Stuart Suits’ Les Roubin prepares to hang up his tape measure

He’s dressed judges and barristers as well as those about to appear in the dock but the man behind one of Brisbane’s oldest tailoring firms is preparing to hang up his tape measure.

He’s dressed judges and barristers as well as those about to appear in the dock, but the man behind Brisbane’s iconic Stuart Suits is preparing to hang up his tape measure.

For more than half a century, Les Roubin had been the tailor of choice to Brisbane’s legal and business fraternity, continuing the tradition set by his grandfather who set up a small shop in the city after emigrating from Scotland.

Les, now 70, first went to work for the family business Roubin Suits in Queen St in the early 1970s as a fresh-faced 17-year-old under his father Phillip.

“I started at the bottom sweeping floors and cleaning windows,” says Les. “This was the days of the Beatles with the wide collars and boots.”

Les says Roubin Suits was just down the street from Stuart Suits, a business established in 1930 and that had wide windows to display its wares.

“They were our friendly competition,” Les recalls. “We would see when they had sales and take advantage of the extra foot traffic going past.”

When Stuart Suits owner Bob Gould decided to retire in the early 1980s, Les saw a business opportunity. “Bob had let it run down as he wanted to get out but I knew it was a good business,” he says.

Les says the Stuart name was so well known and respected that he decided to retire the Roubin name altogether. The business moved into its current George St premises, a stone’s throw away from the law courts and barristers’ chambers, more than 30 years ago.

“A lot of our clients are from the legal profession,” he says. “When I started at 17 a lot of these guys were articled clerks, but now they were senior barristers and judges.”

Stuart Suits owner Les Roubin has been serving the business community for more than half a century. Photo: Glen Norris

At one stage, the business occupied two floors with suits in the basement and an upmarket casual wear shop called Admirals Quarters on the first floor. Les says the proximity to the law courts meant Stuart Suits had a ringside seat to some of Queensland’s biggest legal dramas, including the Fitzgerald inquiry into corruption in the late 1980s.

“We had the ‘Bagman’ Jack Herbert wander in for a browse one time,” says Les. “Another time one of the accused was trying on a suit in the dressing room during a break and the crown prosecutor, who a few minutes earlier had been attacking the guy in court, also came in. Thankfully, I managed to keep them separated.”

Les says that he not only dresses lawyers and judges but the people about to appear before them. “I look them straight in the eye, tell them to dress with credibility and to look like the lawyers,” he says. Over the years, Les says he has learnt to never judge a book by its cover. “We have had people turn up in shorts and a polo shirt and they have been multi-millionaires,” he says. “Everyone gets treated like kings here and we pride ourselves on our service.” The business has been through its tribulations, most recently during Covid-19 when sales fell by as much as 70 per cent.

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But Les says the biggest hit to the firm occurred one night in 2012 when a burst water main flooded the shop by more than a metre and destroyed hundreds of suits. “If it had occurred during the day, we would have been dead because it happened so quickly,” he says. “We would have been electrocuted because there is an electrical substation in the same basement.”

The flood put the business out of action for months but it was able to open a pop up store on a higher floor in the same building. Les says the lease for his George St shop will not be renewed in 2023 because of plans to redevelop the building.

By that time he will be 72 and ready to retire. He would like to pass the business on to a new owner who will realise it values and tradition.