It's high time we claimed the Tuxedo as an androgynous outfit. To that end, we at Watson Ellis have been focusing a lot of our efforts lately on developing both our line of Tuxedo fabrics with women specifically in mind, and our methods of fitting tuxedos on women's bodies of all shapes and sizes.

In New York we’re spoiled for choice in so many ways, including in the department of custom suiting where there are many options to choose from. Some of these options are great — a lot of our competitors do a great job. Some of these options are not so great.

Tuxedos look simply amazing on women - they can flatter our bodies, make us look strong and confidant, and sexy at the same time. I mean, Bianca Jagger wore a tuxedo-hybrid to her wedding, and I struggle to think of a better look than that.

It's time to forget the old script whereby men dressed one way and women dressed another. The times they are a changin' in fashion, as one would hope they are in many other respects as well. We're certainly in a more free wheeling era now, where styles are more fluid and androgynous. We are not, or at least we should not be, limited by proscribed gender roles in terms of clothing. Some women want to wear suits or tuxedos to their weddings, for example, which is where we at WATSON ELLIS come in!

Making the highest quality women's custom tuxedos, suits, blazers, overcoats, shirts: that's a huge part of our company goal. We want women - and all people, really - to feel like exquisite custom wear is a viable option for them, as it has been for men since time immemoriam.

For me, one of the biggest motivators behind starting a custom clothing company was sustainability. I’ve worked for some of the biggest ready-to-wear brands in the world, and it was hard not to be aware of the amount of waste and pollution they were producing every day. Picture mountains of unsold clothes.

Obviously there are some amazing players in the world of NYC custom tailored suits. But we’ve also noticed recently that there are several other companies out there operating under false pretenses.

If you're a woman, buying a great custom tailored suit in New York is a pretty difficult proposition. There are plenty of tailoring companies out there, many of whom offer custom options for women. But most NY tailors are just simply not setup to properly accommodate women.