Hartmarx suits Obama
Presidential nominee Barack Obama and wife Michelle show off Chicago-made fashions
Presidential nominee Barack Obama and wife Michelle are showing off Chicago-made fashions in their most important appearances on stage at the Democratic National Convention.
Thursday night, when Obama will accept the presidential nomination, he will wear a navy blue, worsted wool two-button suit that Hartmarx custom made just for him. Hartmarx is a 121-year-old Chicago-based manufacturer of high-end men's suits.
(AP files, Courtesy)
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Obama, who wears a 40 long with a 33-inch waist, has worn Hart Schaffner Marx suits in the past but always off the rack, said an inside source. He favors the Gold Trumpeter collection. This time, he made appointments with Hartmarx tailors for his nomination-night suit.
About tonight's special suit:
The fabric is 97 percent merino wool and 3 percent cashmere.
The pants are pleated and have an inch and a quarter cuff.
A similar suit off the rack would retail for about $1,500.
Hartmarx is the largest U.S. tailored clothing business and makes Hart Schaffner Marx suits at a factory in Des Plaines.
Hartmarx boasts as its claim to fame being the first to use standard pricing, the first to sell clothes from swatches of cloth, and in 1936, making the first zippered pants, according to the company's Web site.
Hartmarx CEO Homi Patel said: "We don't talk about this because we've been making suits for presidents, vice presidents and senators for more than 100 years. The reason we continue making them is because we don't talk about it."
On Monday night, Michelle impressed fashionistas during her keynote speech by wearing a fitted turquoise blue dress with three-quarter-length sleeves and a brooch-like flower prominently displayed in the front, designed by Chicago's Maria Pinto.
Pinto, who opened her first retail boutique in the West Loop on Aug. 12, is a favorite of Michelle Obama's, and designed a purple dress that Michelle Obama wore with a black Azzedine Alaia belt on the night Sen. Obama won the Democratic nomination.