Haus building on Bourke St in Melbourne’s CBD. Suit Shop’s stores act as a fitting room where customers can make an appointment online to be fitted for a custom suit or can try on pre-ordered bespoke suits for final fittings and alterations. “We call it a fitting room because there’s nothing you can buy off the rack. Customers come in and go through our fitting process which takes about 45 minutes,” Blythe told Inside Retail PREMIUM. “We first started visiting customers in their offices and their homes close to the CBD in Sydney and Melbourne, and we found a need for a central location where customers could also come to us,” Blythe said. The two stores will soon introduce accessories such as ties and pocket squares, which Blythe says is a logical step for the business. Next month Suit Shop takes its services online. The move will see it join the likes of a growing number of ‘e-tailors’ competing online, including Sydney start up, InStitchu. “Coming from a traditional tailoring background we’ve noticed a lot of these online tailors popping up, but they don’t really have the training and creativity in terms of fitting. They’re delivering a wonderful service in terms of efficiency and accessibility to customers, but we’re trying to merge the two together with Suit Shop.” Its online offering, which is expected to go live next month, will allow for new customers to book instore fittings, while existing customers will be able to make orders online. “Customers that are new to the brand or those that have already been fitted will be soon be able to go online and look at cloths and then come into the store to do their fitting or alterations. We still offer our travelling tailored service as well. “We want to make sure that we have a customer’s pattern correct and that one of tailors has assessed their fit before allowing them to order online. “What a lot of guys don’t realise is that you can’t just take a tape measure, measure yourself, and expect your suit to fit perfectly off the internet. You actually need quite a lot of training, and our staff do a minimum of 12 months intensive training before working with us.” Later this year Suit Shop will once again hit the road, opening pop up shops in Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide in a bid to test each market for its next fitting room. “The stores at the Strand and in Melbourne are both only about 30sqm so it’s not difficult to find space like that. It’s just a matter of finding which cities have the most interest.”