The Grotto Menswear — Attraction in El Segundo

The Grotto came highly recommended to me from a friend who had a stellar experience working with them for their wedding. This was my first time getting a custom suit and very excited to have a tailed fit for my upcoming wedding. My fiancée and I met with Danny - the showroom manager - for the initial consultation and had a great time looking through fabric books and visualizing our wedding day together. We set up a second appointment for 2 months later for the measurements and fitting. I flew my father in that weekend to be with me to finalize the look. When we went back in to meet with Danny, he wasn’t there. I met with another Grotto colleague who didn’t really know the reason for my return. I brought a shirt and black bow tie to test some looks, based on Danny’s suggestion from the consultation. Instead, we went back through the fabric books like the first time. I knew the fabric I wanted and asked about doing measurements - he said there was no point in doing measurements since I’d be doing them again later. I asked why, and he said I would have to do them later to get the proper fitting, which was odd since I was there for the fitting - so I thought. I brought in a Pinterest look book with the inspiration to show what I was looking for. I realized there was a mistake and somehow this ended up being a second consultation. The only question mark on the suit details was a custom pattern I wanted on the inner jacket lining - a detail I wanted to go over with my fiancée - which could be emailed to them that same day, otherwise I was ready to get the suit started. Instead, we set up another appointment for a month later to do the fitting.

I left feeling puzzled and confused at a wasted appointment. Later that night I emailed Danny to ask where he was, how the confusion happened, and how we can get another appointment before my father left town. He called me the next day and we spoke for a few minutes, however, the phone call was upsetting. Danny said he passed me along to his colleague while he was overseeing another store - I wish I was informed before returning for the follow up that I would not be meeting with him. I told Danny my father flew in from out of town to be with me for the fitting at the store and how confused I was at the purpose of that visit. He spoke to me like a police officer getting a witness statement and made the story into a drama where he said “I am getting one story from my colleague and a different story from you”. It was condescending. He didn’t listen to me nor was he apologetic. The whole debacle, although frustrating and annoying, would otherwise be forgivable were it not for this - he kept calling my fiancée my “girlfriend”. Despite meeting her personally for an hour during our consultation and being very aware of the nature of our relationship and reason for coming to the Grotto in the first place, he did not have the care to remember who she was - I was baffled. For a custom suit company specializing in wedding attire, it would be an understatement to call this a faux pas. Clearly he did not care about me, my fiancée, and definitely not my business. I see all the 5-star reviews and I know that people have gone there and had great experiences, however, my experience was a huge let down. It started well, then dropped like a rock. I hope no one feels this insulted or has a...

This is a heavily, heavily caveated 3 stars due to factors both negative and positive in huge ways. If they hadn't come through in the end it'd be a 1 star for sure. I'm still not even sure if 3 stars is too many.

We had our wedding in early August. To try and get a head start, we began the process with Grotto Menswear in March. Plenty of time right? Well, read on.

The design & measuring process was fine. No notes. Very standard, showroom folks were helpful. I ordered a three piece suit with a double breasted vest.

The suit comes back from the factory a couple weeks later and we come in for first our fit check. Immediately we notice the vest does not have buttons sewn on. Weird, but easy fix.

The back of the jacket had a strange bunching of fabric going on at the armpit, probably from some issue with the construction or measurement. We voiced concerns about it. My wife did her master's thesis on a fashion-related topic and makes custom dresses as a hobby, and in her opinion the issue would not be resolved with just tailoring. The manager pushed back hard on our concerns and we relented to see how it looked after a round of tailoring.

At the second fit check, not only did the vest still not have buttons on it, but the tailoring failed to address the problem. We asked again about getting the jacket remade. The manager downplayed our concerns and tried to make it seem like it wasn't that bad. I have had off the rack suits without this problem. We strongly urged them to remake the jacket.

At the third fit check, the vest still did not have buttons, and they had clearly done nothing to the suit.

A lot of time had passed between the fit checks and there was little to no communication. Our margin for delays had dwindled to a much tighter timeline.

We had to get very aggressive about advocating for the quality of our outcome and insisted they remake the jacket. At this point there was less than a month to go before the wedding.

To their credit, they did finally take extra care to remeasure me and did put in a rush order to remake the jacket. The remade jacket came from the factory fitting well and did not have the issue. There were other very minor issues but they came through and had the entire suit ready for us, with all the buttons on it and fitting great, about 1.5 weeks before the wedding. They were nice enough to throw in a minor upgrade to the jacket's configuration as well. They pulled out all the stops and made an effort to stay in contact during this period, finally.

But by god was it ever NOT a good feeling having the outcome in doubt for so long, and feeling like they were OK with us walking out the door with a shoddy product if it meant closing the sale. I understand that the showroom staff are probably incentivized to do this, but frankly, telling me you're "in the red" on my suit is not my...

ABOVE AND BEYOND! Those are the main words I would use for Grotto and their incredible customer service. I was in a 5-6 week tight squeeze for finding a custom suit for my wedding (waiting until as close to as I could because of my shifting waistline and arm-size). I've been a loyal customer to Suit Supply the past 5 years but when they said they couldn't deliver in time I searched far and wide throughout LA and came upon the Grotto who promised they could get it done if I came in the next day for a VERY reasonable price. They also had tons of fabric options, which was especially nice because I was looking for a double breasted, linen suit.

Boom - In and out of their nice space in El Segundo had a great measurement with their staff. A few weeks later they gave me a notice saying there was a delay with some fabric which might effect delivery time. I was starting to sweat, looking into back up options off the rack but Danny worked tirelessly to ensure that it made it in time for the wedding, covering all necessary international overnight shipping fees and literally driving the suit to my house in person to make sure it was delivered. Also (and most importantly) the suit fits GREAT! I can't recommend Grotto enough and will be going there from now on for all my suits (especially since their custom suits are pretty close in price to off the rack at...