Wilton custom clothing studio offers a different look

For Leslie Lewis, owner of Stailista at 848 Danbury Road, it allbegan with a party jacket. Mr. Lewis, also the owner of Les Arbres, a tree business, admitsthat it and his latest business venture, providing custom clothingto men and women, are hardly complementary. But a search severalyears ago for a party jacket led him to a New York tailor, AnthonyCorvetto, and was the seed of Stailista. “I never intended to get in this business,” said Mr.Lewis. “This whole thing has been so serendipitous.” Mr. Corvetto agreed to make the jacket for Mr. Lewis, but he wasinitially hesitant because of Mr. Lewis’s style, which isunconventional: use women’s fabric to make men’sclothing. “Maybe the boldest thing they would usually do would be a pinstriped suit,” said Mr. Lewis with a smile. But in the end, Mr. Corvetto was pleased with how the jacket turnedout and so was Mr. Lewis, so he decided to have a couple morepieces made. And that might have been the end of the story if notfor several clients of Mr. Corvetto’s asking him to makesimilar pieces for them when they saw what he had done for Mr.Lewis. Mr. Corvetto asked one of his clients why he liked the clothing somuch, since for 40 years he had been designing much moreconventional clothes for the client. The client responded that atthe stage in his career, he went to many philanthropic events andwanted to be noticed. “He said, ‘I want to look like the king now. Idon’t want to look like everyone else in the crowd,”said Mr. Lewis. Mr. Corvetto told Mr. Lewis there might be anuntapped market for his clothing, but Mr. Lewis countered that hereally knew nothing at all about fashion. But as this was happening, Mr. Lewis was getting many comments aswell. He said when he went out to dinner, strangers wouldfrequently approach him and ask who had made his suits. “I started thinking more seriously, maybe there is a marketgap,” said Mr. Lewis. Though he felt confident in his eye for what he liked, he lackedthe technical training necessary in the field of selling clothes,such as knowing whether one Terry Fabric was incompatible with another.But with the knowledge Mr. Corvetto had imparted, he decided to askMr. Corvetto to put him in touch with people to help him getstarted in the business. “I got this unbelievable education. He was a real mentor forme,” said Mr. Lewis of Mr. Corvetto. He eventually foundSuperior Clothing, a Canadian group, to help him make the clothes. “Everything is hand made,” said Mr. Lewis of theclothing made by the company. Because of that, the company makesabout 80 garments a month. He has been designing the clothes withthe help of Chrystal Acqua, a graduate of the Fashion Institute ofTechnology, who lends her technical training to the endeavor. “If there’s a market gap, we’ll find it,”said Mr. Lewis. In addition to the men’s clothing he hadinitially designed, he now has a women’s line as well. Once Mr. Lewis had located a manufacturer to make his clothing, heneeded a place to sell it. He started with trunk shows out of thehomes of clients of his tree business, but found that there simplywasn’t enough time to really showcase the clothing. He wanteda fixed location, but found rent in the area was quite high. And then luck stepped in again, in the form of a new building inthe process of being renovated on Route 7. He inquired with thelandlord and found that since there was limited parking, it wassuited for a business with not much foot traffic. Due toStailista’s nature, it sounded like an ideal situation forMr. Lewis. “I don’t really think of this as a boutique. It’smore like a studio where you show your wares,” said Mr.Lewis. To that end, he said he has tried to make the place havemore of an intimate feel that is “distinctive by notglitzy.” Since he opened his shop, he’s had “about 60people” come in and he said they were very impressed. “I had one woman come in here who said, “I neverthought I’d see New York City in Wilton, Connecticut,”said Mr. Lewis. The cost of the items in the shop vary. In addition to Mr.Lewis’s custom clothing, Terry Bernstein and Deborah Korwinboth offer jewelry in the store that starts at $150. A customjacket by Mr. Lewis can cost as much as $2,000, and there are manyitems falling in between. Silvermine Limited, a New Canaan line ofclothing, is also sold at the shop. Mr. Lewis said his overall objective was to “take a style andgive people a huge palette of fabrics,” to choose from. Hesaid that up to 1,400 combinations of fabrics could currently beput together at the store.