A Tailored Approach
The first thing you notice upon entering Pedro Rubio, a new men’s boutique directly underneath City Yoga on the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, is how little clothing there is.
The scarcity isn’t a matter of pretense and excessive editing by its namesake owner, however. Even if it were, Rubio has the pedigree to back it up. A former Chanel window dresser, he’s come face-to-face—literally separated by only a pane of glass—with Karl Lagerfeld. Picture Pedro, on his knees, decorating fashion's holiest windows: "I remember [Lagerfeld] had just pulled up to the store," Rubio recalls. "He walked up to the window, pulled down his fan and smiled nicely and waved. I also remember being with him in the elevator, and him saying how much he hated the lighting."
Karl no longer totes around his fan (nor the added 100 pounds that he used to cloak in Yamamoto), and Rubio is no longer at Chanel, where he worked for 10 years at both Rodeo Drive and South Coast Plaza locations. Now he's building a menswear line, and his real prowess perhaps rests in his tailoring.
Rubio is the brand of perfectionist tailor that I haven’t been able to find at any dry cleaner in L.A., and his shop is equal parts showcase for an emerging sportswear line and an atelier for his customers in need of perfect-fitting jeans, statement studded T-shirts and, coming soon, Rubio's own line of evening wear.
The Fairfax storefront of Pedro Rubio in West Hollywood.
While others may notice the outfit or hairstyle of a customer entering a shop, Rubio is the sort of man who is likely analyzing just how much your shoulder slopes. The passion for proper fit was a product of childhood, he says. "I decided to go into menswear tailoring when i was about 10, as I could not find clothes that fit me the way I saw fashion to be," Rubio says. "So I went to Los Angeles Trade Technical College and studied menswear tailoring. Only FIT in New York and LATTC taught a four-year menswear tailoring program at the time."
A fall piece from Rubio's menswear collection.
After consulting with him, I thought of all the unworn clothes, as Edina once said, just "hanging limp in my flimsy wardrobe." So I immediately decided I'd surrender a Ralph Lauren blazer (too long for a night-at-Tower Bar look with jeans) and a Reiss trench coat (also too long and rather formless) for him to do some magic on. Look out for the results on our blog in a few weeks.
Rubio spared no expense with mannequins from legendary Rootstein in New York.
Pedro Rubio Tailored, 1065 N. Fairfax Ave ,West Hollywood, 323.650.0123