As soon as I walked into Heights + Kenchi, I knew that I had discovered something special. Old photos and outdated maps lined the walls, and battered trunks were stacked artfully on the hardwood floors. A faded dartboard and a banjo completed the old-fashioned, masculine décor.
As much as I loved the atmosphere, it was the clothing at Heights + Kenchi that really caught my eye. I admired button-down shirts with bold patterns, Italian linen ties in soft pastel colors, and pocket squares and boutonnieres made in-house by visual director Charles Bryant. And of course, I marveled at the centerpiece of Heights + Kenchi: the bespoke suits.
I chatted a bit with Charles, a former ceramics teacher who makes cosplay costumes in his spare time. He explained that while made-to-measure suits start out in standard sizes and are then adjusted to fit the wearer, bespoke suits are custom-made for each client. As a result, the bespoke process is quite complicated: first, the client undergoes full-body measurements, and then the suit is made locally, with fabrics from the UK and Italy. Next, in the draping stages, the client tries on the unfinished suit and the tailor pins and adjusts the fabric for the best possible fit.
After learning the ins and outs of bespoke suits, I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Kenchi, the store’s founder. Growing up in New York City, he told me, he developed an interest in fashion at a young age. “Especially during high school,” he said, “I was always thinking about the way clothes can define people.” His parents were also an important influence—as a child, he spent hours watching them tailor their own clothes, both by hand and with a sewing machine.
Mr. Kenchi’s first position in the fashion industry, a summer internship at a menswear company, soon turned into a seven-year job. He quickly built up an impressive resume, with jobs at several different companies and stints in Montreal, Italy, and the UK. But all the while, he wanted to start his own business, and after fifteen years, he decided that the time had come. “If I didn’t start then,” he told me, “I knew I would just keep making excuses.”
At first, Mr. Kenchi traveled from client to client, taking measurements in their offices. “I was like a barber,” he told me. “My clients would tell me about their personal lives and we would become friends.” Many of these clients followed Mr. Kenchi to Clinton Street, where he opened his first fitting room in 2013. Though he had started out making only shirts, he soon expanded his clothing line to include suits for both men and women.
In 2015, after two years on Clinton Street, Heights + Kenchi moved to 5th Street. Just a year later, the store relocated to 9th Street. The décor is different, Mr. Kenchi told me, but everything else is the same. Clients are still encouraged to ask as many questions as they want—“when you’re buying an expensive suit, you want to know what you’re getting”—and to just stick around and chat. “At other places, you’re in and out,” Mr. Kenchi told me. “But here, we try to be much more friendly.”
Before I left, I asked Mr. Kenchi about the designers who have most influenced his style. He told me that he doesn’t like to narrow it down, because he finds inspiration everywhere, but if he had to pick a favorite style, it would be sapeurs, “a West African dandy look that plays with bright colors.” But he insisted that that was not the only direction he wanted to take—now that he has settled down on 9th Street, he plans to keep developing his creative voice and pushing the boundaries of his clothing line. “I had a job once,” he told me, “but what I’m doing now is a dream.”
