New suit gives unemployed man HOPE

Troy Baptiste was grinning as he stared at his reflection in the full-length mirror, admiring the navy blue suit that was made specially for him. The elderly tailor scurried around Baptiste, sticking pins into the fabric, his brow furrowed in concentration.

"I don't think I ever looked this good in a suit," Baptiste said, breaking into laughter. "I can't wait to go to this job interview wearing this suit."

It was an unusual day for Baptiste, 30, an unemployed Brooklynite who can hardly afford a McDonald's Happy Meal for his 4-year-old son, let alone a custom-made suit.

He was one of 17 jobless men who are receiving suits worth $1,000 each from Mohan Ramchandani, a renowned tailor who has fitted New York City's wealthiest residents, including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, for 30 years at Mohan's Custom Tailors.

The recipients are students and graduates of the HOPE Program, a nonprofit that provides work readiness training and job placement assistance to impoverished New Yorkers.

The program is hoping the new suits will help the men, some of whom have served prison time, make a fresh start in a difficult job market.

"It makes them stand a little bit taller," said Irene Camp, HOPE Program's development director. "I think it helps them to portray a really professional outlook, and helps to set the tone for the kind of employee that they're going to be."

Baptiste decided he needed to turn his life around after he was laid off in 2010 and ended up serving several months in jail, though he did not elaborate.

The program set Baptiste up with an unpaid internship at Baruch College, where he performs clerical work at the graduate admissions office. Now he's trying to land a similar paid job or one as a lab technician. Anything, really, that will help him provide a good life for his son.

Ramchandani was inspired to help these men because he sympathizes with their plight. An immigrant from India, he started his business 30 years ago, with very little money, in a rented space at the Roosevelt Hotel.

"What you study at school, that's one thing," said K.J. Singh, a sales manager at Mohan's. "But how you look at the job, that's another. That gives an individual a lot of confidence."