Fun thing about blogging- I get to rant every once in a while. Well, rant and praise. I have been flirting with English cloth for a little while, with some interesting results. Since I don’t buy significant quantities of it (I buy Italian usually) I am going through an agent who represents a number of English mills. I bought a piece of flannel from his own stock- a charcoal flannel from J & J Minnis;Read More
Year: 2009
One of the members of the Cutter & Tailor forum posted a link to his company’s website, a modern suit factory in Turkey, which had this video as well as some photos of their factory. It might be interesting for those who have never seen a modular engineered suit factory at work (and this is a well-equipped one), but since most operation may look unfamiliar, I’ll give a play-by-play below. Cruzzo Fabrika 2 from hubegoRead More
Once upon a time, Savile Row had a bit of street cred. Edward Sexton was the technical half of Tommy Nutter, the envelope-pushing, rock and roll side of the row, and in this video he brings Tom Stubbs (of Finch’s Quarterly Review) back to the sixties…..
We’ve seen the shaping that goes into the canvas. We’ve seen the shaping that goes into the pad. Everything that was done to these bits has to be done to the cloth too, but we don’t have the luxury of cuts or darts to impart the shape. This is the part that freaks out some novices, and the thing that makes this kind of shoulder really bad news for factories. To get the kind ofRead More
In this step we will make the shoulder pad for our pagoda shoulder, and this is where we start to see the beauty of the contours of this shoulder come to life. Shoulder pads are another controversial subject mainly due to the excesses of the eighties but they can play an important role. The high, square-shouldered figure should avoid them, while the sloping-shouldered figure will benefit from a bit of enhancement (the wonder-bra for theRead More
Preparing the canvas The shoulder is arguably the most discussed and the most controversial element of a tailored jacket; the whole garment hangs from the shoulder, and the shoulder receives much of the strain from movement. There are perhaps as many ways of constructing, or “expressing” a shoulder as there are tailors, but there area few general shapes, or silhouettes. Some of the names have become muddled throughout the years, but I am going toRead More
Going back a bit again to the Brioni coat. This blogger may need Ritalin. A curiosity here- the top collar is cross-stitched to the lapel by hand. What is a bit curious is that normally the top collar goes on AFTER the facing, but in this case it is clearly put on first. The facing must then be drawn on by hand. Which is curious in a factory setting. You may also notice that IRead More
Now that I’m done the jacket, I should really shorten those shirt sleeves…. Cloth 12 oz 100% wool by Reda (same Italian mill that did my drape jacket cloth). No chest piece, no sleeve head, no wadding, no shoulder pad, mother of pearl buttons. Whereas more structured shoulders have the sleeve seam allowances opened or turned toward the sleeve, in this case, like a shirt, the seam allowance is turned toward the body and pickRead More
My copy finally came this week! It’s very common for us in the garment trade to examine garments, analyze their construction and adapt what we find to our industrialized settings; in this excellent book, David Page Coffin has done the same but with the home sewer in mind. Those who have enjoyed the “Look under the hood” series will love this book, as the first chapter is devoted to the same exercise with 11 pairsRead More
The weather is turning so I am in the mood for new clothes but the flannel hasn’t come in yet. I’ve been eyeing a few jacketing lengths so I cut myself something on the other end of the spectrum; a true “spalla camicia” or shirt shoulder, the softest possible jacket in this light, soft dove colour with steel, oatmeal and rose check. The spalla camicia is one of the typical neapolitan shoulders and generally hasRead More