RD Cloth & Needle

BY TEGAN BURKHARD  |  PHOTOS BY EMILY BRASHIER

On a daily basis, you reach into your closet, ignoring the old high school T-shirts and gifted Christmas clothes collecting dust on their hangers. Instead, you grab the same go-to dress shirts and slacks you somehow seem to wear week after week.

Ryan Duncan, RD Cloth & Needle curator, knows the typical man’s dress habits and uses this knowledge to renovate clients’ neglected clothing and clean out any unnecessary clutter. He also makes shopping for necessary wardrobe pieces a cinch, especially for men who loathe making the rounds at mall stores and standalone storefronts. He even makes clothing more enjoyable with his custom-made clothing.

“Once you have something custom, it kind of spoils you because you tend to gravitate towards those custom shirts or that custom jacket just because it fits better, so you feel better,” Duncan says.

Duncan has been in the business of men’s clothing for over twenty years, so he knows better than to force men to walk into yet another shop with a dizzying array of suits, sports coats, dress shirts, slacks, belts and shoes. He also has enough experience to realize honesty is a better policy than playing the role of overwhelming salesman.

“If I wouldn’t wear it, I wouldn’t sell it to you,” Duncan says. “I want [clients]to come back, and I want them to be my friend. I want them to trust me…I’ll be the first one to say, ‘No.’”

Instead, at RD Cloth & Needle, men simply call Duncan with their wardrobe needs. After telling him what’s missing from their closets, Duncan sets up an at-home appointment to help them secure tailor-made clothing essentials.

Upon arrival at a client’s home, Duncan begins with a closet consultation. This process involves 3-4 hours worth of purging and analyzing each man’s unique style preferences. First, Duncan narrows a client’s closet down to the 10 percent of items worn weekly. He gives clients the option to donate or hide the unnecessary items that were taking up space in the closet.

Luckily, Duncan can also grant some unworn items a second shelf life, with the help of RD Cloth & Needle’s personal tailor. This way, clients can salvage precious items that haven’t seen the light of day in several years.

While sifting through each client’s closet, Duncan also assesses his clothing style. Duncan says some men gravitate toward certain colors, while others are willing to branch out of their comfort zones and try something new.

“I know you’ve got to push a little bit. You can’t push too hard. It‘s more about earning their respect and trust,” Duncan says.

After the closet consultation comes to a close, Duncan measures each man in the comfort of his own home. From there, Duncan then uses his innate ability to choose the perfect swatches for his clients.

RD Cloth & Needle has no need for stock items and a storefront, since each item is custom made for clients. An assortment of fine leather belts ship from Roger Ximenez in Florida. Italo Ferretti creates luxury ties straight from Italy. Suits, dress shirts and sports coats are handsewn in Canada or Italy, from textile experts and fabric manufacturers like Dolce Punta or Loro Piana.

Duncan handles selection of jacket and shoulder styles, taking those choices off clients’ plates. Rather than forcing men to select swatches from the 2000 available options, Duncan reduces color options down to those that look best against each man’s unique hair color and skin tone. Men simply have to decide on a handful of color and fabric choices that Duncan has narrowed down for them.

Once Duncan has selected a few swatches, he then meets clients in a casual setting for the final selection process. Since most of his clients are friends and customers from his previous career at Parkway Menswear, it makes sense that Duncan makes the selection process fun, helping them choose fabrics over drinks or lunch.

Some clients even trust Duncan wholeheartedly, allowing him to make all choices from start to finish. Although RD Cloth & Needle does not stock shoes, sometimes Duncan goes out of his way to find shoes that match a tailor-made outfit, so the client can avoid the painstaking process of shopping for complementary shoes.

“I’m not so much selling clothes as I am selling the emotion and the feeling that comes with dressing well,” Duncan says. “It makes you feel better. It makes you more positive.”

Although RD Cloth & Needle’s manufacturers create custom clothing overseas, products are typically delivered within 12 days from Canada and four weeks from Italy. Once all pieces have made it to back to Duncan, he calls up the client, and the men meet at Duncan’s Oklahoma City office.

Clients then pick up each piece made with a personal touch. Each dress shirt comes with a custom RD Cloth & Needle stich, and belts include RD Cloth & Needle imprints. Sports coats and suits even include each client’s name.

As an Oklahoma City native, Duncan knows the city’s trends and styles like the back of his hand. He realizes custom clothing is not the norm, especially in such a city where cargo pants and polos are more prominent than blazers and ties.

“I think Oklahoma City has generally been known as a very casual city, very causal market, and most people wouldn’t give it a second thought,” Duncan says. “I mean, unless dressing was important to their father and they were shown early on, then it wouldn’t be important.”

Yet Duncan encourages men to give RD Cloth & Needle a shot at simplifying the shopping process. While custom-made clothing may cost more upfront, tailored suits, sports coats and shirts are bound to last longer, especially when shipped directly from Italian artisans and Canadian manufacturers that use quality fabrics like cashmere, alpaca wool and leather. To set up an appointment with Duncan, head over to RD Cloth & Needle’s website or give Duncan a call.