A few months back I merged my frim with some colleagues I have known for many years. This required…read moresome rebranding of our website and shushing it up if you will. We hired a photographer and gathered our team together for a photo shoot in the next few weeks. The photographer provided us with clothing recommendations and that is when I had the Aha Covid moment.
I hadn't worn a suit or a business jacket in years. Pre-Covid for sure. To be fair, I rarely did to begin with, but I did have a suit and a couple of jackets. I pulled them out and to my surprise, none, I mean not a single one of them fit. It wasn't that I had gained significant weight, but the last 3 yrs I have been regularly working out with a trainer. The jackets fit as well as the jackets Pee-Wee Herman used to wear. I needed a jacket and needed it in a few weeks.
I have driven by Capra, numerous times over the years and promised myself, that I would treat myself and pick up a suit there one day. Well this was a perfect time to do so. I grabbed Suz to head out to Capra. They are easy to get to and have a parking garage at no cost. Which is a plus. We walked in to the store and behold, all sorts of suits, jackets, shirts, slacks. I mean everything a dude could wish for. I made my way in and Ivan approached me and asked if he could be of service. I explained why I was there and my timeline. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to have a suit made in time for the photo shoot, but he did let me know of a very nice high end line of ready made, if you will. We looked at swatches and being a favorite of blue, found a colour that I really liked. He looked at me and said, I believe your are a 48R, which I was a few years ago. So we slipped one on and immediately went to a 50R, if I remember correctly.
He jumped on a call quickly, only to find out they didn't have one in stock that size, but had options. Again, this was a timeline issue for me. I knew I was pushing finding something of quality with only a couple of weeks notice. Ivan had an alternative, which was actually my second favorite, so we went with that version. He let me know it would be shipped in a few days and he would give me a call once at the store to be fitted. True to his word, he called and I was off to get fitted.
The jacket was everything I expected. Fine tailoring, wonderfully soft material and the colour was perfect. He spent about 5-10 minutes fitting it, making chalk lines and let me know when it would be ready to pick up. Less than a week later, I popped by to pick it up, it was fitted correctly and off I went.
Ivan was polite, insightful, friendly and extremely knowledgeable. A pleasure to work with. I will find a time to come back and have a suit made at Capra and find reasons to wear as often as possible. What a great experience all around.