Ladies, it’s time to suit up.
It’s shaping up to be the year of the women’s power suit, as the masculine look takes over femme fashion from the runway to the red carpet — with everyone from Rihanna to first lady Melania Trump flaunting their figures in dude-centric duds.
NYC-based custom suit tailor Melissa Watson Ellis said recent high-profile appearances of the look have led to a “massive uptick” in female clientele at her Chelsea atelier, with ladies now making up half of her customer base — a stark contrast from five to 10 years ago.
“A custom tailor is not usually something that women have been known to do. Way back in the day, it would be couture, so you would go to a dressmaker,” Watson Ellis told The Post, adding that tailoring was “a man’s world.”
But now, women are “coming in droves.”
“It shouldn’t be understated that the fact that this exists in the market now is a massive evolution,” she said. “Custom suits have been the domain of men exclusively for so long. Not anymore.”
From RiRi’s camel-colored, double-breasted Saint Laurent blazer — worn to her 37th birthday party — to the glam gear sported by the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Demi Moore and Ayo Edebiri in recent months, or Nicole Kidman in her oversized tan suit paired with a striped shirt and patterned tie at the Critics Choice Awards, celebs are all in on the look.
Trump has even adopted menswear as her work uniform, sporting expert tailoring in her official White House portrait — and, in a recent public appearance, a tan, three-piece ensemble.
Meanwhile, at the fall/winter 2025 fashion shows, major labels from Casablanca and Calvin Klein to Givenchy and Stella McCartney could all be seen leaning into the style.
If the A-list-hits-the-C-suite look is inspiring you to shop for your own suit, Ellis has some advice. While you can find an array of middle-tier blazers and trousers off the rack, she believes that expert tailoring is something “you can’t fake.”
“Not everyone can just fit in clothes off the rack,” Ellis said. “Not everyone feels comfortable wearing a dress or feels comfortable, for that matter, wearing a dress to work.”
In other words, if you can afford it, take a visit to a tailor.
Ellis’ expertise comes at a cost — two-piece suits created with entry-level fabrics start at $1,850, and the average cost for her most commonly designed suits is $2,300 to $2,500.
Or, if that isn’t in the budget, there are some things to look for when determining if a suit from the department store will do.
“Tailoring a suit is actually really pricey,” NYC stylist Liz Teich told The Post. “So it’s important to get a suit that fits off the rack or if you are on a budget.”
Does that blazer suit you?
“Shoulders are really important because they frame your body,” Ellis said, adding that the right jacket should feel like “getting a hug.”
Smaller people should avoid “too big and wide of shoulders,” she explained, while taller people who have a boxier body and want to look “more hourglass” should opt for wider shoulders.
“If you’re shorter, you don’t want to have a jacket that goes way past your crotch line because it’s just going to eat up your legs and make your legs look really short,” she explained.
The outermost point of the shoulder should skim the outside of the arm, and the sleeves should not fall past where the thumb meets the palm.
In fact, the trendy “oversized” look could make some women look as if they’re swimming in their suits and will not stand the test of time.
“Getting a massive, David Byrne-type jacket — we’re not going to be wearing that for 10 years, and it’s not attractive on everyone,” she said.
Oversized suiting, she added, is a “balance” — an approach she takes with all custom pieces — and even those looks on runways and red carpets are expertly tailored, large in the shoulders but “nipped” in the waist.
Don’t let pants go to waist
Cropped or tapered trousers make the legs look short — and if you’re already vertically challenged, that could be a detriment.
To create the illusion of height, Ellis recommends trying straight-leg, flare or boot-cut pants.
“It opens up so it can fit over your shoe, and then wearing a little bit of a boot … will elongate your legs,” she explained.
Ellis said that, when creating a suit, she prefers the body to “look proportional” with the illusion of “half torso, half legs.”
If she makes a feminine-style pant, such as a fitted or flare leg, she’ll choose a boxier, longer jacket. On the flip side, she might pair a pleated, flowy trouser with a fitted jacket with three buttons instead of two, which makes the waist fit tighter to accentuate curves.
“Some people are really long-waisted but have short legs, curves, you know — all of that. If you have boobs, forget about buying a blazer, especially a double-breasted blazer. Like, that’s what we specialize in, is curves and boobs.”
Suit yourself
Stylist Teich has a few tricks up her sleeve to make a store-bought suit look couture.
- When picking the right suit jacket, “the biggest thing to look for is the construction,” she told The Post. Shoulder pad puckering, misaligned patterns and cheap-looking hardware are, at first glance, dead giveaways that a blazer isn’t quality.
- In terms of fit, “the most important thing I would say is probably to make sure the suit fits in your shoulders and fits around the widest part of your body because those are the hardest things to tailor,” Teich said.
- If the sleeves are too long, she recommends folding the sleeves under if there are no buttons or “fake a ruched sleeve” if there are fastenings on the wrist. To do that, she takes a safety pin and pins it to the lining of the sleeve so that it looks as if she pushed up the sleeves.
- And, if a blazer is too oversized in the waist, she advises belting it — not only does it make it look fitted in the midsection, but it also elevates the entire look.
- “If you’re busty, I would probably go with something that doesn’t compete with your bust because a thicker belt sometimes can be a little bit too high of a proportion,” she said, adding that, if a belt for pants is used and is too long, it can be knotted so it “doesn’t flop around.”
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