A Touch of Class at Sir Ludovic, Bucharest, Romania

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Bucharest, Romania for a busy week of work, planning the Ubuntu 17.04 (Zesty) cycle.

I did have a Saturday and Sunday to myself, which I spent mostly walking around the beautiful, old city. After visiting the Romanian Athenaeum, I quite randomly stumbled into one truly unique experience. I passed a window shop for "Sir Ludovic Master Suit Maker" which somehow caught my eye.

I travel quite a bit on business, and you'll typically find me wearing a casual sports coat, a button up shirt, nice jeans, cowboy boots, and sometimes cuff links. But occasionally, I feel a little under-dressed, especially in New York City, where a dashing suit still rules the room.

Frankly, everything I know about style and fashion I learned from Derek Zoolander. Just kidding. Mostly.

Anyway, I owned two suits. One that I bought in 2004, for that post-college streak of weddings, and a seersucker suit (which is dandy in New Orleans and Austin, but a bit irreverent for serious client meetings on Wall Street).

So I stepped into Sir Ludovic, merely as a curiosity, and walked out with the most rewarding experience of my week in Romania. Augustin Ladar, the master tailor and proprietor of the shop, greeted me at the door. We then spent the better part of 3 hours, selecting every detail, from the fabrics, to the buttons, to the stylistic differences in the cut and the fit.

Better yet, I absorbed a wealth of knowledge on style and fashion: when to wear blue and when to wear grey, why some people wear pin stripes and others wear checks, authoritative versus friendly style, European versus American versus Asian cuts, what the heck herringbone is, how to tell if the other guy is also wearing hand tailored attire, and so on...

Augustin measured me for two custom tailored suits and two bespoke shirts, on a Saturday. I picked them up 6 days later on a Friday afternoon (paying a rush service fee).

Wow. Simply, wow. Splendid Italian wool fabric, superb buttons, eye-catching color shifting inner linings, and an impeccably precise fit.

I'm headed to New York for my third trip since, and I've never felt more comfortable and confident in these graceful, classy suits. A belated thanks to Augustin. Fabulous work!

Cheers,
Dustin