Huntsman tweed suit: Part 6

Tailoring is a very technical art. Despite the many times I have seen a suit being chalked, cut and made, there is still an awful lot I don’t understand and certainly can’t explain easily. Perhaps it could only be fully understood by doing it yourself. It’s something others could bear in mind on occasion too.

It is satisfying therefore to feel you fully understand something that previously proved elusive. In this instance, it was the pattern matching on the back of my Huntsman shooting suit.

On the finished jacket, as you can see above, the pattern does not match at either the belt or the collar. Now, it can never do both – or is highly unlikely to – because the width of that central check fluctuates with the shape of your back. But the pattern is normally set to match the collar and then fluctuate on the way down. On stock examples of this cloth in the Huntsman shop the collar matches but the belt does not – indeed, the difference at the belt is even more pronounced than on my version, as they are made with a greater drop between chest and waist.

During the fitting, David Ward decided that the collar needed to be pushed up the back of my neck in order to sit sufficiently tightly. That meant that the two backparts had to be heightened, requiring the central seam to be split and some of the inlay in the seam used. That moved the check apart at the neck, by around 3/8 of an inch. The only way to avoid this difference would be to cut an entirely new back, which perhaps David could have done.

It was certainly right to improve the fit at the expense of the pattern matching. The fit of a bespoke jacket should always be the priority, and I think you can see from the clean finish to the back that that fit was very good.

On the plus side, we decided that there was room to take in the waist of the jacket (as I will wear it without the waistcoat as much as with it) which will allow the checks to match, as least as much as is possible with a loose piece of cloth. We also lifted the sleeves on either side slightly, to deal with a little buckling under the shoulder, and lengthened the left sleeve half an inch.

Grey and blue - the classic combination

I get a lot of requests for practical advice on suit/shirt/tie combinations, so I'm going to try and drop a few more in regularly over the next few months. This is a shot Andy Barnham took of me recently as stock shot for Stephen Haughton's new website.

As a default option for suit and tie, I would always recommend grey and blue: a navy suit with a grey tie; a grey suit with a navy tie. A conservative, business-like combination, it leaves you free to play with patterns and accessories.

Here a charcoal double-breasted suit is worn with a blue shirt and navy, club-stripe tie. The blue of the shirt has a touch of purple to it, something picked up on with the pink silk handkerchief. The cufflinks, too, are Permanent Style's peacock pearls, which are rather purple in their iridescence.

Given the lack of pattern in shirt or suit, both tie and handkerchief are free to express strong patterns and colours.

Suit, Hemingway Tailors; shirt, Turnbull & Asser; tie, Drake's; handkerchief, Rubinacci

Prince of Wales at Henry Poole: Part 3

The next stage in my Henry Poole double-breasted suit is the cutting (previous post, measuring, here), being done here by cutter Craig Featherstone. Henry Poole characterises itself as a house that tries to achieve ‘balance’ in the cut of a jacket. But what does that mean?

Well, as an example, the width of the lapel is usually around half the distance from the collar to the shoulder. In my case that meant a width of 3⅝ inches. That’s a little above what I would usually have, which is 3½, but a little less than the full-bellied DB lapels that I have from Anderson & Sheppard.

Simon Cundey says that this striving for balance is influenced by long-term trends, but tends to temper them. So when lapels were five inches wide in the 1970s, Poole’s were 4½; when they were 2½ inches in the 1960s, Poole’s were three.

The gorge on a Poole suit tends to be cut quite high – noticeable when you consider the width of the lapel. On a double-breasted suit like this one, that means having the points as high as possible without lifting off the cloth when worn. A look where the point lifts away is favoured by old stylists like Chittleborough & Morgan, as it accentuates the breadth of the shoulder and a waspish waist. But traditionalists like Poole and Andersons tend to consider it messy. The Poole cut still adds plenty of height and breadth, however, particularly as the waist tends to be cut a little higher in order to find the absolute slimmest point on a man.

Simon calls this style of DB a 2 plus 1. I call it a 6 by 4. Others prefer 4 plus 2. Even Simon and his father Angus Cundey disagree over the correct terminology. Whatever you want to call it, the jacket has six buttons on it, of which four appear to fasten. It is the standard choice, but Simon particularly prefers it for the dual benefits of breadth through the angled top buttons, and height due to the vertical lines of three.

Craig subscribes to the Poole view on balance, but says he tends to cut things like the lapel by eye rather than considering exact measurements of width across the shoulder. He also likes, as you can see, to keep a photo of the customer tucked amidst the paper patterns. Given the number of times a tailor has pretended to recognise me and had later to admit his pretence, I can only recommend it.

Next: coat making

GQ: French tailoring

A column this week on GQ by Permanent Style compares the structure and styles of British and French tailors. Full article here.

Also, see separate comment piece on GQ, this time on the Golden Shears, here.

A previous piece, on the forgotten rule of black tie, can be found here. Cover your waist! I think there's a news piece about the Savile Row Field Day somewhere as well.

Golden Shears: Beautiful details

Every year the Golden Shears throws up some wonderful pieces of tailoring design, and gratifyingly Monday's show was no exception.

The little details are always what stand out. Like the buttons on a detachable cape that are hidden under the lapel, or the many ways the entrants cut the back patterns on their coats, with rows of pleats or frock coat-like panels. Another cape with an old Union Jack lining drew applause, but it was the way that flar had been matched across all the seams that deserved admiration.

Indeed, it was gratifying to know that all the work on the inside of the pieces had also had been examined by the technical judges - they decide which of the 84 entries became part of the 24 that went onto the catwalk. A good example was the quilting done by Sunna from Anderson & Sheppard on the inside of her Norfolk jacket. All ironed and sewn by hand, the luscious pink wasn't seen by the style judges on the night but it had received earlier recognition. (For more detail on Sunna's entry, look out for the upcoming posts on The Notebook.)

The winner, from Yingmei Quan at Welsh & Jefferies, second from top, succeeded with the impact of its floral design; but it too had wonderful details, like frogging on the pockets and collar. The runner-up (top) was Ichiro Suzuki, of the Royal College of Art and Henry Poole. His coat featured a back that had been delicately frayed by hand all the way down, which revealed a tartan cloth underneath.

Commiserations Sunna, better luck next time.

For some great shots of the other entries, see Andy Barnham's photos here. (Including a nice one of me!)

Factory visit: Tanner Krolle

Of course, this isn’t exactly Tanner Krolle's factory. The original TK operation was on Mildmay Avenue in Islington, but was sold to Dunhill in the nineties and then knocked down. Dunhill moved its operations to Walthamstow (see previous Permanent Style factory visit). Robert Simpson, a member of the Krolle family, left the company a few years after it was bought by Chanel (1992). He set up this factory in Shoreditch, making leather goods under his own label and for a bunch of private labels (including several of our shoemaking friends). Since Chanel sold Tanner Krolle in 2003, all its luggage has been made here (more delicate items like jewellery boxes are made in Italy). This is factory Robert is showing us round today.

Traditionally Tanner Krolle was a bespoke luggage maker, with a little private-label work for Harrod’s and others. It was Chanel in 1997 that launched TK as a retail brand, with a full range of attachés, luggage and suitcases. That has continued under the ownership of Guy Salter, Rupert Hambro and partners, but the shop on Burlington Gardens was closed and the new retail presence has just opened in Shepherd’s Market. A small but pretty shopfront, it will have a bespoke lounge upstairs and promises craftsmen working in the window come summer.

Factories are rarely pretty, and Tanner Krolle is no exception. An industrial elevator leads to the walkway of a council block, looking out over the flat roofs upon which its neighbours have dumped sofas and street signs. Inside things are hardly polished, but there is the reassuring sight of paper patterns and rolls and rolls of leather.

It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that my attention was instantly drawn to old pieces being refurbished, rather than new pieces. Like the rawhide suitcase you can see here, belonging to an American customer. The leather exterior and all its stitching are still intact. But it has clearly been left in a damp place and not opened for a while, because the interior has all rotted through. It will be relined in a cream cotton drill.

This is not a long job, as the pieces are all glued rather than stitched. But it requires considerable skill to get all the pieces correct – one of the challenges with working in bespoke is that no two pieces are the same dimensions. You can see this in the wallet design sketched out below. Customers often send in pencil sketches showing how their perfect wallet would be arranged, or they send in a similar version but ask for different numbers of pockets.

The hand sewing of luggage and attachés requires the same lock stitch as used to sew on a shoe’s welt, or make saddlery, or construct a bridle leather belt. The leather is thicker and the corners sharper than in shoemaking, however.

Other pieces shown here include an ancient crocodile attaché (top) with, unusually, four studs on the back rather than the bottom. Clearly this piece was expected to sit open for long periods. I’m also a fan of the round lock on the briefcase pictured below, which has been upgraded into a sophisticated combination lock on the new Tanner Krolle pieces.

Photography: Andy Barnham

Prince of Wales at Henry Poole: Part 2

The second post in the Henry Poole series, this illustrates the measuring being done by cutter Craig Featherstone – with Simon Cundey taking notes. (Previous post on the cloth is here.)

Craig is refreshingly honest with his references to the various aspects of my figuration. None of the initialisation you find with other cutters: my prominent seat is described as such, rather than being a PS, BS or LS. Prominent shoulder blades similarly described, as are sloping shoulders and hollow back.

Craig is also one who likes to see every aspect of you. He likes to measure on a preferred jacket as well as on the body itself, and he takes photographs to remind himself of figuration – back, front and side, all standing in front of the door. These things are so much less intrusive when everyone has an iPhone.

Both the photos and measuring with a jacket on are fairly standard at Henry Poole. I have to say the latter works best if you are wearing bespoke, and indeed like the fit of it (a little tip for anyone going to a tailor for the first time), while the former is of benefit to anyone that seizes up under a measuring tape. No matter how many times I have a pattern cut, I can’t manage to stand at ease consistently. Something about the tautness of the tape being held against you. The same doesn’t seem to happen with a photograph.

Credit should go to Andy Barnham, the photographer, both for the quality of his shots and the fact that he managed to not be in any of the photographs despite standing in a six-foot square room with a mirror on facing walls.

Next: The cutting

Shoe news: Cleverley, Edward Green, Berluti

A few bits and pieces from the past fortnight that deserve highlighting for shoe enthusiasts.

Cleverley is introducing a limited edition Burgundy Calf Churchill shoe – the model first released as a separate limited edition last October – to raise funds for victims of the Japanese earthquake. Only 50 pairs are available, the 10 allocated to Asia having already been pre-sold; 20 others are available in London and 20 in America. They cost £950 ($1700), of which 10% of the funds go to the Japanese Red Cross.

Edward Green has some beautiful new lines coming in, mostly around new colours and materials on existing lines. My favourites are three new Kibworths in calf and, best of all, mushroom suede. The Kibworth is an elastic and leather gusseted slip-on, like the Churchill but without the Cleverly-specific lacing (gussets are clearly in for S/S 2011). Also new is the Malvern lace-up in chameleon – a nice green/tan colour (pictured).

Finally, in rather a break with the past, Berluti is doing its first Goodyear-welted line, in the Demesures collection. The welt is still pretty narrow, as you can see, but not as close as the normal Blake construction Berluti uses for its shoes. They are, however, more expensive than the other ranges at £1220.

Shoe shine from the shoe snob

Justin Fitzpatrick does a mean shoe shine. The aspiring shoe maker and great blogger (The Shoe Snob) was set up by Gieves & Hawkes recently to do shoe shines for customers as part of its general re-fit (which also includes Bentley's antiques, see Permanent Style post).

At the moment Justin has a little table in front of Carreducker's beautiful bespoke room, but soon he will have a purpose-built cubbyhole on the other side of the room. He displays a few before-and-after pairs, such as those shown at the top, as well as customers' pairs awaiting collection. For there are three levels of shine, costing £5, £10 and £20, that culminate in a Military Parade Shine which takes three hours and usually involves six layers of hand polishing.

I gave Justin my Cleverleys to work on, which have had some nice layers of black polish on the toe cap but needed some general love elsewhere. You can see the results below.

I think it's fair to say that Justin tends towards a high, military-like shine, but he is equally willing to temper that or tweak it to customers' preferences.

Final tweed jacket from Cifonelli

I’m seriously impressed with this tweed jacket from Cifonelli. The style is nice, with a mix of traditional and original detailing. But having put that together with Lorenzo, it was what I expected. Perhaps more surprising, and certainly more impressive, is the construction.

At every point the tailors have gone the extra mile. The hand sewing on the buttonholes is beautiful in itself, but they have also made sure to hand sew both sides of the top three, as the reverse will show when the collar is turned up (as it is designed and fitted to do).

The single buttons on the cuffs, equally, are hand sewn on both sides for when they are turned back. And that means hand sewing in suede, which is not easy. You can also see that hand stitching in the suede flap over the breast pocket.

Inside all the seams on the lining are done in a delicate hand stitch, using brown thread to contrast. Even where the side and back panels of the lining join. In fact, that seam features probably my favourite construction detail: little round tacks, by hand of course, where normal construction would just do a straight bar. It’s so subtle and so needless.

The triangles that secure each end of the slash pockets are impressive pieces of handwork, as is the sewing that connects the sleeve lining. We counted the stitches: between 12 and 14 to the inch.

The overall shape, as I alluded in the previous posts (here) is distinctive of Cifonelli. A soft chest but a strongly roped shoulder – together with a widish lapel and therefore thick collar – which leads to a structured, almost pagoda-type effect.

The fit is quite nipped at the waist with a definite flair to the skirt, a small chest and with a very high armhole leading to a narrow sleeve.

I only wish I had a macro lens on my camera, so I could show you those stitches close up.

Prince of Wales at Henry Poole: Part 1

This is the first post in what will be a series on having a double-breasted suit made at Henry Poole, in Prince of Wales cloth, as in Edward VII, but with the Duke of Windsor’s addition, originally from the Seafield estate, with the exclusive Henry Poole overcheck.

It’s a relatively simple story, but one that can confuse. Indeed, does confuse many people - even authors.

The Glen Urquhart check was originally invented and woven in that area, just south of Inverness in Scotland, in the early 1800s. Its production was sponsored and developed by Caroline Countess of Seafield, who adopted the pattern for the Seafield Estate in 1840. Its repeated pattern of large checks in black and white was innovative, distinctive and much larger than the pattern we think of today as the glen check or Prince of Wales.

When the young Edward VII visited Castle Grant, the Seafield’s Estate at Grantown-on-Spey, for shooting trips, he took a fancy to the design and adapted it. It became brown and cream, but retained the larger scale. The pattern became known as the Prince of Wales check as a result.

Henry Poole was the tailor to both the Seafield family and Edward VII, making the first pieces in that cloth for both the estate’s staff and the future king. Although the Seafield family no longer has its staff’s clothes made bespoke, the connections with Henry Poole remain. At the head of the stairs at 15 Savile Row today stands the picture below of Seafield staff in checked three-pieces, the results of the day’s shoot just out of shot, which was given to Poole by the Seafield family.

Edward VII continued to adapt the check, and it was he who later shrunk it down to the size we know today. His grandson, briefly Edward VIII and later Duke of Windsor, added overchecks in red and blue, and popularised the fashion when travelling in the US.

Henry Poole now weaves an exclusive version that draws on both Princes, being black and white, of a smaller scale and incorporating the Henry Poole burgundy as an overcheck. It is woven by Fox Brothers, in 10oz at Super 120s with a touch of cashmere.

Prince of Wales checks of all types have all been a favourite of mine, from my first designer suit (Etro), to one of the first I had made in Hong Kong (Edward Tam), to the suit I got married in (Ralph Lauren Purple Label). So I'm very excited about having this suit made, particularly as I think the burgundy overcheck is more versatile than almost any other, and goes particularly well with brown shoes. Always nice to have a little history, too.

There will be a post in this series every week. Next week is the measuring and order, with cutter Craig Featherstone, then we will watch the cutting being done, the coat and trouser making, and finally the fittings. The coat will be made by John Dryer, with his apprentice James, and the trousers by Edward Cooke with Sian finishing.

For those that are interested, Simon Cundey (pictured top with the cloth) says the closest cloth to Edward VII’s brown check is from Porter & Harding, number 44535. The closest to the Seafield check, the original of which is an estate cloth and therefore not available to the public, is probably from W Bill, number 30073. (Both pictured below.)

Photography: Andy Barnham

The cufflink project

About six months ago I started a project with bespoke jeweller Diana Maynard to design a suitable pair of cufflinks.

There are startlingly few cufflinks on the market that are both attractive and functional. In my view, most fall down because:

1. They do not have significant decoration on both sides of the link
2. Those that do are too long in the bar or chain that joins them
3. Those without the cheap, rotating bar design are difficult to push through the cuffs
4. Few designs are attractive, yet simple and conservative enough to wear with tailoring

All cufflinks should have something on both sides of the link. They always did and it is pure cheapness not to today. The inside is seen almost as much as the outside, and a cheap steel bar is not decoration.

Cufflinks that have decoration on both sides are normally some form of insignia or stone, joined with a bar or more commonly a chain. This is difficult to get through the cuff but, more importantly, it is also much longer than, say, a silk knot.

Silk knots are increasingly worn because they are cheap, readily available and a nice way to add a touch of colour. But they grip the cuff tightly, and as I wrote about in my series on bespoke shirts at Turnbull & Asser, the difference in cuff size between one joined with a silk knot and one with a chain link is up to 5/8 of an inch. For anyone that has bespoke shirts made, that’s a lot. It undermines having cuffs made to fit.

The added problem is that loose links sit further outside the cuff and ‘clink’ on the desk as you type. This can never be entirely removed (and is less of a problem if you wear a jacket) but is considerably more irritating when the link is loose.

Finally, the decorations leave a lot to be desired. Why a man would wear humorous cuff links is beyond me; brand logos are little better; crests are fine but not exactly exciting. Some brands do nice models in lapis lazuli or mother of pearl (Links of London is one example), but they fall down on points 2 and 3. Because these stones are so common on the market, we deliberately avoided them in our links.

So what have we come up with?

The first thing was the link that joins the two sides. We fashioned several options out of silver wire, trying out each until we found the perfect length – not too short, but gripping both sides of the cuff effectively and sitting neatly in them. We also experimented with the curvature, before designing two styles – one round in cross-section, one square, both gently tapered.

We wanted the stones on each side to be identical. But they had to be as big as possible while remaining easy to punch through the cuff. After several iterations, we settled on 10mm, with most of the stones being spherical.

Finally, the stones themselves. Most would be for daywear, so they had to be plain, probably matte and with most interest in the texture. One pair would be for evening, which would again be a dark stone but faceted to give it sparkle.

Pearls are perfect. Whether white or grey, they are simple and sophisticated, looking particularly good on white shirts. I’ve always loved amber, so we added that, making sure it was dark and messy enough to give some textural interest. Labradorite is a great, dark stone with a shimmer in the sliced section you can see only at certain angles. Smoky quartz for a dark option (these will be in limited supply) and amethyst for evening.

At this point it should be said that these cufflinks are all going to be made to order, made by Diana and sold through her website. I stand to make no money from them. I just wanted to design what I thought the perfect cufflink.

The links that connect the two sides have been moulded and will be individually cast. The stones are each then set individually by hand, as you would do with bespoke jewellery – the silver is shaped by hand around the stone. They are then polished and finished by hand also.

As they are made to order, you can select different stone combinations. But the settings have to remain the same, so pearls with pearls, round settings (cabochons) with round settings. I will wear identical pairs. If there is interest, we will offer a greater range of stones soon.

The pearls all cost £220, other day stones £289 and the amethyst £430. The differences in price represent the cost of the stones and, to a lesser extent, the difficulty of mounting.

These will be limited edition cufflinks, individually designed and made that look better and perform better than anything else on the market in our opinion. We hope you like them.

Some technical details:
- The pearls are cultured freshwater pearls, in white, grey and peacock.
- The labradorite is available in two hues, green and blue.
- The smoky quartz is made with one end faceted underneath, creating a very subtle texture. These are limited to four pairs.
- All other stones are limited to 100 pairs of cufflinks. Each comes with a numbered valuation. 
- The silver stems are all circular in cross-section except the amethyst, which is square.
- The silver is all hallmarked at London assay office. It’s tiny!
- The silver is polished and rhodium-plated to prevent tarnishing
- Postage is included in the price and turnaround time for an ordered pair is 4 weeks. Allow 2 weeks for postage to the US due to current Homeland Security restrictions. Express delivery to the US is available for £48 through DHL. This takes 2-4 days.
- Payment and ordering is done through Diana’s website, in the ‘For Sale’ section: www.dianamaynard.com/limited-edition/cufflinks
- Click on the images to get bigger versions.