Please enjoy this article from The New Yorker by Zachary Kanin featuring Jimmy Au’s:
“Short men in the United States are, some studies show, paid less than their taller peers. They are less likely to get hired for a job or receive a promotion, less likely to get elected President, and at a severe disadvantage in the height-obsessed world of dating. But perhaps the worst indignity is being forced to shop for clothes in the children’s department. The alternative is not much better—the standard adult dress shirt has so much excess fabric that, when a short man wears it tucked in, it creates the impression that he is wearing a diaper under his trousers.
While there are hundreds of stores in the United States specializing in clothes for “big and tall” men, there are very few designer-clothing stores for short men. One is the Beverly Hills clothier Jimmy Au’s, whose motto is “For Men 5′8″ and Under.” The proprietors of Jimmy Au’s were in town recently for their first East Coast trunk show, and they approached this magazine to request a “deskside” chat. Unlike the phoneside, e-mailside, or even fireside chat, a deskside is a face-to-face briefing during which a publicist (or his or her client) pitches a story to a journalist in an intimate setting.
On the day of the chat, a desk was not readily available, but a bare one was apprehended and spruced up with knickknacks, to give the 
impression of use. At the appointed hour, a miniature delegation arrived: Jimmy Au, the store’s designer and founder, and his son, Alan, the firm’s client-relations manager. They had brought along a surprise guest: Nora, Jimmy’s wife and Alan’s mother, as well as six plump garment bags. Jimmy, who is five feet two, wore a black pin-striped suit with a red tie and large seventies-style eyeglasses. Nora, who is five feet one, was dressed in white. Alan straddled a chair between his parents. At five feet six, he is the tallest member of the family. He wore a black pin-striped suit with a yellow tie. His hair had been gelled into stylish spikes that added an inch to his height. “There are more short men in Manhattan than in all of Southern California,” Alan said, explaining his family’s interest in New York. (Plans for a Manhattan-based Jimmy Au’s are in the works.)
Jimmy laid out the highlights of his fifty-year career: He arrived in the U.S. from Hong Kong in 1959 and began selling suits while a student at Church College of Hawaii. “The first day, I sold three suits and made sixty dollars,” he recalled. “That’s like working sixty hours in a cannery. I told myself, ‘This is it.’ ”
He started going door-to-door, selling custom-made suits. When he noticed that most of his customers were short men, he realized that he had found an untapped market. He quickly became the tailor to some of the most successful jockeys in the country. After marrying Nora, in 1971, he opened his first store, in Torrance, California, and then one in Arcadia, near the racetrack. In 2005, Alan oversaw a move to the store’s current location. There, Alan said, visitors find an atmosphere that caters to the short man in every way. “The store is scaled down,” he said. Ceilings are low, clothing racks are small, and the mannequins—made by a special-effects company—are five feet eight inches instead of the standard six feet.
“Even the chairs are made shorter,” Nora added.
The move to Beverly Hills reflected a shift in clientele, from jockeys to actors. Jimmy Au’s has provided wardrobe for more than fifty prime-time television shows in the past five years and, Alan said, for “multiple celebrities from ‘Ocean’s Thirteen.’ ” Asked to elaborate, he pointed out that it is touchy to name names in Hollywood.
“For example,” he said, “I can’t say, ‘Tom Cruise shops at our store.’ But I can say that his stylist comes in.” He went on, “I can’t say, ‘Danny DeVito shops in our store,’ but I can tell you that my dad goes to his house.”
“Is it O.K. to mention Scott Hamilton?” Jimmy asked. Alan said that it was.
“Scott Hamilton is one of my happiest customers,” Jimmy said.
Alan explained how to make a man look taller. “Proportion is the first trick,” he said. “Once a suit is proportioned, you can fool the eye other ways.” Stripes are essential, because they elongate. Tie clips and horizontal plaids are verboten. “Unless you’re Fred Astaire, or you’re going to some kind of dance-related thing, don’t do wild, crazy socks. Don’t bring the attention downward.”
Jimmy raised an index finger. “The most important is fit and the quality,” he said. Then, as Nora unzipped a garment bag, he sized up his five-foot-three-inch host.
Jimmy selected a tan sports coat that fit as if it had been tailored for the recipient.
“That’s really good,” Nora said, smoothing down the shoulders. “Now, you see the confidence?” ”
To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Please visit the Jimmy Au’s website here.
Levine Communications Office 