 I live in Baltimore and about eight years ago, I got in my car and started heading south to Washington, DC. I knew why I was going, but I wasn't exactly sure how it was going to go or really have any idea of how significant this trip would be. That's something I wouldn't realize until many, many years later. So I was headed down to DC because a custom clothing company from New York that I had read about and heard really, really great things about was setting up shop in DC and was actually offering pretty nice discount for first time DC clients. This was during the very beginning of He Spoke Style and at a time when I really started to get serious about developing my wardrobe and investing in it. So seemed like a good trip to make. I parked just off Dupont Circle and walked a few blocks to a small townhouse. I rang the doorbell, was buzzed in and taken upstairs to the second floor. There I was greeted by a very elegant room, dark hardwood floors, slate gray walls, fireplace, a couch, a few perfectly placed rugs, a single table with four chairs around it, a couple tailor busts, elegantly styled a wet bar and a hutch stocked with fabric books. Next, a gentleman came in, shook my hand and we sat down together at the table. This was my first time meeting Mike of Michael Andrews. Now remember that this is kind of the beginning of me seriously getting into men's style and actually only my second time doing a custom suit, which is to say that I was not prepared at all. I kind of knew what I wanted, but not really. And when it came to all the details, so many options, I was just completely overwhelmed. In fact, I'm not ashamed to admit that a lot of things, I didn't even know what they were at the time. So my appointment kind of took a little bit of time, probably more time than Mike was used to spending on a single client who was, you know, only gonna buy one suit and two shirts. After all that time, I finally decided on a brown Donagall tweed three-piece suit that I did with a notch lapel, flat pockets, suede elbow patches, which is honestly something I'd wanted since my undergraduate days, double vent, side adjusters on the trousers with a two-inch cuff. And for shirts, I did a blue micro-stripe and another stripe shirt that had like kind of a blue and brown double stripe. I love that suit when I got it and I got it just in time for the fall winter season of that year. It was 2013, we featured it many times on the He Spoke Style website showing its versatility. It's a suit that is still in my rotation and actually the tweed jacket that you've seen on the channel frequently is the jacket from that suit. Now over the years as I continued growing HSS, I had the opportunity to try many different made to measure and custom suit programs. Some really well known, some online only, some small shops, pretty much the entire gamut of what was available. But one thing that remained constant throughout all that time is that I always kept coming back to MAB. The other products were okay, some hit or miss but usually there was like something about the product that I just couldn't get past. Like it would always come into small or short despite a very rigorous measuring process. Some of the programs have a complete lack of control over certain things that were sort of non-negotiable for me like a lapel width for example or having a cap on how big you could make the cuff on your trousers. And then that was the fact that a lot of these companies seemed kind of faceless. You know, maybe they advertised the personal attention that you would get but part of the joy of the sartorial world is those relationships that you create with the people responsible for making your clothing. You don't want the process to be simply transactional. It should be about sharing a passion for style and the craft of tailored clothing. And to be honest, the holy grail is getting to a point where you can just tell your guy what you want and then expect that with little to no input from you that he knows exactly what that is and that when the garment is delivered that you are completely satisfied. That is why MAB was different for me and it's one of the reasons that I kept going back to them so consistently over the years. Michael Andrews was and still is a relatively small team of warm, caring, passionate and just nice people. All my favorite suits were from MAB. I'd never experienced such a personal level of customer attention that I mean they'd remember birthdays, anniversaries and it wasn't just like some bot decided to send me an email. Corey and Mike would literally text me to let me know that they had remembered. Because of that synergy and because of the way our values aligned, caring about quality, caring about the people that we connected with, it was I would say about two years ago that we started having conversations about partnering in a more meaningful and lasting way. Michael Andrews has a great product that I personally love though aside from a few regular trunk shows here and there and a handful of cities in the showroom in New York, they only had that in-person experience which made it very difficult if not impossible for the people who followed me to see what it was all about. And add to that that they were only offering a bespoke garment, that meant the price was higher than I knew that many of you might be comfortable with. My goal has always been to make it easier for you guys to dress well, look your best, feel your best and in the process have more confidence in yourself and to use that confidence to do whatever it is and achieve whatever it is that you want to. And part of that is to be able to share and give you access to the clothing that has had that effect for me in my life. That is why we put our heads together to find a way to bring Michael Andrews into the HSS shop to give you an online custom clothing experience that only they can deliver and at a price point that is better in terms of the level and quality of what you are getting than the competition. Now let me talk a little bit about what really differentiates Michael Andrews. They have their own workshop and they actually own their workshop. They make all their patterns in-house which is cool because it allows me to create some pieces that I envision to give you some more unique options here and there than what you would normally find from similar companies in the custom clothing industry. Over the years, Michael Andrews has also created a network of partnerships with other top tier craftsmen which gives them a much greater depth of knowledge, experience and ability than any other custom clothing out there. And because of that, that's why we're able to offer you a curated selection of not just suits, shirts and sport coats but also shoes, knitwear, belts, ties and accessories. Of course, when you're talking about custom clothing and especially online custom clothing, the most important thing aside from quality is the fit of the garment. And here is the place that I know Mike and his team absolutely deliver. As you go through the process you'll work closely with them to achieve a fit that is as close to their in-store bespoke as possible. We've been testing this out for well over a year now and to be completely honest, I was a little scared in the beginning because I didn't want this service to have any sort of compromise at all. And when we got those first garments back we were all absolutely blown away by how good it was. This whole new adventure is all about you guys and what this partnership does is that it gives us an infrastructure to deliver you an exceptional product with world-class customer service. And because we've brought on MAB as our partner for that it frees me up and gives me a greater ability to continue to give you guys even higher quality content than you've become accustomed to. I know some of you are gonna have questions about objectivity and so on and so forth going forward. What I can promise you is that nothing on this channel will change. It's not gonna become a huge commercial. I've seen other people go down that path and that is not what is going to happen here. I'm gonna continue sharing the things that I'm passionate about across a variety of categories and you will continue to get all the knowledge, tips and inspiration you need to dress well, have more confidence and unlock your potential. Everything is now live on the site and what I really wanna do is encourage you to check it out, browse the collection, but most importantly, give us some feedback. We want the experience to be the best out there. We wanna make the site better every day and you guys are the ones who can give us the best feedback. So please hop on over there, check it out and let us know what you think.