European Custom Tailor

I just received my alterations from Mr. Cho and, as before, they are fantastic. I was so sad when they moved/​went temporarily out of business because I’ve tried other tailors and they weren’t as good. Mr. Cho works wonders, and based on a recent review I called him up. He is indeed taking business — just call him and arrange a time. He will come to you and then deliver the alterations back to you. I got 9 pieces done in a week! He just delivered them this morning and they’re perfect. Note, he is not offering a 20% discount for cash, but he IS offering lower prices than he used to:). At his quality, the prices are fantastic — my 9 pieces, at varying levels of alterations, cost $ 130 — that can’t be beat! He is planning to re-​open in a new location — hopefully soon. During this temporary time, he is accepting cash or check, and offering lower prices.

NOT FULLY CLOSED– NOW OPERATING DOOR-​TO-​DOOR TAILORING SERVICE– 571−338−8331. Backstory (3÷30÷16): I really wanted to fall back to this reliable tailor for my men’s dress clothes, so I called them at 571−338−8331. We agreed on a time, they drove out to my apartment in NW DC to measure me, and several days later they dropped off the tailoring. As a long-​time customer getting men’s dress clothes altered, I found the quality the same as always, the price the same, and it to be more convenient than ever. Apparently, they have the same tailoring and now the equipment is operated out of this man’s home. Excellent! Give them a call!

The product came out great. I had alterations done on a suit — had the jacket taken in and the pants hemmed. It cost about $ 100. Is that steep for the work done? In my opinion, yes. Steep for DC? For Cleveland Park? Probably not. And again, the suit now fits great and I receive compliments often. ALSO, they have moved from their current location — classic landlord price out. Sign says they are looking for a new Cleveland Park location and will return soon.

My husband and I were very disappointed with this place. He had two pairs of pants hemmed — one pair came back with only one leg done, and the other pair had the hem fall out after a couple of wears. I turned in a dress for dry cleaning that had a stain on it. They attempted to treat the stain, but ended up bleaching the dress and completely ruining it. I would have been understanding if they had told me upfront that they had made a mistake, but they sent me home with the dress all wrapped up without mentioning any problems. I didn’t find out the dress was ruined until I unwrapped it much later.

Bottom line up front — they worked magic on a boxy old suit that is now the cornerstone of my business attire line up. If you need heavy-​duty surgery done, this is the place to go. Unlike some other dry-​cleaners who do tailoring on the side, the owner/​operator is a rockstar tailor.
Back when Filene’s basement went out of business, I purchased a beautiful Hart Schaffner Marx suit for a severe markdown. I loved the construction and the subtle pattern, even though the pants were pleated with legs like tree trunks. I had the pants hemmed/​cuffed at my neighborhood dry cleaner. They did a fine job, but I just wasn’t satisfied with how the whole thing looked. It hung in my closet for a couple years until a close friend recommended European Custom Tailor as the «go-​to» place if you need surgery done on clothing. I was skeptical, but having lost weight since making the purchase, I was desperate to add the suit to my repertoire.
The first thing that struck me was just how small and how busy the place is. They do a booming organic dry-​cleaning business in addition to their tailoring work. From what I can tell it’s run by a husband and wife (originally from South Korea). Despite the hustle and bustle, Jae (sp?) took his time with me. I put the suit on in one of their two changing rooms, came out, and described to him what I wanted done — remove the pleats, remove the cuffs, taper the legs, and remove some excess material from the seat and thighs. Also ended up getting the suit jacket taken in a bit so as not to be so boxy.
As other reviewers have noted, their English isn’t perfect, but as long as you describe what you want clearly and confirm it with him, you should be fine. Also ask for his opinion — he won’t steer you wrong. Since I was essentially asking him to make me an entirely new suit, it didn’t surprise me that it would be a pricey job — and he warned me that it would be. Having gotten the suit for a steal and based on the strength of my friend’s recommendation I decided to roll the dice. Besides, it wasn’t doing me any good hanging in my closet.
A week later I return to pick it up. I was nervous. I took it into the changing room, tried it on, and couldn’t wipe the stupid grin off my face. Jae took the time to look it over with a fine toothed comb. I shook his hand and thanked him profusely for working nothing short of a miracle. I paid cash (they offer a 20% discount for cash instead of credit) and walked out of there the proud owner of an incredible suit that I hope to wear for many years.

I brought in a shirt that I had attempted to tailor myself, but had instead kind of screwed up. The tailor here reattached the sleeves and made all the seams look professional. It wasn’t cheap ($ 37), but he did excellent work and I would certainly trust him with another of my garments.

The first garment I had altered here was an expensive suit that I received as a gift, and they did great job. I’ve since been back with nearly every coat in my closet (at 4’11″ I’ve never actually had a coat with sleeves that fall at the appropriate length). As for cleaning, they do a great job, but I still take my basics to the cheaper local places, and save ECT for my coats and expensive items. Parking is difficult, but not impossible… if you don’t find street parking, its easy enough to just park in the lot across the street if you’re willing to pay. If you’re looking to cut costs, pay in cash (they give a small discount for cash payments).

I was dismayed to see my beloved cashmere sweater had torn in two places during my rough and tumble trans Atlantic move. The sweaters has thick horizontal black and white stripes, and of course the tears were right smack dab where the stripes met, making me think there’s no way they could be easily repaired. I took in the sweater along with two pairs of designer jeans that needed a little touch up here and there. Though the wait was 6 days for the return, everything came back looking great! I was very happy and so glad they saved my sweater! It’s too cold not to wear it!

I’m 4’11″ and a little bit bigger around the middle, so I have a hard time finding pants that actually fit. I’ve been afraid to buy new pants since moving back to the States because I’ve always been a bit nervous about how expensive tailoring can be. After seeing the magic European did on my boyfriend’s mom’s dress and shawl (see acid b.‘s review), I decided I would give their tailoring a try after buying new jeans.
European was not only fast with my tailoring; they did a FANTASTIC job. My pants fit great, and now I feel like I can conquer the world, rather than having to roll up my pants like I did before and looking a bit dumpy because of it.
On price, I had three pairs of pants tailored and had one dress dry-​cleaned. Total plus tax was $ 52; the dress was $ 10 to dry-​clean and the pants were essentially $ 14 a pair. Even I can afford that for pants I will wear for a while.
This is my go-​to tailoring and dry-​clean place now. Thank you, European!

My mom had the unfortunate following event happen to her:
She bought a beautiful blue Calvin Klein dress, beige suede shoes, beige purse, and white fancy shawl for an elegant dinner event. She was so happy she purchased it. As she was leaving, this woman accidentally spilled the entire contents of her red wine onto the whole outfit. The shoes are ruined, the purse ruined, but she held out hope for the dress and shawl.
Enter European custom tailors. The tailor had an incredibly sad face and promised to do his best but could not guarantee results. Within days we returned. My mom expecting it to still be stained, I told her I believed in magic and thought it would work out. So we bet a trip to Loehmanns on it.
Tahdah! Both are perfectly spotless and look brand new! A fair price of $ 25 for the whole lot and a smile on my mom’s face. I like winning bets. :)
On our way in, a very happy customer had left and exclaimed to the tailor, «thanks, you saved my life!» Ditto.

At this point, I have had about 15 items tailored here. I agree that the tailor’s English is not the best, so I’m not always sure if he understands my requests, but ultimately the clothes come back perfectly altered!

I took three pairs of suit pants that needed the waists to be brought in a few inches as well as a winter coat that needed some altering. This guy is terrific-​my pants fit like I just bought them! His pricing is reasonable for the D.C. area.

Avoid. From what I can tell, Stephen is never there any more. Went in to get a suit altered and the people minding the store could not help me. I was told to come back when Stephen was there. Really??? No thanks. That was the final straw. My wife brought some pants there and one pair was too short and the other pair they forgot to do. Also, if you are driving, parking is non existent.

After multiple alterations, I’ve unfortunately soured on this tailor. First, the tailor’s English is very poor, which can make it difficult to communicate with him. I’ve witnessed other customers get in some awkward conversations with him over this, where they want something specific, and they’re not sure that he understands what they want, and it gets a little testy.
Also, he’s not a happy camper if you’re unhappy with an alteration and want something tweaked. Considering that he charges above average prices, I expect to be satisfied, otherwise why come back?
Lastly, the tailor can do very good work sometimes, much better than some reputable places I’ve tried around town. But with some very simple jobs, like hemming pants, the legs will be of different lengths (most people have uneven legs), which is the first thing any quality tailor should work through. Sadly, cause this place is so convenient, I“m going to look elsewhere.

Have you noticed that on the show What Not to Wear they always talk about getting clothes tailored to fit your body? I think I’ve finally been brainwashed, in a good way. I’d been noticing little things that I’d like to change in my wardrobe, like shortening the skirt I haven’t worn in ages would lengthen my legs, or that taking in the sides of a dress would alter the look completely. Because of the great reviews on Unilocal,and to support a fellow Korean (piting!), I decided to take a shapeless sweater dress to European Custom Tailor to get it altered.
After I put the dress on, the tailor emerged from the back to pin the sides. He was quiet but friendly, addressed the issues I had with the dress, didn’t judge what I wanted to get done, and did a meticulous job pinning it. He did privately mention that he was swamped and since I was in no rush to get it, I gave him two weeks to finish the job.
When I returned to pick up the dress, I tried it on in the store and it was perfect. It fit in all the right places, and looked like it was made that way. I wore the dress a couple of weeks later to a birthday party and got tons of compliments on it. I will definitely bring some of my other ill-​fitting clothes to get tailored here — they’ve won my trust. And I think Stacy and Clinton would proud!

Props. Props. $ 70 for 5 pairs of slacks perfectly hemmed and pressed. At $ 14/​pair, this is a decent price for DC, and I am OK with paying that much for assured quality of work. 8 day turn around time (I was in no rush). Excellent service. I also appreciate how quickly he measured me… had to try on the 5 pairs of pants for him to mark off, was in and out of the store in less than 15min! Will definitely return.
Update: Also brought 2 pairs of jeans to be hemmed and quality & service were consistent with my first trip there.

THIS REVIEW IS FOR ALTERATIONS ONLY.
Pretty standard Korean dry cleaners, w/​two important differences:
1) Service is very friendly and patient! No eyerolling when I hemmed and hawed and worried about having them match a button to my jeans (which they did perfectly, btw).
2) Alterations are done very well (and actually in-​house?).
My bf loves this place, and between the two of us, we’ve had countless alterations done — including run-​of-​the mill jobs like hems as well as more expensive jobs like creating functional buttons on sport coats. All alterations have been pretty quick, painless, and reasonably priced.

I have had 6 new suits tailored here over the last 4 years. In addition, Jae Cho has altered several pairs of my slacks as well as the sleeves on 7+ blazers and patched a hole in my cashmere sweater. He does great work and I highly recommend him. I recently started bringing my dry cleaning here and have been very satisfied with the results thus far.
We’re lucky to have him here in Cleveland Park!

I’m extremely particular about my cleaners and tailoring since I have to wear a suit every single day. As far as cleaning goes, I generally have to wait a bit longer to get my clothes back than at other places. However, my clothes always look very good, and on the one occasion that I had an issue with one of my garments, the owners were happy to rectify it immediately.
I’ve found their tailoring to be top-​notch and very well done on each occasion as I’ve had numerous pants and jackets altered there. And again, if I’ve ever had an issue, they’ve handled it immediately at no extra charge. I think it’s important to remember that doing alterations isn’t an exact science, so when you «get it right» the first time on most every occasion, you’re doing something right.
Convenient, reliable and great customer service. It’s hard to be a combination like that.

European Custom Tailor fills the gap of what CP needs – a reasonably priced tailor, who does dry cleaning, and is easy to get to.
I have tried out two of the three other dry cleaning spots in the area (minus the organic cleaning place that has gotten horrible reviews), and until I came to European Custom Tailor, was less than impressed with their offerings.
The drycleaner on Porter is ridiculously overpriced, and the Cleveland Park valet — while friendly and an institution — just didn’t get the stains out of my clothes the way that ECT does.
4 stars just because I wish Dupont Court/​Jun were up in CP :(