Montoya Noe Academy Tailor Shop

I had a small tear in the back of a very expensive leather jacket. I asked Mr. Noe if he repaired leather jackets. He said he did. So I made the drive to Pasadena, took it in and he said «Oh, no; no can repair leather jacket. Needs patch». I asked him if the patch would show. «Oh, yes». I said never mind and left. This was a very small tear and I asked him before I went there if he could repair it, and he said he could; so he completely wasted my time. I don’t think I would have trusted him even if he said he could repair it; he looks and acts as if he should have retired several years ago; and based on the other reviews I’ve read here that state he doesn’t even bother measuring or completing his stitching, I’m relieved that I didn’t.

It is always a pleasure to do business with Noe. He loves his career, and it shows. He takes pride in his work, and it shows. I have had suits and formal dresses tailored by Noe for many years, and I’ve been impressed with all of his work.
One time I had brought in a jacket that was badly tailored (by someone else.) We tried to salvage it with 3 separate fittings, but it was just never going to look perfectly. (It really was a disaster to begin with, but it had sentimental value.) Even though I know Noe must have put more time/​labor into that jacket than most other garments I had sent to him in the past, he wouldn’t accept any payment from me when I decided to throw in the towel on that jacket. Not only does he do great work, but he is a lovely individual with integrity. We need more business owners like this one. :)

I have been going to Noe for years! He has worked on over a hundred articles of my clothing and he always impresses me! He is such a sweet person and is very experienced. I would recommend him to any of my friends.

Based on some of the reviews here I brought in a couple suits to get fitted/​taken-​in by Noe. As others have stated, Noe is very friendly and makes you feel very comfortable about the changes he recommends. He’s very knowledgeable and has had many years of experience in the tailoring industry.
I’m leaving a not so pleasant review as the workmanship of the alterations did not match the high pricing. Noe did not get the job done properly on the first try — a sleeve wasn’t shortened to the right length and the sides were not taken in enough to make the waist and chest more fitted. On top of it, I probably spent close to $ 200 per suit on the alterations.
Now, having been to other alteration shops, I feel know that better work can be found elsewhere and at a better price.
Unfortunately I really would not care to refer any of my friends here.

Noe is WONDERFUL!
A man of great character and skill. I will not go anywhere else after being introduced to his Tailor Shop. He knows fashion, cuts, and sizing in the most innate way. He will pin a solution in an instant!
I have brought in clothing that I thought would have no chance or fixing, Noe proved otherwise, after his work I feel beautiful in my fitted dresses and pants alike.
So happy to have met and done business with him.
Thank you!

This is my go to tailor. I have been going to him for years. Prices are reasonable compared to other tailor shops I have looked into. I’m slightly shorter than your average male so you can guess I need alterations on every single jean or dress slacks I purchase. Mr. Montoya once rushed a suit alteration in 4 days or was it 3? I’m not sure but it got done and I was impressed with the alterations. I would reccomend him to anyone. Parking can be an issue at times but I found a small brisk walk isn’t a big deal.

I have been going to Academy for the past 3 years. I have tried 6 other tailors in Pasadena and San Marino and they have all been fair at best. A friend recommended Noe and I gave it a shot. He was amazing. He completely re-​worked a dress so it fit exactly to my body. It was originally 2 sizes too big but I bought it on sale and thought I’d give it a shot with a tailor. My mother and daughter both use him too. My mom had tried 2 different cleaners in Pasadena and couldn’t believe the difference. Only once was he late in getting something back to me and for being late he refused to take any payment. I’ve never had him hem anything;I’ve only used him for alterations. I can’t recommend him highly enough.

I have been going to Mr. Noe Montoya for a while now. He is such an excellent gentleman with gentle character and a good heart. I am happy to be his client. He is always so excited to see me passing by! He does an excellent job with my shirts and suits. The value is definitely there.
Thanks Mr. Montoya!

I feel really terrible having to give Mr. Montoya and not-​so-​stellar review update :(I’m all about supporting small local businesses, but me and bf’s last couple tailoring jobs were not-​so-​great.
On more than one occasion, we arrived at our designated time to pick up our finished garments (usually like: specific day + morning), only to be told to come back a couple hours later. Luckily for us, our garments were never time sensitive and we had nothing else to do during the day, but this could create an emergency for most people. Plus, wasting gas sucks.
My boyfriend got a white dress shirt tailored and it was tailored wayyy too small. Mr. Montoya tried to fix it, but there’s really nothing you can do when there’s no more fabric to let out. In addition, there were strange oil spots here and there that we couldn’t remove with bleach. Eventually after a few wears, the shirt fabric actually split at the side seam. $ 50 shirt down the drain.

Let me start by saying that the old man or the owner is a very nice person. But that’s how far it goes. He charges way too much for the below quality workmanship. I had him tailored a few suits and pants and noticed that he did terrible threading on all my clothes. I took one of my pants to another shop and was told that his threading was awful. I took the suits he tailored as well and they noticed how this guy did things half way. My suggestion is to go somewhere else or turn your clothes inside out and go over his work. To expensive to get bad quality.

A really excellent tailor. Mr. Montoya understands how a suit should fit and does great work. Service is efficient and friendly. He lengthened the sleeves on a sportcoat for me and the result was perfect.

Noe is an awesome man, a remnant of bygone haberdashery of yesteryear. This being said, I’m not sure he’s even the one doing the tailoring these days (I’ve seen others working on clothing in the side room). Last couple visits here, not so great. Simple hem on my new navy suit turned out with a short break, bordering on flood pants. 99% sure it wasn’t measured out this way since I usually insist on a medium/​long break for pants. Noe rules as a person, but given the price and long turnaround for work being done, I’m taking my business elsewhere.

Noe is a man befitting the bygone days of haberdashery, what with his impeccable suits, ever-​present tape measure shoulder drape, and the inquiries about how is school treating you and how’s the family and what other interesting things are going on in town? However, our clothing doctor’s old-​fashioned elegance accompanies an ability to mend those modern-pain-in-the-ass-Camel-Bak-zippers-you-know-the-ones-with-lots-of-knots-and-plastic-coverings-and-do-they-all-have-to-be-grey-where-the-%^$&-do-I-find-grey-zippers-and-why-do-they-always-come-off-the-damn-slider!!!11
But I digress. The local competing alteration shop quoted me $ 20 to take care of the situation, and then called two weeks later with a sorry miss, but this is just way out of our league. Noe carefully surveyed the damage, repaired the zipper, attempted to charge me only $ 7, and ultimately sent me on my way with bilateral kisses, in the European fashion.

i give them a two i went it service was ok but thats not what im there for but it didnt leave a good feeling for a review i took so jeans in for the to shorten and one leg was shorter then the other
never agian

Here’s the thing about Noe: he’s a great, friendly little man, and he really does put in a pretty serious effort. But upon meeting him, I knew right away we might have a bit of a communication problem, and we certainly did.
How was I going to explain to this man what a metrosexual is???
I walked in there with a brand new suit and several pictures of how I want the suit to fit. All pictures were of James Bond. I told him,“I want to look like James Bond, but kind of gay. Like a gay James Bond. But not super gay, because I’m not gay.” He thought about it for a second and said,“Gay. like… the… homo?” And I replied, «Yes, like the homo. But I don’t want to LOOK homo, just like I kind of have the style of one, you know what I mean?» He laughed, nodded in agreement, then we stood around for a good 20 minutes fitting the suit. I told him where I want more taper, where I want less, where I wanted my junk to bulge more, where it was bulging too much, the whole shebang. By the end of it, we had a million pins and it was looking damn good.
… Fast-​forward to one week later, when he asked me to come in again for a test fit before finishing touches. I was pretty damn pissed. My suit looked NOTHING like James Bond. It didn’t even look how I’d imagine James Bond’s gay brother to dress. I looked like some kind of gay Asian reject from The Beatles. He showed me the pictures I had brought in and said,“Looks exact, right?” And I replied,“No… It actually doesn’t at all… And I don’t believe that’s how it looked when we pinned everything up either.” But there was a problem. He had already cut off so much of the extra material that the suit was beyond repair. I told him to give me extra room in certain parts, make my balls not show through the pants, etc. Unfortunately, it’s a little more difficult to make a visual mock-​up of letting OUT the suit, since there’s nothing to pin and mark. I trusted he had gotten the point and was going to work a miracle.
… Fast forward one more week. I go to pick up my suit… and… it looks almost exactly the fucking same as the week before. I suppose that’s expected since he had already cut so much of the material that there was only so much damage control he could do. Now, somebody else might like the fit of this suit, but it’s certainly not what I asked for, and definitely not close to what we had agreed upon during my first visit. Still, I realized it was a lost cause, took the suit and left. If I recall correctly, the whole thing worked out to $ 160, but this was over two years ago so I can’t say for certain. What I CAN say for sure is that I’ve since worn that suit exactly twice, and never plan to again.
But despite the horrible experience, I can tell the guy really was putting in some kind of serious effort. He just seems to have his own idea of how to make a suit fit, and I just highly disagree with him. For his friendly attitude alone, I’ll give him an extra star he doesn’t deserve, but it’s closer to a 1.5.

Hate to say anything bad about Noe b/​c he’s suuuuch a nice man. The issue was, I took a dress there to get altered prior to a wedding. I had to come back 3 times before it was ok and by the time it was done, I was actually picking up the dress the day of the wedding!
I needed the hem taken up and then torso area taken in, just below the armpits and at the waist. However, they took the whole torso area in and then the dress didn’t zip up. We let the dress out and then it was too loose. Then Noe took it back in before all was said and done. Each time I went in, I would ask Noe, do you want to mark how much you’re going to take in with chalk or pins, but he said he saw it and knew — clearly not the case since we did alterations 3 times! I tried to help without being bossy — oh well. In the end, it wasn’t perfect, but there was a sash at the waist and I figured if worse came to worse I’d just tie the bow really tight to cinch the waist. This would not have had to happen if the alterations were done correctly. I haven’t been back since.
Why the two stars? Noe was so nice. He gave me a discount for being new and never argued with me when I stated the dress needed to be redone. I know, I’m a sucker for kind old men.

I took my topcoat in to be taken-​in last winter. I said I needed it finished a week from the day I brought it in because I was going on a trip to Philadelphia and I needed a warm coat. I asked him if he could have it ready by then and he said, «No problem.»
I never heard from him, so I called him the day before my trip and asked him if the coat was ready yet, and he said it wasn’t but he’d have it ready for me in 2 more days. I told him I couldn’t pick it up in two days because I would be on my trip, and he said he’d have it ready by the time I got back! This defeated the entire purpose of having the coat tailored, but what could I say? I ended up buying another coat for the trip.
When I got back I called him and asked if the coat was ready, and he said no, but told me he would call me when it was ready. Finally, about a month after bringing in my coat to be taken-​in he called me and told me it was ready. I went in to get it, and he hadn’t even taken it in! All he had done was cropped the shoulders, which I didn’t even ask him to do! He then told me the cost would be $ 90! I was livid, and I’ll never go back to him again.

Hit or Miss? MISS!!! I took my bridesmaid dress 06÷4÷10 to make alterations to the length and to reposition the shoulder straps. Noa made me feel super comforable but in the end It was a disaster. He did not use a measuring tape so my dress ended up lopsided. I now have to return my shoes for a new pair with a shorter heel to cover the error. If I were to keep the perfectly matched shoe I wore to the fitting and alter the dress to the shortest length, I would look like an idiot. So here we go more shoe shopping =(Next, because he does not totally assess the type of alterations needed for the garment YOU WILL NEED TO REVISIT HIM FOR MULITPLE FITTINGS. My pickup date went from ⁶⁄₈ to 6/​9, to 6/​11, then finally ⁶⁄₁₄ and some of the work was uncompleted and I had to wait 30 minutes while he fixed the broken clasp he damaged before.
If you have a broken button take your garment to Montoya Noe. If you have either expensive clothing, or detailed tailoring RUN. Find someone else.
I’m just saying.

I love Noe, he’s the best! I brought in an evening dress for tailoring because it was too long, and he fixed it up magnificently. Finished it quickly under a super tight deadline, too. (I say three days, he says no problem).
You won’t find a better tailor than him. He’s super nice, super polite, and does a fantastic job. And he’ll wish you a nice day about 9 times as you’re leaving. Tip: ring the doorbell, he’ll come let you into the shop, don’t just yank the door open!

I came here just based on reviews online. I had a bridesmaid dress that was two sizes too big and needed to be ready in at least a month.
I had originally took it to someone who held onto it for a month and did nothing. So Noe was my last resort. He truley was the sweetest man ever very polite very comforting. I thought my dress was a disaster and that there was no saving it.
In less than a week he called me to let me know that the dress was ready for my second fitting. My friends and I joked that he must have little elves in the back working because what he did was a miracle! The dress looked amazing and only had a few more minor areas that needed to be taken in.
I dont know how he did it but the dress went from hideous to gorgeous. He was very complementing and just a really sweet guy. He has worked his whole life as a tailor and is very proud of his work. he has worked on movie sets and has worked in this shop for over 20 years!
The guy knows what he is doing! He maybe a bit pricey but its all charged based on the work. Considering all the work he did on my dress he had the right to charge what he did.
I would definately go back to even have little things tailored he knows what he is doing and is soooo sweet!