Sometimes meeting someone for an interview can feel a little like a blind date. You’ve done some research and perhaps chatted on the phone. You may have even seen a picture, but you still wonder “Will you recognize them in person?” You will, IF you are meeting Jonathan Smith, aka “The Suit Man,” because short of a GQ photo shoot, he is sure to be the best-dressed gentleman in any room. His self-described “passion for fashion” makes him a walking billboard for his custom tailoring company “Bespoke,” so named for the masculine equivalent of haute couture.  

Although he has designed cutting edge, custom menswear for kings of the gridiron and NASCAR, as well as captains of industry, you won’t find him in Paris, Milan or New York.  With a following built on word of mouth, having ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man” as his ring tone and a vanity license plate “BESPOKE,” Smith can work from anywhere, and he chose to bring his wife, Mary, back to the farm she grew up on near Nichols.

Smith now travels to his 500-plus clients, who are grateful not only for his sartorial skills, but also his sense of style. He doesn’t just sell clothes, he sells a “look.” The value of the image he creates was succinctly quantified by Atlanta football star and client Deion Sanders. “He gave me the best quote I’ve ever had. ‘If you look good, you feel good; if you feel good, you play good; if you play good, they pay good.’ It’s perfect; it transcends the athlete on the field into the business world,” he said.

Smith, who says he does not approach anything he does casually, has certainly lived up to the expectations of his high school classmates who voted him “Best Dressed” and “Most Likely to Succeed.” These are two accolades that Smith would say are not unrelated.