A FINE TOOTH is a menswear salon and workshop.
We have ideas about things and then we make those things, usually clothes.
Here’s some of our press:
JAMES-DANDY
944 MAGAZINE, September 2008
Reprinted from 944 Magazine, September 2008:
http://www.944.com/articles/3231/
James-Dandy
A Designer Makes A Fine Mess of Things
by Mickey Glass
Don’t tell James Kessler you wear a large. He doesn’t believe in sizes. In fact, he thinks it’s the worst thing to happen to fashion since the leisure suit. “It’s a dummying down of apparel for us to put it in these categories rather than informing consumers of what their true body dimensions are,” he says. His company, A Fine Tooth, offers custom-made, fitted men’s trousers (whimsically called Dandy Pants), as well as vintage luxury items for men. “I think vintage elements speak more, where the fashions of the day say one thing: ‘I’m up to date; this is what’s smart now.’” But, of course, true vintage style isn’t as easy as tossing on a throwback jersey.
944: A Fine Tooth sounds like a barbershop or dental office. It’s almost frightening. What were your ideas behind this name?
JAMES KESSLER: I get those two things all the time. It came from several different places, which is why it rang true and works on several different levels. I remember I was saying one time that a beer had a certain kind of tooth to it. And we had this conversation about a stout or a porter, something that would have a chunky tooth, and a pilsner would have a fine tooth. It was a method of describing the degree of granularity of something. That became a term that I used more often and when I would look at clothing, a pattern that was very dense would have a fine tooth as opposed to something that had fewer repeats and a larger pattern, which would be a wider tooth or a larger tooth. In addition to that, it was appropriate because finding a vintage collection — a good one — is like finding a needle in haystack, so that’s similar to using a fine-toothed comb to go through things. Finally, when I started I was mostly interested in the ’20s and ’30s era and there’s that Oliver Hardy thing where they would say, “What another fine mess he’s got me into,” and I could tell this was going to be a fine mess.
If I were asked to describe your style, I’d say it looked like a marriage between the closets of Clark Kent and Max Fischer from Rushmore. How would you describe your style?
Those are pretty close approximations of the style. I am definitely inspired by Wes Anderson movies. His characters all seem to have fallen from grace somewhat compared to previous family generations, so in this way, I see them as uniquely American and therefore American vintage clothing figures heavily in their repertoire. Wes Anderson does a great job of storytelling with clothing, as he does on many other levels. I realize a lot of the credit goes to his wardrobe stylists and art directors, but I think all of those basics were already there in Bottle Rocket.
A lot of tourists come to Vegas, dress up and try to show off their style, and end up looking like clowns. What goes through your mind when you see people like this?
[Laughs] Well, I have an opinion and a response to all those people dressing exuberantly while they’re on our streets. I am happy that people come here and try to express something different from the day to day, and that’s mostly because I moved here from San Francisco, because I shop here more than anywhere else and got the most lucky. I would find classic wardrobes from men — because it’s a retirement capital and was for many years. When older gentlemen died, I would luck out at an estate sale or thrift store and get all of those great suits, you know, by Hart Schaffner Marx and Hickey Freeman or something for this one gentleman in this one size. Then I would find a crazy jacket. The guy that went to the Sy Devore, the Rat Pack’s tailor, and got his own jacket made for him. There are many, many fashion mistakes and some of those mistakes are more charming than any other thing that that guy would have worn. So when I see people dressing like that, I think that’s absolutely necessary for what I do.
What’s wrong with the way America dresses?
Apparel wise, I think we’re pretty far from another evolutionary course, which we could have taken and just didn’t. You know, we had this great boom mid-century, and we were the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world. But when the post-war era hit, we became slaves to trends and fashions. And this happened in basically every industry, the auto industry being the best example with tail fins. It just became more important to be up to the minute and fashionable and to express cultural knowledge with brands and easily identifiable aspects of dress.
You’ve dressed many musicians.
Musicians are generally easy to work with, and fun. But when people refer to what I do as “dressing” musicians, I feel awkward about that and must demure because musicians can dress themselves. By and large, musicians have a strong sense of culture and usually a sense of personal style, especially musicians who tour and play a lot. The stage is a great testing ground for fashion. I’ve worked with Devendra Banhart and his cohorts such as Noah Georgeson and Andy Cabic, and the guys from Vetiver, OK Go, Of Montreal and the list goes on. I think of myself as simply supplying clothes. It’s a division of labor thing. While I’m out shopping every day, musicians have to tour and play and write new music. They appreciate what I do, which is nice, and I certainly appreciate what they do — as music and film are my big inspirations.
Do you ever slob around town in sweatpants and a wife-beater?
Yes and no. Never sweatpants [laughs]. But there’s that saying that the cobbler’s son has the worst shoes. It is 105 degrees here through much of the summer. So to put more than one layer on is absurd. I can be found in a T-shirt or a button-down and a pair of jeans. I try to keep something in there — a pair of socks or a watch — just to say I’m hanging on.
Artists have a bunch of rejections before refining their craft. Describe the ugliest pants you’ve ever made.
Wow. I would hate for people to know. I have both made stuff that I have rejected and have collected stuff where later I was like, “What the hell was I thinking?” There’s this book called Worst Fashions, which looks back at vintage eras and points those things out, like the leisure suit. How did we end up at the leisure suit? I have definitely seen things in that book that I have collected at one time or another. When we were first doing trials of our pants, during that premium denim era, I thought, “What would my style be translated into a jean pocket?” I made a few attempts at ornate back pockets and it’s just a joke. When I see it, it makes me cringe.
Why does your portrait of a modern man, at least when it comes to fashion, contain so many elements from the past?
Because I have a sense of my clients as smart, working individuals who are coming to terms with a new era in our country. It’s just a different time. We must be Renaissance men; we must address the constantly changing landscape in front of us. So, therefore, I see my client as someone who must constantly come to terms with their environment. Vintage is best when it isn’t used slavishly. You’re not just trying to look like the 1980s punk. You’re judiciously using elements from the past. William Wordsworth said poetry “takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” As far as dressing in vintage is concerned, I see it as a revisiting of the past with new knowledge.
- Mickey Glass
SUITABLY FITTED
VEGAS MAGAZINE, September 2008
Reprinted from Vegas Magazine, September 2008:
SUITABLY FITTED by Shelby Allison McGee
Photographs by Thomas Muscionico
VEGAS STYLEMAKER
“Now that I knew what fit me, I started becoming interested in suits that were custom made.”
SUITABLY FITTED
During a trip to India, James Kessler fell in love with a suit – and went on to form on-line vintage store A Fine Tooth, providing bespoke menswear for rock stars and style hounds alike
James Kessler didn’t buy his first real suit until the age of 31. Now, a short five years later, the proprietor of A Fine Tooth has his own patented apparel-fitting software and a list of celebrity clients that include Sean Lennon, Vincent Gallo and Devendra Banhart. Of course, these are all individuals perfectly capable of dressing themselves, but they also understand the importance their image has in the public eye. They know what they want – great clothes – but they just don’t have the time to find them. This is where Kessler comes in: He is happy to show up and bring the goods.
Kessler wasn’t born the sartorial whiz he is today. After attending Ohio State University on an engineering scholarship, he followed the dot-com gold rush to San Francisco, in 2003, soon becoming the CEO of a successful interactive-web-development agency. “Those were crazy days, and we were bound to fail,” remembers Kessler. “But you learn a lot while you’re failing. I learned a lot about how capital works.” Just as the tech bubble was bursting, a photographer approached Kessler in his neighborhood cafe and asked him to do some modeling. “I was always this brainiac software designer,” Kessler says. “Normally I’d be hunched over a desk – I wasn’t really comfortable being in the spotlight.” As luck would have it, that photographer was the husband of Levi’s global marketing director, and Kessler went on to make his living striking poses for a number of international campaigns, including one for Levi’s, over the next year and a half.
Having stepped away from the web- and software-development industry, Kessler realized it was no longer a business he loved. “I definitely wanted to run my own company again, but I didn’t want to get into bed with another venture capitalist who would eventually steal the company from me,” he says. So Kessler needed to find a business he could start on his own with very capital, and one that was also a line of work he wouldn’t tire of day after day.
Enter the first real suit he ever bought: an off-the-rack, black, three-button traveler’s suit by Prada, purchased for a trip to India. “The only thing I really took away from the trip was how much I loved that suit,” says Kessler. Upon returning to San Francisco – and to the realization that he would be paying for that suit a while longer – he began to frequent local thrift stores for vintage suits. Modeling had taught him many things about clothing, especially the importance of fit. “Now that I knew what fit me, I started to become interested in suits that were custom made for other people, bespoke suits,” says Kessler. Yet the occasion to wear a suit was so rare that, even at $10 or $20 apiece, these thrift-store suits were an indulgence. Nonetheless, it wasn’t long before the front room of his apartment was filled with racks of suits; Kessler had become a full-fledged collector.
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Image Caption: Following the dot-com bust, James Kessler made his living modeling for a number of international campaigns, before starting A Fine Tooth. “I’m back to software, but it’s all about apparel,” he says.
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Quote: Kessler had become a full-fledged suit collector.
Image Caption: Clockwise from top left: Kessler (left) helps a buyer find the proper fit; client Devendra Banhart; he dressed the band OK Go for their New Year’s Eve performance in New York; A Fine Tooth also has shoes and accessories; Kessler styled Sung Kang (with Nathalie Kelley) for the premier of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
With his 15 minutes of modeling fame quickly running out, the burning question in Kessler’s mind became, What am I going to do for money? The answer was staring him right in the face: “I had all these suits; people would come over and I could easily sell them for $200 each, not to mention the accessories,” he says. “These were things I was digging out of bins for a dollar apiece – the margin of return wasn’t bad!”
As Kessler began providing his friends’ bands with suits for promotional shoots, word of his good work quickly spread and, with a tiny webpage and a handful of business cards, A Fine Tooth was born, “The name seemed appropriate for what I was doing. I was searching through thrift stores with a fine toothed comb,” Kessler explains. “I also liked how it sounded like something that came from the 1920’s or 30’s, when suits were made with much more care and people knew what fit was.”
Fast-forward to December 2005. “I had all these tuxedos that I had collected” remembers Kessler. “So I sent out this mass-email to all the bands I knew, saying, I’ve got a ton of tuxedos with cummerbunds and crazy shit, let me dress you for your New Year’s Eve gig.” One of the bands was OK Go, who was in New York City to play in Times Square for Jimmy Kimmel Live! “They had just done this back-yard-dance video, and they dressed in clothes exactly like the dandy-ish, Rococo, layered and patterned pieces that I had in my collection.” He bought a ticket, packed up all of his suits and flew to New York. Later, watching the band perform on a JumboTron in front of 1.2 million people, Kessler realized he had found his calling.
Kessler moved to Las Vegas after several trips to the Valley revealed the city was ripe with vintage treasures. “The pickings were always good here. There wasn’t as much competition in Las Vegas as there was in San Francisco,” Kessler explains. “I would be much closer to Los Angeles, the only place all the artists I was working with were sure to show up. Also, I’m a night owl, so I could run to any number of super stores in the middle of the night for shipping materials or clothing racks, which isn’t something I could do in San Francisco. I needed a place where I could go and just work all the time. Las Vegas has turned out to be that place.”
While styling indie band Of Montreal for press photos with the help of Las Vegas-raised, L.A.-based stylist Marcus Paglialonga, Kessler enlisted San Francisco tailor Todd Hudson to construct the theatrical costumes they had designed. “He was meticulous,” raves Kessler. He was so pleased with Hudson’s work that Kessler approached him with another collaborative project, one that is sure to revolutionize on-line vintage-shopping. “I started a fitting system that is based on anthropometric data collected by the U.S. Army,” Kessler explains. The system lets people give basic information on-line – height, weight, age – and automatically receive an accurate, full-body fitting.
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Quote: “Fashion is what is trendy. Style is the ability to look good no matter what. A person with style can make something out of nothing.”
After developing patterns and sourcing fabrics, Kessler put the “bottom half” of the program on AFineTooth.com, and, together with Hudson, began to offer custom-fitted trousers through the website. “You can’t find vintage trousers. You can always find the tops of suits but never the bottoms,” Kessler says. “So we decided to make trousers that had that 1960’s Beatles-on-Carnaby Street look, concentrating on providing a good fit.”
In addition to A Fine Tooth, Kessler has taken his online fitting system and parlayed it into the world’s first fit based vintage search engine, which will be launched at Zeen.me (an on-line, buy-sell-trade community), in time for fall. Sellers enter the precise measurements of the pieces they’re trying to sell, and buyers use Kessler’s program to give themselves a fitting. Once all the information is entered, buyers are shown all the clothing that is sure to fit them. From there, the search results can be refined further to include specific items. Even better, the results are constantly updated and deliverable by e-mail or an RSS web feed, such as Google Reader. “I’m back to software, but it’s all about apparel – so I love it,” Kessler says.
With all that technology, Kessler’s business is built on a number of core beliefs. “You can wear the most exquisite item from the hands of Yves Saint Laurent himself, and if it doesn’t fit you, you look like a fool. You’d be much better off wearing something from a thrift store for $15 that fits you well.” Second, wearing vintage is not akin to slavishly reliving the past. Last, and perhaps most important, it’s not about fashion; it’s about style. “Fashion is what is trendy. Style is the ability to look good no matter what. A person with style can make something out of nothing – they can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
- Shelby Allison Mcgee
FINE AND DANDY
Racket Magazine, April 2007
Reprinted from APR 07 issue of RACKET MAGAZINE
‘LABEL WHORE’ by Jennifer Henry
A closet stuffed with vintage suits does not a dandy make. Nor is every rocker endowed with an ear for harmonies and an eye for flattering fits. Style, like every artful endeavor, does not come solely from the elements that comprise it, nor the personality of the purveyor, but from their apt application and careful combination. Fashion is simple. Style takes talent.
At Racket, we think hiring a stylist ain’t prissy, it’s pretty frickin’ swank. Our friend James Kessler and his better vintage salon—A FINE TOOTH—have created styles to suit the likes of OK Go, Vincent Gallo and Sean Lennon. He’s traveled across the globe to Tokyo’s Summer Sonic Festival, palled around with our favorite indie rockers, of Montreal and combed through Vegas thrift stores to offer only the best in throwback tailoring.
With a jet-set schedule, including New Year’s Eve 2006 in Times’ Square, an enviable posse of creative contributors, and star-studded hotel parties and private sales, Kessler admits he’s been “forever spoiled for any kind of honest work.” Hell, lugging suitcases through the muck an hour before showtimes, scouting for shipping supplies past midnight to ensure next-day delivery and crafting all of his own media including YouTube commercials sounds like genuine employment to us.
If the styles shown here tickle your fancy, check out A Fine Tooth’s website, www.afinetooth.com, or take the OK Go approach and make MySpace friends at www.myspace.com/afinetooth to arrange for a consultation, browse the online store and soak up some style.
- Jennifer Henry
