About

In 2008, I set out with a simple idea: to make it easy to buy custom dress shirts that fit perfectly.

Proper Cloth wasn’t an instant success. The first two years were particularly humble. I didn’t have a background in fashion and didn’t have investors or industry connections. I was a team of one, working out of coffee shops and a shared office space in Union Square. Our original manufacturing was slow, fabric selection limited, and our website was confusing. And shortly after launching, there was the financial crisis.

But we believed in this simple idea, and stuck with it. We became immersed in the worlds of shirts and fabrics, of ecommerce and user interface design, and of manufacturing and logistics. Slowly but surely Proper Cloth added new customers. And after a few years, we grew into a small team. Our strategy was simple: listen closely to our customers, fix problems they identified, and add features they requested. Steadily, we grew.

For years we focused exclusively on custom shirts and the digital shopping experience. We continuously reviewed and refined everything about the ordering experience and the shirt itself. We created our own machine-learning algorithm called Smart Sizes, to make it easier to create a custom size from home. We added new collar and cuff styles. We sourced fabrics from mills all over the world, eventually producing our own designs. And we created special tools for customers to manage their orders and sizes online.

In 2013 we moved into our first dedicated office and opened our first physical showroom … at the top of a 6th floor walkup. Customers unfazed by the graffiti-covered facade and flights of rickety stairs discovered our tiny loft, with a single fitting station and handful of shirts on display — all next to our team's four desks. Over the next few years, we incrementally expanded the size of our office and showroom (and even got an elevator!).

In 2019, after years in development, we launched custom Tailored Clothing, including suits, jackets, and trousers. We applied what we learned from custom shirts to these new categories, but we still had more to learn. As before, we listened to our customers and incrementally improved these products over time.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world, and the way we did business simply stopped working. We closed our showroom, started working from home, and began meeting with customers virtually. We launched a premium face mask, winning endorsements from Forbes and Wirecutter, we launched custom chinos, and we produced our first runs of t-shirts and sweatshirts.

But there’s still more to do. 15 years in, our mission endures. We continue to focus on making the best custom shirts, pants, and suits we can possibly make, while improving the experience of buying custom clothing. We are fully committed to building a leading menswear brand, as well as a great company. We stand behind our products. We take pride in what we do. We hope you will too.

Seph Skerritt,
Founder/CEO