Nashville Luxury Womenswear Designer Cavanagh Baker gave me a ring one day and mentioned that she was sending a guy my way who was browsing my Instagram and was interested in getting a wild custom outfit for his night out at the 2018 Grammy Awards in New York. His name is Gramps Morgan of the Grammy Award Winning Reggae band Morgan Heritage.  Cavanagh was among others, making a custom garment for his pregnant wife, Annabelle.

Initially, Gramps came in wearing Cincinnati Bengals shorts and t-shirt. I found out later that he was debating a career in professional football player, but chose to pursue a career music in the end. He is a very smart and talented guy.  As we got to know each other, I discovered that he is a producer, musician and marketing wiz, among many other things.

I wanted to capture this moment in a classic way so I decided that there was no one better than Alex Berger to photograph our moment. Gramps was amazed when we unveiled his outfit.

When making custom garments, sometimes it takes a two fittings to get the fit just right.  Our meeting revealed that the vest didn’t fit at all. I had to shorten the length by 4 inches which made it a 4 button waistcoat, so I added another buttonhole. Jacket needed to be pinched in at the fastening button. Being a really big guy, Gramps wanted to let out the crotch a bit for more comfort when seated. After the alterations were made Gramps was ready to go to the Grammy Awards, where Morgan Heritage was nominated for Reggae Album of the Year.

As always I feel very honored and lucky to create clothing for some of the most talented people in the world.  In the end, Morgan Heritage did not win the award for Reggae Album of the year, but that’s ok because they were already Grammy Award winners. It was so fun to work with this big, fun, charismatic guy and his wife.

Cheers

-EA