Nestled down a shady block on New York City’s Upper East Side, just off Madison Avenue, sits a two-room menswear boutique called the Armoury. Inside, a group of enthusiasts has gathered to drink whiskey cocktails and smoke cigars. They don’t all know each other, exactly, but everyone there is a devoted follower of Yamamoto-san (aka Tailor Caid), a jovial Japanese suitmaker who normally works out of the Shibuya district in Tokyo.
Yamamoto-san shows fabrics to men and women who wait for months for his biannual visits. They come because he talks to them (through translators) about suits and jackets in a way that doesn’t address what they need the suit for, as much as who they are.