Eli was recommended to my husband by a former co-worker of mine and he was nothing short of spectacular. From our first meeting to our last, he was professional and knowledgable. He was also super flexible with our rather large party (9 men total). The guys enjoyed their experience getting fitted with Eli and were able to really make each suit their own with personalized inner linings, if they so chose. In the end, everyone looked great on the big day. Could not be happier with how everything turned out! Highly recommend Eli and Alabaster & Chess. read more

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I've been going to Eli with Alabaster and Chess suits for custom made to measure tailored suits for many years now. I've referred countless friends and they have referred their friends and so on and so forth and it helped him build up his business. At first I was glad that I found a good suit maker as friends who've purchased suits from him many years ago were quite satisfied with the product. While his pricing and quality use to be fair, it has gone down tremendously recently. I've decided to entrust my brother's wedding suits to Eli and his Tailors and ultimately they came out bad. Suit Jackets were too long, Shirts were too short, Pants were done incorrectly. Part of it were attributed to his poor choice of Tailor (Flormont Tailor http://www.yelp.com/biz/flormont-tailors-new-york-2) . The Tailor (George) there could care less about alterations and we had to be the one suggesting to the tailor what alterations needed to be made, and ultimately he messed up the suits. And due to delays of making the suit itself (3 months!) We had no choice but to take the suit to our own personal tailors to try and salvage the damage as the wedding day was coming soon. On the day of the wedding, even his former customers who saw the suits all remarked how terrible it looked and all assured us that Eli will take care of this. At first we understood Eli was simply the salesmen and the actual tailoring was done by others. So we decided to bring this issue to his attention. Well After countless back and forth with Eli (it's like pulling teeth) we were finally able to get him to agree to simply remake the suits as we both agreed the original suits were "tailored" to the point of beyond repair. This back and forth should not have been so difficult but we as group were satisfied with Eli's response as he stated he would stand behind his name and product and make sure the customer received what he purchased, especially one who has referred countless business to him. However as soon as we try to schedule appointments to get refitted and to check up on our suit remake status, we no longer received any responses from him or his assistants. It's been about 4 months now of constantly emailing and trying to get in touch with them and the response from his assistants are either he's traveling or he'll get back to us soon. This has forced me to write one of my first negative reviews of a place, especially since a Google search shows absolutely no reviews for this place so I felt compelled to past the word along. Buyer beware. I'm already telling all my former friends who I have referred to them to not trust him with any suits being made, and especially a suit for a wedding day, one of the most important days of your life. It's sad that a company you help refer people to now becomes a company where they no longer care about service and quality anymore. Here's a list of all the issues ALL SHIRTS/SUITS: - Monograms were uncentered. - Sleeves on the suit jacket were crooked, which caused it to bulge out around the shoulders Shirt 1: - Sleeves too long after 1st fitting, too short after 2nd fitting. No white cuffs showed. This was UNSALVAGABLE. Shirt 2: - The jacket was cut way too small, and even with extensive tailoring, there was no way to let it out enough, without compromising the structure of the suit. - The length of the arms were uneven, about 1/2 inch difference. Shirt 3: - The monogram was on the wrong arm (right arm, while everyone else was on the left) - Sleeves too long after 1st fitting, too short after 2nd fitting. No white part showed. This was UNSALVAGABLE. Suit 1: - Pants were cut too short, about 1-1.5 inches too short. suit 2: - The jacket was cut too small. When he bought it to the tailor to have it let out, there was tape marks left by the previous tailoring that left a sticky residue on the suit. Suits 3/4 (both of them): - Pants were too short. Missing Vent on the back update 4/13 (9 months later): So the final update is we finally got a hold of Eli face to face and he decided not to remake the suits as promised. He offered to try to take them back to fix although how do you fix something that's cut too short? At this point we were too tired of hounding him and we handed the two suits we felt were somewhat salvageable back to try to fix but even the final returned product the jacket still didn't fit right. He did remake one of the dress shirts. We have since decided to move on and close the book on this ordeal. I've attached photos that hope to highlight some of the issues. We did our best to hide them for the wedding photos. It was embarrassing to have the photographers try to reposition you or to hold a certain stance to hide the imperfections of the suit. We would loosen your belt to pull our pants down more to make it longer, or stretch the shirts out to show the white cuffs.Or put our hands in our pockets to hide the suit jacket lengths. Anyone got any recommendation for a new custom suit ta read more

Alabaster and Chess - Bespoke Clothing Near Me - New York, New York

I write this because recently came across two Yelp reviews for Alabaster & Chess--one really enthusiastic and one somewhat the opposite--so I thought I would weigh in with my two cents. I have had an excellent experience with A&C. Eli and Courtney (one of his salespeople) are really pleasant to deal with. Also, they know what they're talking about, and, if you have a vague idea of how you want to customize a jacket, they will give you pretty good fashion advice. Here's a brief summary of my personal experience: - My FAVORITE sport coat was made by A&C. It's a little funky, but work appropriate. It looks like a tweed jacket but I got made in a brown/plaid heavy wool coat-type fabric. There are elbow patches. The inside is a purple-ish lining with my name written out in script above the inside breast pocket. The details in this jacket are awesome. For example, if you pop the collar, there is a suede lining underneath which matches the elbow patches. It's pretty much the perfect fall business casual jacket and I wear it to work all the time and it garners a lot of compliments. - I referred my dad to Eli, because he really liked the above jacket. My dad had some weird idea of wanting a tweed jacket with some sort of square collar that you can pop and button around your neck. Different strokes for different folks. But, that's kinda the point about custom clothing. You can get a tweed jacket with a collar made for popping, if that's really what you want. Eli met with my pops and they designed a custom blue/silver tweed jacket that is truly one of a kind. My dad loves that coat. - One of my buddies was getting married last summer and he wanted all of his groomsmen to have matching light gray suits. They knew I 'had a guy' so-to-speak, so I referred them to Eli. They opted for the lower-end fabrics (in contrast, the above two jackets were a little more expensive and made of higher quality fabric). I am good friends with several of those grooms men, and when i meet them after work or for lunch they are frequently wearing those suits. And they like them. A lot. I think it says a lot that you can choose the more affordable options and still wind up with a great suit. Moreover, Eli gave me a huge discount for the referral, and I put that towards a really nice sport coat. If you know what you want, or have an idea of what you want, A&C is a great choice. Eli's a great salesman, and he seems to go by the old sales motto, "my friends are my clients, and my clients are my friends!" Consequently, he will get back to you right away if you have any questions or concerns about your order. read more

Working with Eli from Alabaster & Chess was both an educational experience and an easy process for getting the best suit possible for my wedding. I learned a lot about the suit-making process and that it doesn't take much to look your best. Thanks to Eli and his tailor's swift responses to any concerns I had, I was also able to have some last-minute alterations made so that on our wedding day I was ready to go. I'd recommend this company in a heartbeat - don't hesitate to reach out to me on this forum if you have any other questions about the impeccable service that I received from Alabaster & Chess. read more

Happen to come across this review and need to put in my two cents here. I was referred to A&C by a friend about 5 years ago when I was looking for a tuxedo for my brothers wedding. The below review is correct in that A&C made great suits back then, I still wear my tux to black tie events. Where the other review is incorrect is that A&C has gone downhill. I recently changed jobs to a big bank where I have to wear a suit everyday. While I have some off the shelf suits, I figured I should have one or two primo suits as well and I went back to A&C to make them. Here is how his business actually operates: - His assistant came to my apartment after work at 7 pm and took my full measurements. She was very professional. - A few weeks later the suit arrives and I go to his tailor for a fitting. Suit needed two alterations (jacket sleeves were a quarter of an inch too long and upper back needed to be let out slightly). - A week later I go in for second fitting and boom, perfect suit. This was two months ago and these are easily my best and favorite suits. I have since referred more friends to A&C and have never heard of any experiences like the one below. read more

A&C was one of my first stops when I moved back to NYC from the midwest! A&C has kept me looking good for nearly 5 years. I still wear some of my first purchases. Great combination of quality and value. Two thumbs up. read more

I was one of the original A&C customers and have referred several people to Eli over the years. At least two of those referalls got married in the suits/tuxes they got and reported back that they (and their wives) were very happy with the results. I've gotten several shirts and they are all mainstays of my rotation. I got married in my A&C tuxedo and have worn it to several black tie events. Fits perfectly and is regularly complimented. I need to wear a suit to work every day and whenever I have an important meeting or event, there is no doubt I'm going with one of my A&C items. In the rare instances where things don't fit perfectly, Tony at Flormont Tailor has always done a great job on alterations. My favorite thing about working with Eli and A&C is the extent to which you can customize your gear. From stitching to lining to inner cuff pattern/fabric, everything is available for customization. If you're looking to revamp the entire wardrobe or just have a special event that requires a signature item, I couldn't recommend A&C any more highly. read more

Stay Away. We were referred to Eli from another friend who had their wedding suits done. His suits looked fine enough, and the first meeting with Eli was great. You pick out the fabrics, etc. But, even after going to the tailor to get measured and everything, the suits were so off it was like they just chose random measurements. At first we understood that there is often a couple iterations to get it right...BUT after going back to the tailor twice, the suits were still completely wrong. Pant legs were different lengths by INCHES!! We finally ended up having to bring the suits to another trusted local tailor who told us it was one of the worst "custom" suits he had ever seen. read more

Long time customer, first time reviewer on yelp. Top notch clothing and service from these guys. The one time I had an issue they fixed it quickly and at no cost or hassle to me. A rare pleasure to deal with these days. read more