I am beginning to wonder if the 1980’s were just dark years for West-End tailors. The latest dissection candidate, (donated by mack11211, thank you) is a piece by London’s Fallan and Harvey, dating to 1984 and it is, at best, underwhelming, coming from one of a group of tailors who are supposed to be the finest in the world. Let’s assume, however, that the garment fit and the customer was pleased and that the nit-pickingRead More
For the buttonholes on the cashmere jacket I settled on a taupy shade from my stash of vintage twist, in this case Rice’s. I prefer a finer thread, but it works. Things that are in the pipeline- dissections of Savile Row houses Fallan & Harvey and Maurice Sedwell, a vintage dinner jacket from a Havana tailor, and a very interesting coat from French house Smalto. Also on their way- I just bought four lengths ofRead More
I’ve ranted a few times about the many reasons I dislike the use of steamers on tailored clothing, but one of the reasons which I failed to fully explain was ironwork. Tailors use heat and steam to transform a flat piece of cloth into a 3-dimensional shape, only some of which occurs due to seams and darts, the rest is worked up with the iron (thus, ironwork). Here’s a look at what goes into theRead More
I’m nearing completion of a sportcoat made out of a somewhat unusual piece of cashmere from Johnstons of Elgin, so I am beginning to think about buttonhole thread. A check of this nature is sometimes challenging when the buttonholes sit on different area of colour; the normal practice of matching one colour of buttonhole thread might go out the window in favor of matching whatever stripe the buttonhole happens to sit on. I am evenRead More
In the world of tailored clothing, there are houses that are, in my opinion, seriously overhyped, and others who deserve a lot more attention than they get. Chris Despos falls into the latter category. Based now in Chicago, Chris once operated out of Dallas, a city he frequently travels to, in addition to others, so if you are looking for one of the country’s (perhaps one of the world’s) top tailors outside of the ManhattanRead More
The next suit to be dissected is an old bespoke number; made back in 1992, it has clearly been worn. Hard. There is evidence of the waist having been let out but more telling is this- the owner wore right through the knee lining. If I look at the areas of the garment which show the most stress, namely the hem of the trouser (including the inside), the sleeve hem and the seat area, thisRead More
As promised, a vintage Chester Barrie coat courtesy of RSS. Thank you. In the previous dissection we looked at a garment made in Italy by D’Avenza, a shop that was set up by Chester Barrie and thus has certain similarities in make. They are not the same age so some of the differences might be attributed to changes in production methods, but it is interesting (to me) nonetheless. Right off the bat, the un-jetted pocketRead More
A brief heads-up for the tailors out there. I’ve been seeing some of what I consider to be inferior quality canvas cropping up and if you’re not accustomed to looking for this, you may not notice it. So next time you are shopping canvas, bring a loupe or a magnifying glass. The canvas is woven from yarns which are twisted; the animal hair will be mixed with wool, cotton, and maybe other fibers and twistedRead More
The next two coats for study were donated by styleforum’s RSS, whom I thank, and they have an interesting connection. The first one we will look at was made by the Italian firm D’Avenza followed by a coat made by the English firm Chester Barrie. Backing up a bit in time, Chester Barrie was considered by many to be the best manufacturer of ready-to-wear tailored clothing in the world. According to a friend who workedRead More
Well, I’m back. The furniture has arrived, the boxes are unpacked, the holidays are almost behind us and so I’m just about ready to start dissecting again. RSS was kind enough to donate an interesting pair of coats (thank you, RSS) but before we get into those, I wanted to point something out. When I flipped the collar on one of them, something was not right- the was some curious stitching around the collar whichRead More
