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Real Wedding: Jillian and Zachary Ledogar

RTKP PhotographyNaturally, we think all of our brides are beautiful, but it’s not every day that we get to style the wedding of a former Miss Massachusetts! Last year, we had the privilege of doing just that, dressing all of the men for dashing groom Zach Ledogar, and his gorgeous bride, Jillian, who held the title of Miss Massachusetts in 2017.

As we all know, the year 2020 was a gut punch for everyone, but to their great credit, this cheerful crew simply would not let the pandemic get them down. Always smiling and determined to celebrate in style, the couple opted for our new French blue slim-fit suits with neckties to match the ladies’ Capri blue gowns, creating a classy but modern combination that looked fantastic at their elegant outdoor setting.

RTKP PhotographyDressing this group was not without its challenges: Both the bride and groom are avid Crossfitters, and as we dressed the groomsmen, it was clear these guys were no slouches in the gym, either. College athletes, military vets, basically a cadre of studs from all over the country, whose suits had to be measured, custom-tailored, and sent on their way on very short notice. Fortunately, we have a magician for a head tailor (who also altered gowns for the bride and many of her bridesmaids), so we were able to pull off this feat with time to spare. As you can see from these lovely photos by RTKP Photography, they all look fantastic.

RTKP photographyServing this wedding was one of the bright spots during a very challenging year, and we were honored to be a part of the event in our small way. If you’re planning a wedding in 2021 and would like to meet with one of our stylists to see what we can do for your special event, please contact us today!

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If it looks too good to be true….

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is!

We love a pocket square as much as the next guy, but if you’re shopping for wedding formalwear, the most important “square” in your pocket might well be…a calculator.

Case in point: One of our own suit suppliers routinely tags their suits with an MSRP of $359.99. We sell that suit all year long at $199. Sure, if we wanted, we could bait you into our store with a $160 OFF coupon, but instead, we prefer to give you our honest and affordable low prices all year. We believe it builds trust, which leads to the lasting customer relationships that have been the foundation of our steady growth over 36 years.

Let’s face it: These days, we’re all looking to get the best value we can for our dollars, but no one likes to be tricked by gimmicks. So, when you’re shopping for tuxedos and suits, be certain to bring your trusted calculator along with you, because if your vendors are offering big discounts off of artificially inflated prices, then it’s not “actually” a good deal, is it?

If you’d like to schedule a personal consultation with one of our stylists, please contact us today!

Happy planning!

 

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How to Pick Out Wedding Tuxes



Were you at last weekend’s Virtual Grand Wedding Expo? If we talked to you at our “booth,” thanks for stopping by! As you may know, the show’s producers had a technical challenge that prevented them from airing our new video tutorial that shows how to pick out formalwear for your wedding. Don’t despair: We’ve uploaded it to our new YouTube channel, so you can watch it whenever you like! Please check it out, share it with your friends, and subscribe for more content.

As always, we’re here to answer all of your tuxedo and suit questions, and if you’d like to schedule an appointment for a personal in-store consultation, contact us at any time. 

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MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT

Over the weekend, our largest competitor announced they have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and as they restructure their debts, they will be closing some 500 store locations. We extend our deepest sympathies to the employees—and the brides and grooms—who will be affected.

Given the size of this retail giant and the international scope of their operations, it seems inevitable that Main Street Formals’ operations will be affected as well. Historically, we have always witnessed a surge in new clients whenever our competitors have reduced their market footprint. While that prosperity is always received with deep gratitude, we must manage it carefully, for when a company’s growth outpaces its ability to serve its customers, it leads to failure.

This moment signifies a historic “perfect storm” in wedding menswear. At present, we are well supplied and amply staffed to handle current market requirements, which have been artificially suppressed by COVID19. However, 2021 is predicted to be a record year for weddings, for it will combine the “normal” 2021 events with a huge number of events postponed from 2020. To service this unprecedented demand, we may need to recruit and train a new generation of menswear stylists and tailors.

This is where your input is tremendously helpful.

If you will be shopping for wedding suits or tuxedos, and you intend to honor our company with the opportunity to earn your business, PLEASE let us know as early as possible so that we can generate reliable forecasts for our staffing and inventory requirements. By registering online, you are not committing to anything—you are simply helping us to understand the size of the local market, which helps us to plan and serve you better. As Tom Cruise famously implored Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry McGuire, “Help ME help YOU.”

The year 2020 has been a wild ride, and there’s still nearly five months to go. However, despite COVID, murder hornets, and the imminent disclosure of recovered alien technology, people are still getting married. Because no matter what the universe throws at us, love (and Main Street Formals) will endure.

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The pitfalls of online shopping in the age of the coronavirus

Let’s start with the obvious: For better or worse, there has been a surge in online shopping during the coronavirus pandemic. For those of us who actually *like* personal service, this experience has merely reinforced what we have long suspected, i.e., Big Box Stores and eRetail giants cannot provide the love that living, breathing humans need and crave. In many cases, if there’s a snag in your order, you’re expected to navigate a labyrinth of webpages, links and voicemail choices to get to a human–and even then, the experience is usually unsatisfactory.

Nowhere is this problem more challenging than shopping for menswear online, for 1) you probably don’t know your “real” sizes, and 2) manufacturers offer a variety of fits (or “cuts”), which are not standardized, and so EVEN IF YOU DO know your “true” size, you need to know your size in each individual cut. One company’s slim-fit is another company’s tailored fit is another company’s European fit, and so on. If you’re doing it on your own, good luck with that.

So, it’s inevitable that today’s online shopper will end up with clothing that doesn’t fit quite right. What to do? Well, bring it to us! Sure, you should have bought your suit directly from your friendly local men’s store, but even if you bought a garment elsewhere, we’ll help you get a better fit. For example, let’s take a look at our model Brad here.

In this photo, Brad is wearing a size 40S classic-fit sportcoat. If this were a typical case, Brad would tell us, “There was no sales professionals to help me in the big box store (or online), so I tried on coats until I found one that felt comfortable.” Immediately, we would have told him that if the coat is comfortable, it’s too big. When a coat fits correctly, it should not pull across the shoulders or back, but it should hug the body.

Some of you are looking at this photo and thinking, “I don’t think it looks that bad.” To that, we would say, “not that bad” is a pretty low bar, and if you go through life aspiring to “not that bad,” you need to stand up, throw your shoulders back, straighten your tie, and demand better of yourself, and your tailoring.

Here’s a profile view before tailoring. The coat adds 30lbs to Brad’s svelte frame. For those of you wondering, Brad’s true size is a 34-36R, so this coat is the equivalent of  FOUR sizes too big. It’s not easy to take a coat down four sizes–it cannot always be done–and it requires a tremendously talented tailor. Fortunately, our head tailor, Mary, is ridiculously talented. Let’s see what happens.

The first thing she’ll do is reduce the coat from the center back seam. If the coat were just a little big, one might only do that and call it a day (although it usually works better to divide the amount between the two side seams to accentuate the waistline). In this case, the coat is huge, so Mary will have to pin all three seams.

Next, Mary hits the side seams. Unfortunately for Brad, Mary will have to recut the side vents, which is more work (and more money). But any job worth doing is worth doing well, so Brad is willing to make the investment because in the end, it will be worth it.

Some of you may be wondering, “How much will all this work cost?”

Well, it varies with the scope of the work. In this case here, Brad’s looking at a tailoring bill of around $57, which is peanuts when you consider all of the time it takes to perform the fitting and the labor that follows. Trust us, we’re not paying the mortgage on our third vacation home with the dough we collect in tailoring. After overhead, it’s practically a public service. But when you see the final result below, ISN’T IT WORTH IT?! 

If you’re staring at a closetful of clothes that fit you poorly, call us for an appointment, and Mary will use her magic to transform you from a lowly caterpillar into a gorgeous butterfly, like Brad!

 

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Phase Three

As we ease into Phase Three in Massachusetts, Main Street Formals is pleased to announce that we have expanded our hours to six days per week (essentially a return to the hours we held for most of the last 15 years). Appointments are still strongly encouraged, and they are REQUIRED for any business that necessitates the use of a dressing room. Per MA law, face coverings are still required.

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