Introducing ESQUE/BY And Its New Ready-To-Wear Tailoring Collection

If you’ve ever stood under the unforgiving fluorescent lights of a fitting room, pin-tucking a blazer, you already know one of the frustrations of shopping for women’s clothing. Off-the-rack clothing expects your body to do the work.

For years, women looking for more personalized tailoring have visited ESQUE/BY, a referral-only tailoring studio tucked inside New York’s Garment District. There, tailor and designer Jennifer JJ Lee developed a loyal clientele, not by following runway trend forecasts, but by acting as part-tailor, part-confidante.

“I’ve always considered the fitting room one of the most sacred spaces in fashion,” said Lee.

“As tailors, we’re trained to listen,” she said. “We’re constantly asking how a small adjustment makes someone feel, not just how it looks in the mirror. It’s where you learn how women see themselves, how they want to feel, and what they wish their clothes could do for them.”

What happens inside those private appointments is an opportunity to understand common fit concerns. Women reveal where jackets restrict them, where waistbands gap, and how their bodies naturally change from month to month, and year to year.

After years of collecting that real-world research, ESQUE/BY is taking those lessons beyond private appointments with the launch of its inaugural Ready-to-Wear line – a modular collection designed to rethink how off-the-rack suiting is constructed. The new collection is launching this November in New York City.

Where Standard Sizing Can Fall Short

The issue with most ready-to-wear tailoring isn’t just aesthetic; it’s structural. Standard production grades patterns up or down from a central sample size, treating body proportions as uniform geometric scales. Two women might both take a size 6, yet require completely different armhole drops, shoulder slopes or torso lengths.

To give buyers more flexibility with fit, ESQUE/BY’s ready-to-wear incorporates bespoke construction logic directly into factory production patterns. The pieces are built with interior hem allowances for easy length adjustments, structured shoulder pads engineered to soften naturally over time, and seam placement that accommodates body fluctuations.

“Fashion often confuses sizing with fit,” explains Lee. “Two women can wear the exact same size but have completely different proportions. At ESQUE/BY, we borrow the precision of menswear tailoring without simply putting menswear on women.”

“We rethink proportions from the design stage through sculpted shoulders, defined waistlines, and considered seam placement. The garment should fit beautifully as it is but have room to evolve with you through different stages of life.”

The Anti-Corporate Three-Piece Suit

Get ready for anti-corporate fashion at the office, as Lee’s style approach comes through most clearly in ESQUE/BY’s ready-to-wear collection centerpiece: a sharp reinterpretation of the classic three-piece suit. Instead of a traditional vest, ESQUE/BY pairs an elongated, oversized blazer and tailored trousers with an integrated corset — offering structure without stiffness.

It’s an intentional nod to how women actually live and dress today, prioritizing versatility over rigid dress codes. The corset can be layered or worn on its own for evening, while the elongated blazer is cut to pair as easily with vintage denim as it does with matching trousers.

“Women still want an incredible fashion moment, but they’re thinking about what happens afterward,” said Lee. “Can I wear this again? Style it differently? Does it work with the rest of my wardrobe? Modern American tailoring is about that freedom: clothing that has presence but can move with you.”

Bespoke Details Off The Rack

The new collection launching in November also translates subtle tailoring signatures into ready-to-wear, like the Studio Shirt, which is a crisp button-down styled with wider cuffs, a structured collar, and removable collar stays, a detail often associated with traditional menswear tailoring. Each jacket and shirt also carries the brand’s discrete hallmark: a single hand-stitched red keyhole buttonhole on the cuff.

“We’re careful not to say we’re democratizing bespoke, because that one-on-one experience is inherently personal,” said Lee. “Instead, we’re scaling what bespoke taught us. We want the clothes to be recognizable as ESQUE/BY, but the woman wearing them should always be more interesting than the label.”

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BDG Media newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.