GEOFF
“Suiting should be as cool and comfortable, as it is refined.”
Statement
Restraint in pursuit of refinement is not a denial of expression, rather a disciplined manipulation of line, space, texture and color, creating and balancing aesthetic and functional composition using beautiful fabric as my medium and canvas, shaped and tailored into a clean silhouette with form and flow, designed to be “archt” I call suiting.
Story
Geoffrey D. Starks Jr. grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas where his first summer job was selling suits. After graduating with degrees in Advertising and Fine Art, interning at an ad agency as a graphic designer, and launching a T-shirt line, Geoff turned his passion for creativity and fashion into a career. Returning to retail as a stylist under the mentorship of Master Tailor & Designer, Vito Chiechi, he honed his design craft and began to articulate his dandy attitude toward men’s suiting. Not always able to find the fit and fabric he meticulously imagined, in 2005 he launched, GEOFF DURAN Custom Clothing to design suiting men couldn’t find in stores. Designing for executives and entertainers, Geoff observed first-hand the shared and persistent gap in how men dressed- either traditionally in a suit & tie or comfortably in leisurewear. His desire to solve this overdressed-underdressed conundrum led him to address appropriateness unconventionally, with a tieless point of view. In 2018, guided by the premise that every dude needs a white formal shirt that doesn’t require a tie, Geoff introduced his iconic M5K™ (Mandarin 5000) All-White Series. This was more than turning a wardrobe staple into a statement of refined cool, it was a social protest and the foundation for Geoff delivering sartorial freedom to dudes everywhere. To complete his informal-formal aesthetic, Geoff designed the METROPOLIS™ cardigan blazer and HOLLYWOOD HIPSTER™ pant with a single objective- create the “best feeling, most versatile suiting that solves the cognitive dissonance between conformity and individuality.