California Apparel News

There has been an uptick in interest in bespoke suiting over the past decade, and one of the players in this game calls himself “Fresh.” Born Patrick Henry, the bespoke designer makes suiting for clients including Grammy winner John Legend and professional basketball player Draymond Green. Fresh currently owns a factory named Danil Custom Tailor, which makes clothes for his Richfresh label and other bespoke tailors.

But more than one year ago, between November 2017 and January 2018, Fresh had no place to call home. If he wasn’t sleeping in 24-hour health spas, he occasionally lived in a homeless shelter in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood.

Making the leap from pauper to suit-factory owner seems like something out of a Victorian-era Horatio Alger story in which impoverished youth find security through the virtues of hard work. But Fresh said that he was able to put hard times behind him by cutting out poor business habits.

“I spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s homeless. ‘You are not spending your birthday homeless,’” Fresh remembered telling himself. “I had this epiphany, ‘You’re only here as long as you want to be here. As soon as you want to be somewhere else, you’ll be there.’”

Fresh had lost his apartment after a client convinced him to provide financing for a $7,500 order for suiting. The suits were delivered, but the client never paid. Without funds, Fresh found himself on the street. He felt betrayed by some in his circle of associates. People whom he partied with and considered friends did not have space for him on their couches.

His choices seemed to run out when staff of a 24-hour spa told him that he was spending too much time there. He found himself staying nights at a homeless shelter with other men, some of whom had mental-health and drug issues.

During nights at the shelter, Fresh reviewed the business reasons that led to him skating on such thin ice. Among them, he cut corners with product and wasn’t entirely forthright with clients in what product he was going to give them. When he didn’t deliver, he had to return the money.

He realized that he had to change his ways. “I was going to hit the same wall if I kept doing the same [stuff],” he said. Fresh vowed to keep his word on what he delivered. He vowed to keep his promises. He vowed to be more reliable.

Fortunately for him, there was a way to make a business recovery. He was lucky to be in a growing field where consumers are loyal, said fashion entrepreneurs Daniel Antonio and Rodolfo Ramirez, who both worked with Fresh in the past.

“[Made-to-measure] has a niche customer base. It’s a network of people interested in suiting,” said Antonio, founder of Los Angeles’ Dirty Milk label and a maker of private-label styles. “Once you get that clientele, you can do well in that business.”

It’s a business that is experiencing an uptick in interest, said Ramirez, a co-founder of made-to-measure brand Pocket Square Clothing in downtown Los Angeles.

“Customization is big in fashion,” he explained. “The Los Angeles landscape for custom suiting is no different.”

Fresh was able to see clients in friends’ tailor shops around Los Angeles. His social-media presence remained strong. Then, with more than 8,000 followers, his Instagram profile, @richfresh, continued to draw interest and people seeking to do business with him. Currently more than 33,200 people follow his Instagram profile.

As Fresh’s business recovered, he was able to afford to stay in Airbnb apartments and eventually secure his own apartment. He thought it was time to grow his operations.

While rebuilding his business, Fresh was growing dissatisfied with having his suits made overseas. An acquaintance told him about a factory based in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile District. He paid the factory to make some trousers and was impressed by the quality and craftsmanship of its eight sewers. Fresh wrapped up his work with overseas factories and then contracted the made-to-measure work with the L.A. factory. Gradually, he became the top client for Danil. The owner wanted to retire and sold the business to Fresh for an undisclosed sum in January 2019.

Eli Gill currently serves as operations chief for Richfresh. Before working with the company, Gill worked in the custom-suiting business and occasionally referred people to Fresh. Gill said that Fresh didn’t advertise to the world that he was experiencing housing problems in the winter of 2017–2018.

If you weren’t by his side all the time, you wouldn’t know that Fresh was without housing, explained Gill. After January 2017, Gill noticed that Fresh’s clientele changed. They were wealthier, better-known people. Gill said that Fresh is a whirlwind of energy.

“He doesn’t stop working. He likes to say that he can do the impossible,” Gill said. “He makes everybody stretch and do more than they think they can get done.”

Fresh started out at Danil making suiting with glen plaids as well as brightly colored double-breasted suits for John Legend and athletes Blake Griffin, Demarcus Cousins, comedian Kevin Hart and PrettyLittleThing co-founder Umar Kamani.

Fresh also started making made-to-measure track suits out of a light neoprene fabric with two thick stripes placed on the outside seam of the pants as well as on the jackets. He started making bespoke track suits just because he wanted to do something different.

“I didn’t want to be stale,” he said. “I wanted to get something that was more colorful, something that would pop.”

Fresh estimated that the made-to-measure track suits make up about 30 percent of his business, while Antonio emphasizes the unique qualities of these pieces.

“I don’t see anyone doing athleisure and mixing it in with fine suiting and fine tailoring,” Antonio said. “He’s found a market that has been untapped.”

Fresh’s made-to-measure services do not come cheap. Track suits retail for $3,250. Pricing for suits starts at $3,950. Pricing for trousers starts at $1,450. He also makes leather bags and backpacks with price points ranging from $2,900 to $4,800.

Fresh said that he is a lot more confident after the grim days of winter 2017–2018. After being at the bottom and working his way to a business that he always wanted to do, he hopes to develop a larger profile. He plans to expand content for his website, rich-fresh.com, and perhaps do pop-up shops. Also on Fresh’s list is developing plans to start boot camps for tailors.

“We’re building the brand,” he said. “We’re working our asses off.”

Photos courtesy of Rich Fresh