After graduating from Lafayette College (‘01), Craig studied business at Georgetown University (‘03) before attending Rutgers University School of Law (J.D., ‘06). There he was a member of the Rutgers Law Journal and studied abroad in both Cuba and South Africa. In between, he worked at El Centro Hispanoamericano as an immigration advocate and at the Urban Justice Center on behalf of underserved individuals. Upon graduation he practiced law at Stradley Ronon and then Cohen Seglias as a litigation associate.
Craig originally founded Commonwealth Proper in 2008 to find a solution for himself and his law colleagues who were wearing ill-fitting shirts around the office. After finalizing these ready-to-wear patterns, he moved onto custom shirting and suiting. He left the legal practice in March 2011 to open a small, 400 ft. showroom on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. And that’s where it started to get interesting...
Doug partnered up with his best friend from kindergarten Craig to help launch CMMP after spending a decade in the music business. He was the co-founder and CEO of Rough Magic Studios, a music recording and rehearsal business in Greenpoint, Brooklyn that catered to artists such as Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Matisyahu,Talib Kweli, and many others. Doug handles operations and finance at CMMP and is the "yang" to Craig's "yin" - and even after being friends for essentially their entire lives, it still works. He has a BA from Brown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Aaron has over 15 years experience in fashion retail, working for industry icons such as Barneys NY and Urban Outfitters. A graduate of the Custom Tailor Designers Association of America, Aaron has designed thousands of custom garments since joining Commonwealth Proper in 2010. Aaron continues to pump out iconic custom designs while spearheading the custom sales team brand wide. In addition to being a founding member of CMMP, he launched his own private label custom denim brand in 2015, Gentry+Rose.
Vanessa started her fashion design training at an early age, learning the fundamentals of fashion design and illustration on weekends throughout middle school and highschool at the Young Artists Workshop Program at Philadelphia's own Moore College of Art and Design and interning at Philly Style Magazine.
She moved to Milan, Italy where she continued her fashion design training at Istituto Marangoni. She graduated in 2008 and worked for stylists and fashion houses both big and small in Milan before settling into a visual merchandising position. It was through these experiences Vanessa learned the fundamentals of teamwork, organization, management and how to flex her creative muscle.
She moved back to the States and has been part of the CMMP team since 2015, bringing with her her meticulous attention to detail, construction, design skills and the ability to translate the "European fit" to Made in USA suiting.
Today she manages the Philadelphia showroom, production and is Craig's right hand in design and creative direction.
Stefan started his tailoring career at 15 years of age in Tirana, Albania. After serving two compulsory years in the army, he returned to tailoring and has not left it since. He moved to the U.S. in 1996 right before the Albanian bank collapse. In the U.S., Stefan worked in Philadelphia’s garment industry for two decades before joining CMMP in 2015. He has been a key component in establishing CMMP as the premier custom clothing brand in America.