It takes a special sense of self-awareness and keen observational skills to be 18-years-old, working your first job in Midtown Manhattan, and noticing what personal style and dressing well can communicate to others.
That was the spark that would set Gus Pagès up for the ultimate trajectory of his life.
Style, and the quiet confidence it brings, communicates a level of respect. It’s said that the first thing that’s noticed about someone is their smile, when actually the first thing that you take in is how they’re dressed. It’s unconscious first impression table stakes.
“I felt I wasn’t getting the proper respect at work making deliveries for a catering company. I started researching personal appearance, how you present yourself and why that ultimately affects how people feel about you,” Gus acknowledges. “I realized that there were people my age being treated with the respect I sought, noticing that the common thread was they wore well-tailored suits, looking very sure of themselves and what they were doing. That’s when I recognized that they looked this way without verbally communicating that.”
Gus admits that led him down a rabbit hole of research. It began with buying better clothing, in a quest to understand the nuances of a proper fit. He’d study things his old-school tailor did and determined that was looking for a custom suit for his individual body.
He couldn’t afford that. So he did what nobody else would. He pretended to have a business to order samples from manufacturers and did it himself. “I was already too snobby to think anyone would execute it the way I wanted it,” he says with a laugh.
He began to make himself some custom suits. Then others would ask him to do the same for them. Along the way, he transitioned into Property Management, where he could wear a suit and not feel out of place in a catering company.
Yet that was not his place. His passion had become fashion, so to speak. He immersed himself into learning all he could about creating custom clothes, including moving his family to Milan to study the wealth of fabric manufacturers, designers, and tailors directly from the source.
He returned to the US renewed, enlightened, and ready.
It led to opening Berez Private Tailor. In his loft space in Montclair (although you’d swear you’re in Soho), Gus begins with a one-on-one meeting. “Clothing is deeply connected to self-esteem. How you’re treated here is important. In other places, it’s very transactional, simply selling clothing. My first consultation starts with asking what they’re trying to communicate. I’ll ask for three descriptors you’d like someone to use when talking about you. Are you serious? Calm? Respectful? Tell great stories? I want to know what they’re trying to achieve. This all goes into my personal algorithm of design. Then we move onto practical things like fabrics, environment, that sort of thing. My main goal is to make you feel great in what you’re wearing.”
Gus’ aim is for you to wear his clothes a lot. “My favorite pieces are workhorses,” he says. Something that you’re going to feel great when you wear it, not just set aside for special occasions. “A well-made, well-fit suit should be as comfortable as sweats.”
“One of my passions is how different pieces can work together in a very fluid way, because despite my love for clothing, I don’t like getting dressed. For me, the ideal time to get dressed is like 5 minutes. Super simple. You can do that with great clothing that fits you well.”
What makes a custom suit different? For starters, off-the-rack suits are “fused garments,” meaning they have glue layered between the fabric that holds them together. What does glue not do? Glue doesn’t allow the fabric to breathe. Eventually, glue breaks down, causing it to bubble and wave. A custom suit is stitched together, creating a garment that will last, possibly for generations.
I spent about an hour talking with Gus about his process. I learned more in that hour than I ever knew about clothes. The details are endless, and this is a man who’s painstakingly learned what – and why – things are done to make clothing better. When we met, he was wearing a simple black t-shirt with a pair of brown suit trousers – an effortlessly stylish Millennial who took five minutes to get dressed that morning. But eminently well put-together. And yes, it communicated exactly what he was trying to say. Style is a silent communicator.
For Gus, you might think that what he does is a labor of love. It’s much more than that. It’s a labor of respect.
For more about having custom clothing made by someone who knows just what it can do for your self-esteem and confidence, see their website at Berez.us. Find their shop at 5 S. Willow Street, Montclair.
Going to Italy, he thought he knew quite a bit about custom suit making. He quickly learned he'd known very little.
“Every single person that comes in says the same thing. ‘I have a weird body.’ Yup. We all do. We’re all individuals. Off the rack is average – nobody is average for everything.”