B Black Sons

From its roots in the sartorial bastions of Old Hollywood to trend-setting Melrose boutiques, the bespoke movement is spreading among Los Angeles designers. You can see it in the cut, the drape and the weave of the fabrics. Two worlds--the conservative and the visionary--are feeding off each other. The notion of bespoke--or made-to-order garments--for years dusty and antiquated, is being refreshed and redefined by a new generation of designers.

From its roots in the sartorial bastions of Old Hollywood to trend-setting Melrose boutiques, the bespoke movement is spreading among Los Angeles designers. You can see it in the cut, the drape and the weave of the fabrics. Two worlds--the conservative and the visionary--are feeding off each other. The notion of bespoke--or made-to-order garments--for years dusty and antiquated, is being refreshed and redefined by a new generation of designers.

WINDOWS dressed in wool with a neat pleat and deep side vents? Not quite, but men's suiting materials -- elegant worsteds, tropical-weight gabardines and other Savile Row woolens long revered for the way they drape the human body -- are increasingly designers' choice for dressing windows. "Wool is just a spectacular fabric," says designer Mark Cutler, whose West Hollywood-based company is known for its contemporary-traditionalist style.