Saturday Morning Bespoke

With a large cup of coffee, of course.  Featured: a navy blazer cut in a superfine wool from Huddersfield Cloth.

Tweed Season Is Coming

Autumn soon approaches, and with it arrives Tweed Season. Experienced customers will know to place their orders for seasonal pieces 4-6 months in advance to ensure that their jacket or suit is ready in time. Here, I am working on a two-piece country tweed suit that is expected to be completed in October, just as the temperature begins to decline here in our Nation's Capital.

The brown herringbone tweed cloth is a well-established classic that is about 13-14 ounces in weight. The coat will be finished with a three-button front and patch pockets, which will give it both a classic and casual look.

I will soon undertake the pad-stitching of the lapel which will help create a very natural roll. These stitches will help retain the roll of the lapel for the life of the garment. I look forward to finishing this project.

 

Double-breasted Waistcoat

This waistcoat is the first part of a three-piece suit. It is nearly ready for a first fitting. When I am making a three-piece suit, I like to start with the waistcoat because it is easier to construct than the jacket and it gives me the first opportunity to work with the selected fabric and learn how workable and stretchable it is. In this case, I am using a medium weight gray wool fabric with white chalk stripes.

I am pleased with this particular cloth not only because of the appealing wide-stripe pattern, but also because the fabric is very workable which will come in handy when I am shaping the back of the jacket (to accommodate the protrusion of the shoulder blades) and the waistlines. Shaping of the cloth is a very important process where a tailor uses his iron to stretch the fabric in certain areas to fit the contours of the body. In essense, it helps create shape that cannot otherwise be molder or sculpted by darts, hems, and seams. Different fabrics feature different characteristics in this respect. For example, a cotton fabric is not very workable, while woolens and flannels prove much more amenable to shaping.

Here is how we have arrived at this current stage:

 

 

Have Needle - Will Travel

 A couple months ago, I accepted a commission to design and create a custom vest for a young business finance analyst who is interested in crafting his professional wardrobe.  He has already collected an excellent foundation of everyday suits for the office, but he has been craving a custom piece whose expression is both powerful and unique.  Finding inspiration in the popular film Ocean's Eleven, my client has requested a waistcoat very similar to that worn by the cold-hearted and robotic casino owner Terry Benedict.

The vest is worn by Benedict with his evening tuxedo as he mingles on the floor of his casino.  The waistcoat is noteworthy for its high mandarin-like collar, the black satin fabric, and its double-breasted cut.  Though the audience is only teased by fleeting glimpses, the vest is really quite a sharp look.

Note the high collar which conceals most of the silk neckwear.

 

The sheen of the cloth and its intricate design are both visible from a distance.

My client wishes to replicate the style with a few personal touches that make the vest more flexible for combination with a variety of suits on a number of different occasions.  The formality of Benedict's vest restricts its use to evening wear alone.

 

I made time over the holidays to travel to my client who lives in another city.  There we conducted the first formal consultation.  We had discussed the project over the phone and by email, but for the first time I was able to sit down with him and sketch conceptual drawings while we worked out the finer details.  I find it's extremely important to provide visual aides to my customers in order to help them determine what exactly they desire.  Verbal description alone can only accomplish so much, and I always enjoy a bit of drawing.

 

After we've nailed down the most important design specifications, I set about taking the necessary measurements which will be used to create the pattern for the vest.  In all, I noted about two dozen dimensions.

 

My present task surrounds the acquisition of the selected fabric.  When you don't have your own brick and mortar shop, the entire consultation process can be painstaking and time consuming.  But while I await the shipment of the fabric, I'm busy converting the measurements into a workable paper pattern that will be ready for the chalking and cutting the cloth as soon as it arrives.  Relying on my notes, I will lightly baste most of the garment together at which time I will meet with the client again for a first fitting.  Despite the amount of travel that will be required to bring the vest to completion, I look forward to crafting this item in the weeks to come.  I'll share pictures as the project unfolds.

 

Careful measurements will contribute to an excellent fit.

 

 

Clean Lines

Gregory Peck looking very clean.

Anyone who has ever gone shopping for a ready made suit or jacket knows the routine.  You scan the assorted racks before selecting a pleasing style in your usual size and fit.  Slipping on the jacket and closing the front button, you peer carefully over your shoulder into the mirror.

If you're like me, your eyes dart suspiciously across every visible angle to uncover imperfections as part of an exacting evaluation of the fit.  I usually attempt a few common motions (like moving my arms in different directions or taking a seat) to test how naturally the garment rests on my body.  The object of this strict examination is to determine if the fit is acceptable enough to justify an investment.

But what are the most common indicators of a good fit?  I'll be addressing several in a series of upcoming posts.  But today, I'd like to discuss one trademark of a well-fitting suit:  clean lines.

As I've mentioned before, a good suit closely compliments the wearer's unique body shape and dimensions.  But when jacket or pants are ill-fitted to an individual, it becomes easily apparent.  Tight clothing is universally recognizable when the seams fight to contain body and limb within.  And we can all think of at least one example of the converse disorder where a man can be seen swimming in the undulating waves of cloth created by a suit too large for his frame.  These waves and rumples are always to be avoided.



Too Large / Too Tight

But where rumples are the defect, clean lines are the cure.  Rumples interrupt a natural drape over the wearer's body and they are cause by a number of faults that may include too much cloth, too little cloth, or geometry of the garment not suited to certain body types.  With regards suits, the ideal fit can be seen below in the clean jacket and pants fashioned by men's style blogger Simon Crompton.

As you can see, the jacket lies flat across the back and chest and it hugs his slim waistline extremely well.  The slacks hang straight with a very limited number of breaks.  There is neither too much, nor too little fabric.  The discerning buyer looks for a fit that lays smoothly across the body and eliminates as many interruptions as possible.

So the next time you're scrutinizing a potential purchase, keep a watchful eye out for spots where the cloth bunches, tugs, or rolls.  Your wardrobe should look like it was made for you, and it can only accomplish this if it follows the smooth landscape of your precise figure.