs to my mind it is still typically male. Tailors tend to work inside a certain kind of set design, interiors with dark leather club chairs, Persian rugs, brandy decanters, and other material artifacts bound to an old-world masculinity. From the 19th century dandy Beau Brummel and his peers to dapper 20th century figures like New York Times writer Gay Talese, elegantly suited gentlemen make me think patriarchy — but whether the suit was an ironic comment on or an expression of depends on the person in the suit.

Amber Doyle is a New York-based tailor whose gorgeous suits are available at Against Nature and Doyle Meuser. The pieces blend surgically precise cutting with cool confidence. She hasn’t only expertly mastered her craft, she wears it well herself, and boasts an enviable wardrobe of tuxedo jackets and fitted pinstripe blazers. Amber stands out as a petite young woman in a male dominated business, and her business attracts those who appreciate the clash of rebelliousness and conformity. She creates suits for men and women who appreciate her skill for turning a traditional item into a statement piece.

I spoke with Amber about her work and her presence as a young woman in a field dominated by men.

Tell me about your background and training.

I have my degree from FIT. I studied men’s and women’s fashion design, but I was brought up sewing, my mother taught me how to sew, her mother taught her how to sew…it was something that was in the family, but I also took it as far as I could go. Right before I graduated I met Jake Meuser, my business partner, and we started hanging out and sewing for fun.

When I look at skills and knowledge involved in this kind of work — drafting a pattern from scratch, draping it, cutting and fabricating a suit by hand — it seems a little intimidating for the average fashion student. What drew you to tailoring?

I felt like I did so many things growing up with women’s wear and accessories, it just felt like a natural progression. One of the reasons I switched was because by the end of my schooling I found all of my inspiration was menswear — a tuxedo jacket, a suit — I was looking more towards menswear pieces from 1800s than what women were wearing. I really like the structure of things, and I like that it’s not so simple; it’s more of an architectural piece.

You sell your suits at Against Nature, on the Lower East Side and Doyle Mueser, in the West Village — tell me a little about the two businesses.

I started Against Nature six years ago with Jake Mueser, and the store has been open for five years. We started with Jake and I doing all the clothing that you see on the racks. We had two other business partners: Ryan Matthew does jewelry and Simon Jacobs does custom denim.

So the four of us opened the store five years ago and we kind of geared the store to more of a downtown, artsy crowd. Against Nature’s price point is a little lower compared to Doyle Mueser; here we really focus on a made to measure, custom suit as opposed to a bespoke suit. Here it’s really what I’m into — like velvet, paisley fabrics. After a year of this store Jake and I branched off and opened Doyle Meusser. There our focus is just bespoke, so, completely handmade. Our studio is in the basement and our price point is a little higher, and maybe it’s because we’re pulling a lot from the neighborhood [West Village] it becomes more of classic kind of brand where the pieces aren’t as edgy, the people who might be invested in those pieces might be a little older or wanting something that’s a more classic look.

Do you have a favorite designer or historical inspiration?

I’m really into the 1960s and 1970s when it comes to suiting. [That period was] for men who really liked to dress up. They weren’t afraid to have a little…if not flash, than a little more than the average gray or navy suit. The jackets were a hair on the longer side, the waist was really suppressed, you have a bit of a flare at the seat, those big lapels that look so great and so masculine compared to such skinny boyish lapels…

I really love the mods, glam rock kids, I love punk. I can’t not include David Bowie as a good inspiration. I feel like some of his suits are the reason I got into suiting. Freddie Burretti did a lot of his pieces.

And there was a lot of androgyny going on.

Yeah, and I’m a huge fan of that. I look to what was happening on Savile Row in the 1960s and 70s. That was Edward Sexton and Tommy Nutter. I thought those guys were just so cool because they really took menswear in a different direction.

I also love what was happening in the late 1800s I thought menswear was just so cool and elegant in the fabrication and the cut.

One thing I love about suiting is that it’s all about creativity within limits. You’ve got fundamental principles and certain types of say, lapel treatment, or jacket type, but it’s up to the designer to combine subtle details to set things apart. With bespoke, you also have the client’s desires added into the mix. How do you like to work creative touches into your pieces?

With suiting it’s all about the subtleties and the fit. The fit on a suit makes the biggest difference, because without fit, it really doesn’t matter. I like to have a little fun with it, playing with different textures, put secret things in the linings or the pockets (different lining, under collars, different piping on the inside, different pocketing fabric…) that make it really special, so everything is handled, there’s nothing that’s being left out when putting a piece together. Clients come to us cause they like what they see here, so it’s more a collaboration rather than just me designing for them.

I’m curious about being a woman in this business. I don’t know any other women who create bespoke menswear. Are there many out there?

I know of a couple of cool cutters on Savile Row. I feel like when you’re in the tailoring community you end up meeting a lot of people, and there are a lot of women who end up doing it. Not as many as men. But to me it’s such a simple idea — I feel like there are so many men designing for women, so to me, it’s something I really don’t think about that much. Why wouldn’t a woman design for a man?

I’m sure your gender helps you stand out; has it ever been a challenge for you?

I always thought it was really funny. There are definitely presumptions…I opened the store when I just turned 23 — I’m 28 now — and I felt like people didn’t realize I was the owner here or the designer. They would give me a little bit of a hard time and be very taken aback and surprised, like: “Oh, this is you!”

It’s just not something I focus on. I don’t think about it too much, I just do my thing and if somebody recognizes me for it, it’s cool. Sometimes it’s fun for them not to know. I’m the wild card here.

At FIT, you get everything given to you — they show you how to design and really nurture you in this way — but they never tell you to go out and do it on your own. And that’s so in my personality, to not just go with the flow. I feel like I’m a a feminist when it comes to that, in just being really strong and having just as much power as anybody else.

Does it ever feel like a boys’ club?

Yes, but why not be in a boys’ club?

Suits, historically, are connected to male authority and power, and tend to appeal to the more traditional. Do you see that shifting in your business?

I like how you say it tends to represent authority, because I’m a woman in a suit all the time. I feel like it’s so powerful to wear a suit.

I do see more women wearing suits. It’s really sexy and powerful for a woman to wear a suit, whether it’s during the day or in the evening. I personally own too many tuxedos, I could probably outdo men in this — but I feel like men are finding ways to wear suiting a little bit more casually. But you still get it from both sides — some men don’t want to dress up, and they have their uniform that they wear to work and they have street or day clothes that they wear outside of work. Other men love it and really embrace it. I feel like the guys who don’t have to wear a suit want to wear it, and the guys who have to wear it are like, “I can’t wait to take this off.”

What about your female customers? Is it different dealing with them than the men?

A little bit. The past few women I’ve done custom pieces for have been for formal occasions. I just finished an amazing cream tuxedo for a girl, it was for the night before her wedding and she didn’t want to wear a dress, she just wanted to look hot. All her references were really chic, and I made this beautiful cream, almost champagne, tuxedo for her, and she wore it with this incredible corset — she looked gorgeous.

I do a lot of pieces for women with the idea that the suits can be broken up. I feel like that’s how women’s wardrobes are, more so than men’s. When a man buys his suit he plans to wear it all together. I feel with women, no matter what we buy, whether it’s a set or not, we mix it all together anyway. I usually keep that in mind.

Do you have women mostly from the creative community?

To a certain extent. I have this one girl who’s awesome, I did her wedding suit. She is a lawyer and she just doesn’t want a simple suit, and I have a lot fun working with her. She’s creative in the way that she likes to work together but she’s, well, she’s a lawyer so she just has to make it work sometimes.

The historian Francesca Stravrakopoulou wrote a great piece for The Guardian about her frustrations on dressing well and being taken seriously as a woman in academia. She writes that a man can default to a suit and look well dressed and authoritative, but women who do the same thing get chastised for “power dressing.” Men don’t need to “power dress” because simply by being men they are already powerful.

I can’t imagine what I would wear everyday if I had to work in an office. I feel especially women in the office can be really limited, like there has somehow been a uniform that everyone has to adhere too, and it really shouldn’t be.

There are so many ways to look good, but women always have to navigate these issues.

Who knows what to tell women! Even wearing sweatpants can be taken the wrong way.
We have this problem where we’re all really good looking and we make everything look a little sexier [laughs].

Sonya Abrego wears clothes, sells clothes, and writes about clothes in New York. She also teaches fashion history at the Pratt Institute and NYU.