Estill Robinson
Located in the downtown shared office space Base 110, the Albert Couture showroom opened in February 2020. In the showroom, Albert Lukonga gets to know his clients, takes their precise measurements and goes over options for fabrics, patterns and other personalized details.
As the owner of Albert Couture, a bespoke men’s clothier, Albert Lukonga is a self-made entrepreneur. He credits a variety of sources for his knowledge of sales and business, including formal education, business motivation books, local mentors and plenty of experimentation.
As the seventh of 10 kids growing up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe, Lukonga comes by his people skills naturally. His family moved to Lexington in the summer of 2006, and he graduated from Henry Clay High School in 2011.
Lukonga spent a semester at Eastern Kentucky University and transferred to the University of Kentucky to enroll in a pre-med program. He took a few business classes along the way and left UK during his junior year to work full-time in sales.
He sold energy drinks; he worked door-to-door sales, selling knives and vacuum cleaners; he picked up a job at Baptist Health transporting patients. He learned about retail by working at J.Crew. He mixed paint at Lowe’s, which helped him understand color palettes. He sold shirts and suits at Jos A. Bank.
“I wasn’t afraid to experiment,” he said. “I feel like all of us are born with a purpose. But the trick is being able to find it and put it on the right platform.” He asked himself, “What is something I talk about without thinking, you know, when I go out with my guys?”
The answer turned out to be operating his own bespoke clothing shop. Lukonga is known for his keen fashion sense, and friends would often ask him for clothing advice.
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Estill Robinson
Every element of Albert Couture’s designs are bespoke, meaning that every detail — from fabric, pattern and fit to buttons, cufflinks and lining — is tailor-made based on the measurements and specifications of the individual client.
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Estill Robinson
“OK, check. So, what did I grow up around when I was young?” he then asked. His dad was an entrepreneur. His mother was an entrepreneur in the fashion world, and he had helped her throughout his childhood, learning to sew on buttons and hem pants.
Lukonga traveled to Europe and worked directly with fashion suppliers in Italy, Belgium, London and Spain. He learned how to put fabrics together and create a high-quality product “without charging customers a crazy amount of money,” he said.
He would say, “I work for Albert Couture on the East Coast of the United States. It’s a new company. I’m here shopping around to see who’s willing to take over this contract.”
Knowing that most of those fabric companies deal in million-dollar contracts, he was still able to buy fabric samples from them “to see how this is going to work out.” He came back to Kentucky to make shirts and suits for one client at a time, asking each person, “What else can we do better?”
Estill Robinson
He had heard from books and mentors not to reinvent the wheel. He concentrated on working better and more efficiently, with an attention to detail and personalized focus. Lukonga’s goal is to pair the right fabric and design with each client, customizing each piece and making it as perfect as possible, the first time.
In January 2020, he prepared to officially launch Albert Couture, working out of Base110 in downtown Lexington. He was planning a grand opening for March.
“I had three hanging suits. I had a couple of shoe samples. I had one couch. I had maybe eight ties on the wall and a couple sample books,” he said. “That’s how I was going to do my grand opening.”
And then the pandemic hit. Lukonga had already decided not to keep inventory, since each piece is customized. As the weeks wore on, he realized people weren’t buying or wearing suits, so he started making jeans and then sweaters and customized sneakers. “I had to be an entrepreneur, because that’s how I was created,” he said.
“I had to answer problem solving in Lexington that people didn’t notice. I hated shopping [in retail stores], so I wanted to create [an alternative] almost selfishly.”
Lukonga began charging $60 for consultations. It takes time and energy to meet with a potential client, take measurements, choose colors and design a look. The fee is applied toward the first purchase, and otherwise is nonrefundable.
“No one was used to this in Lexington,” he said. “My conversion rate went through the roof.”
As more orders roll in, Lukonga has remained focused on delivering on a customized, high-quality product tailored for each individual client.
“Create one product, make sure you can get your first feedback, and then do it again,” Lukonga said. “That’s how I’ve built my business.”