Neville Wisdom is the Head Designer and Owner of the Neville Wisdom clothing label based in New Haven, Connecticut. Neville began designing and creating clothing at the age of fifteen, and learned many aspects of the trade from watching a local tailor in his small rural town in Jamaica. Neville is mostly self taught, having picked up his love for creating clothing from a combination of necessity and originality––straying from the norm even as a child.
Neville has been designing clothing for both men and women for over twenty-five years. In 2008, Neville entered the USA fashion scene opening a tiny boutique in Westville and selling assorted small brand clothing without the help of additional employees. Since then, Neville has opened two Neville Wisdom retail locations that exclusively produce and sell his clothing line. The Neville Wisdom Studio focuses on manufacturing clothing of integrity, quality, longevity––all Made in USA.
Neville is a man of the community. He mentors aspiring designers, teaches children at numerous schools and classrooms, hosts on-site field trips, and curates charity fashion shows. He is a man who would give you the shirt off his back, and chances are he probably made it.
HEAD DESIGNER & OWNER
THE COMPANY
NEVILE WISDOM LLC is a clothing design atelier and retailer. The atelier where each garment is hand made is located in the Neville Wisdom Westville shop located at 903 Whalley Ave New Haven. It is the manufacturing powerhouse for each and every Neville Wisdom garment. Each garment–be it from the collection or your custom order–is designed, cut, and constructed in The Studio. It houses beautiful, hand-selected fabrics sourced from NYC that you can consider and select from when thinking about your custom design order from Neville Wisdom. We provide a number of Services in addition to creating new seasonal collections. Have a question? Contact us! (203) 745-5009
Automated Pattern Cutting System
Neville has been cutting hundreds of patterns manually for 25 years. Yet, to meet the increasing demand for Neville Wisdom garments and to accomodate to loyal clientele, Neville Wisdom collaborated with the State of Connecticut's Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) for a solution to manufacture USA-made clothing, create jobs, and empower communities–especially minority communities. With the support of the DECD for Neville Wisdom's unique, USA-made clothing and community-oriented business, the Automated Pattern Cutting System was acquired.
The Automated Pattern Cutting System allows Neville and his team to digitize and modify the pattern of a garment should it require customizations according to your wants as a customer. It also remembers your measurements and unique body shape to easily design any of your future garments. When a garment's pattern is completed, a fabric of choice is laid out onto the machine, and it is cut in minutes. It is then constructed by our seamstresses or tailors. The Automated Pattern Cutting System streamlines an 8-hour workload into a single hour.
The Studio as a Collaborative Space
Brands, industry professionals, aspiring designers, students, and individuals from the community are welcome to use The Studio as a collaborative space for learning, creating samples, grading/digitizing patterns (e.g. into .DXF, .AAMA files), and manufacturing products. Shen - New York and Sheila Marley have used The Studio. Read more about The Studio offerings: Classes, Cut & Sew, Design Incubator.
THE TEAM
LAUREN SPRAGUE
BRAND DIRECTOR & STYLIST
Lauren Sprague is the Neville Wisdom Brand Director and Clothing Stylist. She has been with the company since 2012, overseeing its growth and expansion not only in vision, style, and presentation, but also in sales and marketing. Lauren is the director of all events, runway shows & photo shoots, as well as sourcing fabric & determining the colors & materials for the collections. Lauren works with both Neville Wisdom clients and Neville himself to bring the most beautiful and tailored garments to each and every customer.
When she first discovered Neville Wisdom's designs and his dreams for the community, Lauren was in the field of health sciences. In a change of pursuit, she began working with Neville Wisdom with a tour de force of passion marked by strategic expansion.
Lauren has worked to bring Neville Wisdom to two different locations in New Haven (Chapel St. & Westville). Lauren works to showcase the fall and spring Neville Wisdom collections twice a year through fashion shows held in Downtown New Haven, bringing the community and businesses together.
Lauren is a certified fashion stylist from FIT, where she presented a fashion editorial "War on Wrap," wherein she constructed and styled garments made out of recycled fast food items like straws, hamburger boxes, and plastic lids, as her final presentation for her certification. When she is not busy at Neville Wisdom, she is working back stage for major fashion houses in NYC including designers such as Oscar de la Renta, Givenchy, Thom Browne & Rebecca Minkoff. See more of Lauren's work here.
Dwayne has studied design for the past 6 years and in 2016 he began studying under and working for Neville Wisdom. Dwayne has a hand in many aspects of the Neville Wisdom LLC machine, including editing patterns, cutting garments, specialty sewing, and always ready to take on any new projects. Dwayne is an intricate part of the company jumping in and assisting with any tasks that need to be completed. Dwayne specializes in menswear, and is developing his own collection, see more of his work here.
DWAYNE MOORE
APPRENTICE
Clester Oswald is a the Head Tailor/Dress Maker at Neville Wisdom. He learned to sew and construct early on in his life in Jamaica, but had stopped practicing the craft sometime in his life. When he started working at Neville Wisdom, he re-learned the craft with Neville's training. He works alongside other tailors and seamstresses, carefully constructing and manufacturing pieces of the beautiful Neville Wisdom collection as well as custom designs. He is known in the studio for the patient steadiness with which he constructs every piece, an approach and outlook that Neville is known to take.
CLESTER OSWALD
HEAD TAILOR/DRESS MAKER