Dressing Mr. Grey

“Ana,” as she’s known in E.L. James’ erotic bestselling novel, watches Grey unbutton his single-breasted jacket, revealing the silk tie he used to bind her wrists to her headboard a few nights prior, and nearly loses it.

Hot and bothered as she might be in her cap and gown, Ana does well to note that Grey, the title character from “Fifty Shades of Grey,” would never be caught dead in an off-the-rack suit. If clothes make the man, “this guy wouldn’t have a brand,” costume designer Mark Bridges said recently.

Instead, Bridges commissioned Los Angeles bespoke tailor Johnathan Behr to build custom suits for actor Jamie Dornan, who plays the successful CEO of Grey Enterprises Holdings with a sexual appetite for bondage and discipline in the film adaptation of the book, opening Friday.

Behr’s job was to translate Bridges’ vision into suits befitting a young tycoon whose controlling demeanor imbues every aspect of his character. Behr knows the character well. Grey may be a fantasy, but he embodies the latest generation of men embracing the impeccably tailored suit as a status symbol.

Bespoke tailoring tends to appeal to the Christian Grey type: a “control freak,” in Ana’s words, who enjoys making personalized style choices with the help of a master tailor, creating a one-of-a-kind suit.

Behr knows the type well: a man with a “fanatical” interest in his personal style who has the means to step up his game through custom or bespoke suiting. The difference between the two is often reflected in the price tag. In bespoke suiting, which typically starts in the four-figure range, a master tailor creates a unique pattern based on the client’s preferences. Custom-made suits, which tend to start in the triple digits, are tailored to fit your body from an existing pattern.

What’s the appeal? The ability to steer the outcome, Behr said — a characteristic that fans of the trilogy will immediately identify with Grey in his pursuit of naive Ana.

“Once a client has experience choosing their own fabric, lining and buttons and goes through the process of the basted fittings and the delivery of the finished product, they never go back to the ready-to-wear world,” Behr said.

“The reason is control.”

CNN