Just because.
Fans of the bold, colourful cloth typical of many Italian merchants (especially Isaia) will love Ariston Napoli. This latest piece- a blue and brown check- comes from them, and is surprisingly robust for an Italian cloth. They are represented in the U.S. by Kemp and Hewitt.
Far from random, some careful planning is required, the sort that only another patternmaker can really appreciate.
This time I mean it. So I had some scraps. And maybe a bit too much coffee. I don’t like most of what Thom Browne does, but I understand why he does it. And all those guys who you see in the Sartorialist’s Pitti photos. It’s not that we’re trying to get photographed (ok maybe some are). It’s just that those of us who are surrounded by grey and navy suits day in, and dayRead More
I bought these four pieces of Vendon by Holland and Sherry back in February and I am just now getting the last of them finished. It’s a great cloth- a robust weave which is normally quite dry but this has a roundness to it and even a nice soft finish. If memory serves, there a few other colors; I may go and see if there are any left to pick from. At the same timeRead More
When I was growing up we had a book in the house that I considered the sewing bible. If ever I was was stumped on a particular application I would pull out the old Vogue Sewing Book and it would have clear, well-illustrated instructions on how to insert an invisible zipper or chain-weighted hems. While informative, it was not terribly inspiring. Back in 1995, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art staged a stunning exhibition onRead More
This has been some time in the making but it’s in the final push to finish it. The film maker has made an appeal for donations to help her finish. If you liked the trailer and want to see the rest of it completed, you can go here to make a donation. I did. MEN OF THE CLOTH IndieGoGo Video from Vicki Vasilopoulos on Vimeo.
The internet has a way of expanding the English language and ever since discovering the tailored clothing forums I have also encountered a term that I had never heard used outside of the internet, and that was “quarters”. As in, a way of describing the shape of the front of the coat. Whereas in tailoring circles, or the ones I have always frequented, anyway, have generally referred to a “straight front” or a “cutaway front”,Read More
A few book reviews to do. The first will appeal only to the super-geeks like myself. Published in 1916, The Men’s Factory-Made Clothing Industry is a report on the cost of producing men’s clothing produced by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and can be found on Google Books. Buried within a lot of dry financial statistics is an interesting history of ready-to-wear clothing in the U.S., as well as some very interesting descriptions of theRead More
