Robert Hill, an 83-year-old tailor from Birmingham, is featured in a Vogue digital article showcasing Black tailors from totally different areas influencing the Met Gala, celebrating Black Southern model and cultural expression by means of menswear.”We generally tend to create stuff and simply put it collectively totally different,” Hill mentioned. >> Met Gala 2025: Each celeb red-carpet have a look at the 2025 Met GalaSince opening Robert Hill Customized Tailors in 1983, Hill has been suiting up a few of Central Alabama’s most well-known individuals, not all of them African American, together with former Alabama coach Gene Stallings.”And I labored with Paul Finebaum once I obtained began in enterprise. I helped him for a very long time once I was downtown. And Mayor Arrington,” Hill mentioned.Even when it is on the conservative aspect, Hill provides an additional aptitude to his designs.”It simply comes pure. And, I simply generally tend to alter it to make it look totally different. Take a conservative go well with, put a special colour tie with it, totally different pocket sq., totally different shirt, and it might change the entire look,” he mentioned.Hill’s enduring presence in Birmingham started after finding out beneath grasp tailors in Chicago within the Sixties, constructing on expertise honed rising up in Montgomery, the place he usually struggled to search out church garments that match him.”I have been small all of my life, and I fell in love with fits and attempting to decorate. And I simply picked up the knack of studying about easy methods to gown,” Hill mentioned. “A great-looking go well with on a person, it is determined by the material. The standard of the material, the match, the lower and its design.” Hill’s enterprise has survived recessions, the pandemic, and the transfer away from extra formal gown requirements.”Altering their gown code, relaxed Fridays. That was actually a downfall within the clothes enterprise, particularly in customized clothes as a result of males went extra to an informal apparel,” he mentioned.He maintained a downtown store for years, and now an image of it hangs in his new store in Birmingham’s Lakeview District, alongside ties, a wall of material swatches and his first show desk.With each hemmed trouser and the hum of stitching machines, Hill is protecting what he says is a dying artwork on life assist.”It is a persistence job. You bought to have persistence to do it. And you bought to be explicit about it and pleased with what you do,” Hill mentioned.Hill credit his religion in God for all he is completed and prays somebody will comply with in his modern footsteps.”, I do not wish to retire. I might wish to be ready the place I can are available in just a few days, every week. Possibly a day or two every week. Simply once I like. I want to have anyone I can have skilled to hold on my enterprise, you realize? I do not need, as soon as I am gone customized tailors to fall by the wayside,” he mentioned.
Robert Hill, an 83-year-old tailor from Birmingham, is featured in a Vogue digital article showcasing Black tailors from totally different areas influencing the Met Gala, celebrating Black Southern model and cultural expression by means of menswear.
“We generally tend to create stuff and simply put it collectively totally different,” Hill mentioned.
>> Met Gala 2025: Each celeb red-carpet have a look at the 2025 Met Gala
Since opening Robert Hill Customized Tailors in 1983, Hill has been suiting up a few of Central Alabama’s most well-known individuals, not all of them African American, together with former Alabama coach Gene Stallings.
“And I labored with Paul Finebaum once I obtained began in enterprise. I helped him for a very long time once I was downtown. And Mayor Arrington,” Hill mentioned.
Even when it is on the conservative aspect, Hill provides an additional aptitude to his designs.
“It simply comes pure. And, I simply generally tend to alter it to make it look totally different. Take a conservative go well with, put a special colour tie with it, totally different pocket sq., totally different shirt, and it might change the entire look,” he mentioned.
Hill’s enduring presence in Birmingham started after finding out beneath grasp tailors in Chicago within the Sixties, constructing on expertise honed rising up in Montgomery, the place he usually struggled to search out church garments that match him.
“I have been small all of my life, and I fell in love with fits and attempting to decorate. And I simply picked up the knack of studying about easy methods to gown,” Hill mentioned. “A great-looking go well with on a person, it is determined by the material. The standard of the material, the match, the lower and its design.”
Hill’s enterprise has survived recessions, the pandemic, and the transfer away from extra formal gown requirements.
“Altering their gown code, relaxed Fridays. That was actually a downfall within the clothes enterprise, particularly in customized clothes as a result of males went extra to an informal apparel,” he mentioned.
He maintained a downtown store for years, and now an image of it hangs in his new store in Birmingham’s Lakeview District, alongside ties, a wall of material swatches and his first show desk.
With each hemmed trouser and the hum of stitching machines, Hill is protecting what he says is a dying artwork on life assist.
“It is a persistence job. You bought to have persistence to do it. And you bought to be explicit about it and pleased with what you do,” Hill mentioned.
Hill credit his religion in God for all he is completed and prays somebody will comply with in his modern footsteps.
“, I do not wish to retire. I might wish to be ready the place I can are available in just a few days, every week. Possibly a day or two every week. Simply once I like. I want to have anyone I can have skilled to hold on my enterprise, you realize? I do not need, as soon as I am gone customized tailors to fall by the wayside,” he mentioned.
