Stephen Richards | Richards Bespoke
Founder of Richards Bespoke
Stephen Richards is the founder of Richards Bespoke, a custom suiting company based in Nashville. In this video, he shares how he turned a passion for personal style into a full-time business, building confidence through custom, learning by doing, and staying rooted as his city and client base grow.
When Off-the-Rack Didn’t Fit the Vision
Stephen Richards grew up surrounded by entrepreneurship, but it wasn’t until he stepped into a custom suiting appointment that the spark truly lit. The process of being measured, selecting every detail, and watching a piece come together, it was transformative.
He quickly realized how many people had never felt that sense of confidence from clothing that actually fit. They didn’t know a better experience existed. And Stephen knew he could be the one to change that. The challenge? Build a business in an industry where most people defaulted to fast fashion or ill-fitting suits and do it in a way that felt personal, not transactional.
Crafting a Brand Around Confidence
Stephen founded Richards Bespoke to offer more than clothing—he wanted to deliver a sense of ownership and identity. Every detail is personalized, every fit tailored to the individual, every experience intentional.
He chose to stay rooted in Nashville, even as clients and peers asked when he’d expand to cities like New York or L.A. His reason? The brand wasn’t about chasing scale—it was about deepening impact. As Nashville grows, so does his commitment to serving it. Behind the scenes, his competitive spirit pushes the business forward. The benchmark isn’t square footage—it’s: Did we do better than yesterday?
A Business Measured by More Than Numbers
Today, Richards Bespoke serves a client base that spans athletes, executives, and locals who’ve never felt at home in off-the-rack clothing. Stephen’s philosophy is clear: the right suit can shift how someone feels, carries themselves, and shows up in the world.
His advice to entrepreneurs is equally personal: it’s always scary, even years in. But if you love what you do, it’s worth it. You don’t need the perfect name or a flawless plan. Just start. Tune out the noise. Learn as you go. And most of all: don’t let the fact that you haven’t seen it done your way stop you from doing it.
“ The advice I have for aspiring entrepreneurs is if you love it, and if you don’t think there’s a way that you can make money in it, you’ll find a way.”
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My name is Stephen Richards. I'm the owner and founder of Richards Bespoke, and we design and create custom suits for men and women. What inspired me to kind of go after entrepreneurship? I, I grew up in an entrepreneurial family, but I kind of discovered that custom was out there and something to go. Get measured, pick everything out, design everything. And I kind of just fell in love with the process and realized I didn't really wanna work for anybody else. That's what I've always said, competence through custom. It's something for me that that was kind of always my security blanket was dressing well if I knew that I liked what I was wearing. I felt a lot more confident to see that through clients because we have a lot of people that come in that said. You know, I can't find anything off the rack from any store. It's not gonna fit me. Even if I get it tailored, it's still not gonna fit me quite right. And then they find out that it's not that they didn't like wearing a suit, they didn't like the suits that they wore. And when you have something made for you, it's completely different and it just gives you such a good feeling. Early on when I first started this, I did have a few clients that played with the Titans, played in the NFL. Getting Patrick Mahomes as a client was definitely something that has opened a lot of doors for me. It is kind of cool to see people come in because they saw Patrick wearing something. Athletes make up 10% of our clientele. I mean, most business people here in Nashville are a lot of people traveling from a lot of places. Early success is, I think, just being kind of younger in this industry. Um, it's one of the oldest industries known to man, but something about Nashville not having somebody in that younger generation that's catering to, you know, people closer in his age and style, something that my competitors weren't really doing at the time. I've always heard people say when you become an entrepreneur. In fact, my, my sister-in-law, she sent me something that says, do what you love. You'll never work a day in your life. That's crossed out. And it says, do what you love and you pretty much work every day. And, uh, I think for me it was shutting out friends, shutting out family, just trying to work as much as possible to build this. If you love it and if you don't think there's a way that you can make money in it, you'll find a way. If it's something that you truly wanna do that you're happy doing that every day when you go to work, it doesn't feel like work. You'll find a way to do it. And it's, it's scary in the beginning, but you know, eight years in, nine years in, it's still scary for me. But it's, it's a lot of fun and get to do what you love and that's pretty much all that matters for me. I definitely think Brentwood Academy set me up for this because I won best dressed in high school and that honestly was. I've ever since I was little, I've always loved men's clothing, fashion, all of it. And then BA alone, I mean, gosh, most of my best friends still are from high school. Um, and what we talked about earlier about the, all the renovations in the shop is one of my best friends. So it's a lot of, a lot of things from BA is definitely coaches, teachers that I still keep up with. Um, has definitely paved the way for me, I would say how I plan for the future and how I kind of. Go about growth. Um, I'm very competitive, so I'm always trying to do more today than I did yesterday. I get asked that a lot of, are you gonna open up in Chicago, New York, Dallas, um, la and it just, that's not the type of growth that I want. I just wanna be able to, you know, Nashville's growing. It's big. It's a great place to be. And I'm, you know, fortunate enough to be born and raised here. And just to continue, this easiest way to book an appointment is to either go on our website@richardsbespoke.com or reach out to us on Instagram or phone.
Why We Share These Stories
We believe that celebrating Tennessee’s entrepreneurs will inspire the next generation of bold thinkers, risk-takers, and community builders. Entrepreneurs don’t forget where they come from—and they carry the power to transform not just their businesses, but entire neighborhoods, towns, and local economies. See more entrepreneur stories from the Patton Foundation.
