The co-founder of 1701 Bespoke, a men's custom clothier in Midtown Detroit, plans to set up clothing manufacturing in the city's New Center area.

Max Schmidt, 31, started Commonwealth Sewing Co. with Detroit investor Andrew Stott, and they're leasing a space in a renovated former manufacturing facility south of Grand Boulevard and west of the Lodge Freeway.

Commonwealth will do manufacturing work for 1701 Bespoke, but the plans are bigger than that, Schmidt said. It also plans to do fabric-cutting jobs for other local apparel makers and he wants to provide training for workers.

The plan comes as progress is made on a nonprofit Detroit fashion initiative called the Industrial Sewing And Innovation Center. It's expected to operate an apprenticeship program for clothing production and is among initiatives seeking to help make Detroit a fashion hub at the intersection of design and manufacturing.

The creation of Commonwealth Sewing is partly an effort by Schmidt to move 1701 Bespoke's manufacturing from Italy and China to the United States — Detroit, specifically.

The manufacturing company is separate from 1701 Bespoke, though, which Schmidt founded in 2012 with Tom Daguanno. Schmidt bought out Daguanno last year.

1701 Bespoke opened its 2,700-square-foot fitting and showroom in 2016 at 4160 Woodward Ave., adjacent to the Majestic Theatre. Before that it hosted a pop-up in Campus Martius and then had a location at 719 Griswold St. until late 2014.