• Metro Custom Dyeing

  306 W. 38th St., nr. Eighth Ave., seventh fl.; 212-391-1001; metrodyeing.com

  When the people at Marc Jacobs, Oscar de la Renta, and Proenza Schouler need a piece specially tinted hours before a runway show, they go—very quickly—to Metro Custom Dyeing. Jaret Vasallo has the eye-catching job title of head dyer and can immediately tell whether a garment will absorb or resist color. People have trusted him with everything from wedding gowns ($75) to their favorite jeans ($50). He’ll turn away “questionable” pieces like a dress with delicate sequins or a ski jacket with seven different fibers, but once he commits, he’ll stay with your precious shmatte from start to finish, gently hand-agitating it in water, salt, vinegar, and powdered dye until it gets to just that soft blue or radical fuchsia you were hoping for.

From the 2010 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine