Editor’s note: Made in Tarrant is an occasional Q&A series on small businesses started in Tarrant County. Submit your business here.
Franklin & Anthony
Who? Franklin Moss is the owner of Franklin & Anthony.
When? Franklin & Anthony was started in 2015 and officially launched in June 2017.
Where? 2800 Yeager St, Fort Worth, Texas
What? A custom suit and tailor company that provides suits for men, women and children for all occasions. Moss works with clients all over the country and employs the tailoring skills of artisans around the world to put the suits together.
Contact:
https://franklinandanthony.com/
(817) 874-1604
IG: @franklinandanthony
Franklin Moss was working in the fashion industry before starting his suit company. He shared with the Fort Worth Report how the company came together and his favorite pieces. This interview has been edited for clarity, grammar and length.
Sandra Sadek: Who’s Franklin & Anthony?
Franklin Moss: In 2015 when we started, there was Anthony (Keaon Anthony) and he was with us until 2016. Then he left the business to focus on family.
Sadek: How did you come up with the idea of a custom suit company?
Moss: In 2012, I was doing fashion shows so I was a host for fashion shows. I was also styling and I was also just doing anything in the background of fashion shows from media to lights to working the door. I also did some side work for a public relations agency where I was also doing styling.
I started doing major and minor fashion shows from New York Fashion Week to Dallas Fashion Week to Nashville. And then I came home and I ran into Keaon Anthony, a guy who I used to dance at a dance group with in high school. He asked if I wanted to start a suit company. Since he was already styling and building a name in the younger areas established, I didn’t see a reason not to. So we came together and started Franklin & Anthony.
Sadek: Have you always been into fashion?
Moss: I used to be a rapper.
In 2001, we started a record label at PVAMU (Prairie View A&M University) and in this record label, I was an artist. What I rapped about was fashion, girls and cars. I did that from 2001 to 2013.
But in 2005, I became owner of this record label, Supreme Records which initially turned into Pink Slip Records. Under there, we had artists that were on the radio locally, Texas-wide, Gulf Coast and then nationally. And one of our biggest artists, we had brought a manager in for him who started taking over his career and helping them through the process. He told me that he wanted to manage me, but he didn’t know how to manage me as an artist…
He said to me as an entity, as a person, he thinks he could really do something. So we talked about a 360. He wanted me to start working in fashion since I rap about fashion. At that time, I had a group called the Bowtie Clique, where we all wore bowties and we just dressed nice. He said since you do that, I want you to start hosting fashion shows.
I went home, put on Facebook ‘fashion show host’ (in my profile), and back in 2012, if you make any changes, it would update and tell the world. When I did that the first week, I got a call to be a host for a fashion show.
Sadek: What’s the inspiration behind Franklin & Anthony? Do you create all your suits in-house?
Moss: For the most part, we have clients come in and we have a conversation. We created the space to be like a house or a home to where they feel more comfortable sitting here and it’s not feeling like they’re in the middle of a store. It’s one person at a time just to give them full attention.
We have a conversation about what they’re looking for and I kind of figure out their styling. So then we choose the fabric, and once we choose the fabric, we design the suit together. I walk them through the process so that by the end when they leave here, they have a full understanding of the suit and how it’s made and all the parts of the suit.
So we create it together so it can be a part of them and they can feel like they created something. Then we take measurements. This whole process can take two hours. Once we create the suit then we get started. They come back in about six to eight weeks. They do their first fitting and then after their first fitting, they come back for the second fitting and if it’s perfect, then we’re good. If not, if anything needs to be changed, then we make those changes.
Sadek: How is this process different from just buying a suit in a department store?
Moss: The big difference is you go into a department store, you grab a suit. You come here, you create a suit. The reason why people come here is because, after a while, people have a taste for something in a suit. You have a taste for hands-on, handmade, or just the craft of something.
Just like Fort Worth, we’re about the craft of things. So that’s why we love coffee. That’s why we love beer. That’s why we have whiskey companies. But it’s not just about the normal brand. It’s about getting something that’s well made and looking for the quality of something. And so that’s what makes the difference between, again like coffee and Starbucks, because it’s a little bit hands-on, and you know that they took their time to create a blend that is special for them.
We want to help create an individual piece for each person instead of just creating a stock thing that anybody can go pick up and everybody would have.
Sadek: What are some of the most unique suits you’ve made?
Moss: We did a suit for the Day of the Dead for Miguel Martin (of Coleccion Mexicana in downtown Fort Worth). His was all sequins, it was a full sequins suit. But we’ve also done a lot of cultural suits. We did a suit for a Nigerian wedding.
Sadek: Anything else you want to share about your business?
Moss: One of the things that makes us unique is we work with a local artist. His name is Sunflower Man and one of the things we do is collaborations on a lot of linings to create a complete custom lining. So basically, we can put pictures and images inside of these jackets to create whatever you are looking for.
He paints whatever you’re looking for, whatever you’re trying to put together. He creates the image. We put it on the lining, and then we print out a portrait for you to have as well. So it’s part of this package that we have.
Sandra Sadek is a Report for America corps member, covering growth for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at sandra.sadek@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter at @ssadek19.
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