How SuitShop Co-Founder Jeanne Foley Is Bringing Affordable, High-Quality Suits to the Masses
Looking for that perfect suit for prom or graduation, without emptying your bank account? Look no further than SuitShop.
The brand was built from the ground up to be high-quality, yet affordable, offering stylish and versatile suits that can be worn again and again for all kinds of occasions, with price points starting under $200. It's all the brainchild of SuitShop co-founder Jeanne Foley, who combined her know-how in the worlds of fashion and design with the MIT-honed business skills of her childhood friend and business partner Diana Ganz to bring the brand to life. Together, they've served more than 200,000 customers since the start of the business in 2016, and we got the chance to chat with Jeanne all about her experiences and the history that's influenced her personal style.
(Image courtesy of Jeanne Foley)
Name: Jeanne Foley
IG Handle: @suitshopofficial
Hometown: Kalamazoo, Michigan
1. Jeanne has a number of vivid memories that she credits for her love of fashion.
"My mom is a great seamstress, so starting very early in life, whenever we had a special occasion to dress up for, she would take my me and my sister to the local fabric store and let us pick out a dress pattern and a fabric we liked. Then she would make the dresses for us. I loved watching her. She taught me to sew, and over time I would make things for my dolls and eventually for myself.
When I was around 14 or 15 years old, the Fashion Channel became available on cable, and I was immediately hooked. That paired with overdoses of MTV's Total Request Live (TRL) made me fully obsessed with fashion.
I knew by my freshman year in high school that I wanted to go to college for fashion design."
-Jeanne Foley
(Image courtesy of Jeanne Foley)
2. She doesn't actually consider herself super fashionable.
"Although I absolutely love fashion and have a real appreciation for great style, I tend to stick with low-key classics with a focus on fit. For me, great fashion starts there—with a great fit. A well-tailored suit (of course!) is one of my favorites, and I gravitate toward staple pieces that can easily be mixed and matched. I'm a big believer in curating a capsule wardrobe. I also love color! The color you wear can be indicative of the mood you're in, so I look for ways to use color to express myself in a fashionable way."
-Jeanne Foley
3. She got the inspiration for SuitShop after planning her wedding in 2013.
"With no options to affordably outfit the groomsmen, my husband and I were forced to go the rental route and were disappointed by the process, the poor fit and price. Because suits can easily be worn again at other events, work and more, I wanted to create a company to provide affordable yet high-quality suits that could be owned for less than the typical cost of a rental. I had experience in fashion design, but I didn't know anything about starting a business. I turned to my childhood best friend Diana Ganz, an award-winning business executive and graduate of MIT Sloan School of Management, and together we created SuitShop!"
-Jeanne Foley
(Image courtesy of Jeanne Foley and Diana Ganz)
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4. Above everything else, SuitShop puts an emphasis on catering to a wide variety of people.
"We have one of the largest size ranges of any suiting company (34 to 60 for men; 00 to 24 for women), and our pieces are sold individually to allow mixing and matching jacket and pant sizes and colors. We also offer the first and only coordinating collection for men, women, nonbinary individuals and kids. Another exciting element that sets us apart is that our suits are made with our comfortable and sustainable Eco Stretch fabric. This fabric is made with threads created from recycled plastic bottles—diverting up to 25 plastic bottles from the landfills into the creation of a suit!"
-Jeanne Foley
(via SuitShop)
5. When she's in a rush, her go-to outfit is jeans, a tank, a suit jacket and flats.
"This combo makes me feel buttoned-up but also extremely comfortable. When I find things that fit well, I buy them in a lot of colors, and they become a uniform for me. I like getting dressed to be easy but also feel great in what I have on every day."
-Jeanne Foley
6. Her parents gave her the best piece of advice she ever received.
"'You can't wait for others to make things happen for you. You're responsible for your own success and happiness.' My parents were very supportive of the 'dreamer's mentality' and, like most parents do, always told me, 'you can be and do anything you put your mind to.' That message becomes harder to believe as you become an adult and start a career, but my mindset has always been to take responsibility for the situation I'm in and that it's up to me alone if I want to change it."
-Jeanne Foley
7. Her favorite piece of clothing in her closet is a black suit jacket from SuitShop's first women's collection, designed five years ago.
"It makes me nostalgic for the days when we were schlepping suits across town in New York and reminds me of how far we've come."
-Jeanne Foley
(via SuitShop)
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8. She says the No. 1 reason SuitShop is and has been successful is thanks to her early co-founder partnership with her childhood best friend and business expert, Diana Ganz.
"Through our nearly 30-year friendship, we had never dreamed of running a business together. But, we both found ourselves with complementary skill sets at a time in our lives when we were ready to take a risk and leave corporate careers to do what we both love and watch a business grow from it.
Since SuitShop's launch, the success of our business has been heavily related to the talented people we have been able to convince to work with us every day. We have such an incredible team of people who are also using their talents and doing what they love. This inspires us to continue to take SuitShop to new levels."
-Jeanne Foley
(via SuitShop)
9. At the moment, she's loving the trend of vibrant colors for suits.
"We've been seeing more people opt for bold color choices lately: green, teal, burnt orange, burgundy! We love seeing people pick a suit that makes them stand out in a crowd but also remains a fashionable choice for years to come. For women specifically, suiting is such a hot trend right now, and I'm loving the matching vest and pant combination styled up or down."
-Jeanne Foley
10. The biggest driver in her life right now is being a mom to her 7-year-old daughter, Francesca (aka Frankie).
"She inspires me to always do my best and work hard to be an example to her that you can really do anything you put your mind to!"
-Jeanne Foley
For more of the stories behind our favorite women in fashion, click HERE to read our interview with Australian designer Camilla Franks.