You might say that Andre Fayad didn’t choose the guayabera life—the guayabera life chose him.
Although his eponymous menswear company may be most readily identified with its bespoke guayaberas, he is reluctant to be defined by a specific style. Instead, he considers the local artisans who make Fayad & Co.’s shirts to be at the heart of the Miami-based business.
“It’s more about the community,” Fayad says of his support for American-made clothing. “Clothing made in Naples is beautiful and all that, but we’ve got super talented people here.”
Before he was certain of what kind of garments he’d be selling, Fayad knew he wanted them to be made domestically, and as locally as possible. His family has roots in the clothing business: his grandfather operated a textile factory in Honduras, and his father was involved in apparel manufacturing. At 14, Fayad took his first job at a high-end men’s boutique in Miami, making coffee and picking out ties, before going on to study the business of fashion at the Milan School of Design.
After working in management roles at Brunello Cucinelli and Berluti—and a four-year detour as a concierge at the Ritz-Carlton Bal Harbour—he launched his own bespoke shirt business in the fall of 2020. At its core was a small network of local shirtmakers who’d once been employed by the boutique Fayad worked at in his teenage years.
It just so happened that his very first client, based in London, commissioned a guayabera shirt made from a Thomas Mason chambray. Soon after, Fayad introduced a collection of sample shirts, which included classic spread and button-down collar shirts as well as the first four of what Fayad & Co. now calls its “emblematic shirts”; the Ike field shirt, the Ranger flight shirt, and two Westerns: the traditional Billy, and the sawtooth Butch.
What differentiated the business, in Fayad’s view, weren’t the styles themselves, but rather their bespoke adaptability.
“You can find a lot of Western shirts out there. You can find guayaberas in all kinds of fabrics and prices as well. But what you don’t find is someone who can absolutely do whatever you want in regard to a guayabera or Western shirt,” he says.
His next break came in the summer of 2021 when the menswear personality Andreas Klow—who posts on Instagram as @flannels_and_tweed—commissioned a guayabera inspired by one worn by Gary Cooper in a much-shared photo of the actor strolling with John Wayne.
The resulting shirt—now offered in the emblematic collection as the Coop—drove fresh eyes to the business, and over a dozen requests for the same piece. As a result, Fayad held his first New York trunk show that July (since January 2022, Fayad & Co. has held trunk shows alongside fellow maker Martelo Bespoke at New York’s Maritime Hotel; a bi-monthly occurrence that Fayad plans to continue in 2023).
Once the New York trunk shows became a regular occurrence, tailoring started to overtake shirts in sales. “Even though the suit is dead. Long live the suit,” Fayad says.
He believes that his bespoke tailoring—which is made in Miami in the case of softly constructed jackets and overshirts—and in New York if the garments require more structure—doesn’t conform to a house aesthetic or point of view.
“I don’t want it to be like, ‘Oh that looks like a Fayad piece,” he says. “I want it to almost be not identifiable, because I’m making clothes for individuals and I think that individuals shouldn’t look exactly the same”
In addition to his bespoke services, which are also offered remotely via virtual fittings, Fayad has introduced made-to-order sport and dress shirts that are produced by a factory on the East Coast. In spring 2023, he plans to launch the company’s first ready-to-wear collection, which will be manufactured domestically and include shirting in addition to fatigue trousers, cargo shorts and more.
Further down the line—potentially for next year—is a dedicated retail space in Miami. And after that? While it’s a long way away, Fayad dreams of opening a school that can teach workers the skills necessary to continue making clothing in the United States.
“I want people to feel dignified to be a tailor, to be a seamstress, to be a shirtmaker,” he says. “And eventually, if Fayad means something to someone down the line, it’s because I’ve given people the opportunity to work for us.”
Not bad for something that started with a guayabera.
The great example of how business should be done has and always will be Brunello Cucinelli which I had the pleasure of working for three years. It is a testament to being able to produce extremely high quality garments while truly taking care of the people in his company and also giving back to his local community and country.
It was important for me to try my best to follow in that philosophy as much as I can. It is the reason why I made it a point to keep the shirt & guayabera productions in Miami and continue to develop more product categories down the line Made in Miami and the very least Made in USA supporting other small companies making small batch productions. The sense that I am making a small contribution to my local community and its economy even as a small startup business gives me great satisfaction. It may be with something as small as one of my shirt-makers can now pay for a dance class for her granddaughter and in support of perhaps another small business entrepreneur which decided to share their passion of dancing with others. The income of that dance studio entrepreneur could then go on to support another small business and so on.
In addition to keep jobs here in Miami and USA, my father always showed me to give back. He was always know as the type of man who was very generous to others which I have not really been consistent with. Throughout my life I heard too many stories about how he helped others personally, help them with setting up their business and overall generosity. With this venture, I decided that I would make a commitment to donate 5% of our gross sales to organizations which assist men & women who are trying to reinsert themselves into society. We will take those 5% and dedicate it to producing garments for both of the organizations we are working with that give the people who have been down on their luck clothing for interviews or to wear for work. This is a small insight into the WHY.
Having lived in Italy, I was familiar with the idea of how artisans worked in the comfort of their home for the major companies. It is something which I applaud in a certain way the same way I see how the major clothing players have invested in developing schools for the future generations of tailors and seamstress. It is not that I believe in the big companies to be evil but I believe more so that we should help our small business, neighbors and our community first.
The people who work with us, work all from the comfort of their home. We make sure they are set up in a way so that they have all the tools at their disposition to deliver a consistent product and quality as we expect to deliver to our clients. They are the lifeline of the business and I love the idea that they can work at their own pace surrounded by their family. I have a 20 year relationship with most of them and look forward to working with them for many years to come. These are my words about the WHO.
Lastly, the HOW. Having the production in Miami not only has implications regarding the betterment of the impact on the community but having the ability to manage the production and deliver uncompromising levels of quality in a timely matter. Having the ability to create a pattern by hand for each client, cut every garment by hand for each client also allows us to deliver a shirt in as quick as 5 hours if need be. It is having all the work available to be done with our own hands that sets us truly apart from everyone else in our local market. We work with domestic factories as well making our shirts and some of our tailored garments as the big factories making a garment actually drives the price down quite a bit but you have to employ a lot of patience. Our Made in Miami shirts can be delivered as quickly as 1 day but typically within the week if there isn't a rush whereas the shirts Made in the USA in our factory take 4/5 weeks as they have to be scheduled into production.
My hope is that people will take pride in supporting their local community and reduce their spending in fashion but rather timeless generational clothing. All the major brands are just pumping out product without a soul, creating a lot of waste and only looking for ways to make the quick buck. Help your neighbors, your community and your country.
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I do not look to impose any thoughts of what it is & shouldn't be however we no longer acknowledge what true craftsmanship is about. In the digital era of instant gratification we do not afford ourselves the build up and anticipation of having some patience. The patience to go thru the process of creating something for ourselves. Truly made for you garments once delivered have such a level of satisfaction because you know no one will have that garment which you took the time to pick every detail. People have lost their individuality while wearing sweats, t-shirt & Yeezy's.
Proposing the likes of Great Gatsby or Casablanca with their 3 piece suits as the earth literally melting around us in Miami is not what I am talking about. However, put yourself together man! My wife always looking her best when we go out to dinner that I cannot find it in myself to wear a t-shirt anywhere with her because I would look and feel out of place. It doesn't matter if we are going to our local favorite Thai restaurant, Ricky's Thai Bistro which is a little hole in the wall in North Miami Beach. Or if we were going back to the sushi bar at the high end Makoto to stuff ourselves with sushi. In part, I think everyone is accountable for this deterioration of standards.
You have to be accountable for yourself & how you put yourself together out to the world, your partner has to keep you accountable for how they go out with you in public. Lastly, establishments need to set a standard for dining. I love how the Hillstone/Houston's group of restaurants enforce the "no-hat" rule for the dining room. I would love to see more restaurants require jackets, not allow hats, t-shirts, shorts etc. How hard is it to put a shirt on guys?
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