When Victoria Wright was getting married, her husband bought a made-to-measure suit for their wedding. The purchase was a lightbulb moment for her. She thought to herself “Why doesn’t this exist for women?” Now, she’s bringing a made-to-measure brand that does to Philadelphia.
“Women have so many fit issues, I feel like every other day I meet someone who says their top is two times smaller than their bottom and vice versa,” Wright says.
The Bucks County native knew she wanted to make clothes since she was 13-years-old. She graduated from the Moore College of Art in 2012, and eventually launched her brand, Victoria Wright Made to Measure, at Philly fashion week in 2019.
What makes Wright’s business unique is that she comes to you.
Customers can set an appointment to meet with Wright where she’ll show them different fabrics and walk them through an online suit-designing platform. At the end of the appointment, Wright measures the client, and puts their measurements into the system. Then in about four to six weeks, they have the perfectly made-to-measure suit at their door.
Creating her business didn’t happen overnight.
Wright had her ups and downs—interning for designers, working for local boutiques, and making custom evening gowns and swim wear as a freelancer. Eventually, she discovered the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator —a workshop centered program that connects designers with education, resources and business strategies to help grow their brands.
“I had recently had a full-time job offer rescinded and I was just devastated. I was moping around and wondering what I was going to do, and then I got an email telling me about the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator,” Wright says.
She applied to be one of their designers in residence and ended up being selected.
During her time at the fashion incubator, Wright gained the resources she needed to propel herself into being a LLC, and from 2014 to 2019 she was wholesaling her clothes to different boutiques.
It was when she was wholesaling and visiting the boutiques that bought her clothes that she began hearing about women’s struggles with finding work wear that fit them properly.
“I talked with a lot of customers and found out that a lot of women had trouble finding workwear that fit them really well, they’d buy a suit that they would need to go and have to get tailored a million times or they’d spend thousands of dollars on a nice suit but they still needed to get it tailored,” Wright says. “So I started researching and saw that there were a couple brands but not a lot and not a lot that had really feminine designs for women that were made to measure.”
Wright also wanted to explore starting a made-to-measure brand to help cut down on waste. She says while her wholesale business was making smaller quantities, there would still be leftover fabrics that would go to waste.
Aside from sustainability, Wright says that what truly inspires her brand is seeing how her clients react to her clothes and what sort of outfits they will make with them.
“I think the thing that really inspires me is being able to express myself creatively while also kind of helping other women express themselves creatively through their style,” Wright says. “So while I’m expressing myself through my designs I love that women will take them and kind of be like their own like Canvas, and what they wear is their art form.”
