A New Suit, Part 2: Irrepressibly Modern

As you may remember from my last posting, I’m considering my next bespoke suit. I’ve narrowed my choices down to a few rough concepts: the weekend suit, the City slicker/Italian cool and, finally, the irrepressibly modern.

I doubt this last concept of ‘irrepressibly modern’ will get much sympathy in these pages. A flick through the back catalogue of articles, and comments, would show that we are an audience largely made up of classicists. And for the most part I would class myself as one also.

But, just as my taste in cars tends towards classic motors, my head still turns in admiration at a modern Aston Martin. As a rule, most car makers work to the theory that you can sell a young man’s car to an old man but the reverse doesn’t work.

In clothing this theory tends to work the other way around. Young men are frequently drawn to classic styles and forms, but they also possess the freedom of youth to engage in more experimental styles, and carry them off. Unless your name is Nickelson Wooster, older men on the other hand should really stick to the classics, less they wish to look slightly foolish.

I’m not an old man, but will be soon enough. If I’m going to experiment this is the time to do it. Failure is not half as pathetic as the fear of failure is.

From my extensive pictorial library of clothes and looks from which to take inspiration I found the above picture. It comes from the March 2009 edition of GQ and was originally part of that summer’s Versace collection. There is plenty wrong with this suit from a classicist’s point of view. I’m not ignorant of those defects, but it is in spite of them that I just love its square lines and utter simplicity, and did from the first moment I saw it. In many ways the angular lines remind me of an unbuttoned double breasted suit. Though it goes against all convention, this is an aesthetic I rather like, being just as happy to wear my DBs unbuttoned as I am buttoned – but I think that’s an English thing.

From the pictures of my last commissioned suit, you may have noticed that I’m quite a squared shape. I’m therefore convinced that the angles in this unconventional style of suit might just enhance my silhouette. Although the suit was shown in 2009 I think it’s dated rather well, helped by the ultra slim aesthetic still being in vogue at the moment.

Materials will be important with this one, and I’m thinking either cotton or a cotton linen mix to do this shape justice. To work it needs to be a cloth with a degree of rigidity to keep those lines crisp and sharp. For me this is an irrepressibly modern aesthetic, and fortune favours the brave.

In the next posting I’ll discuss my final concept, City Slicker/Italian Cool.

A New Suit: The Weekend Suit

Having your clothes made is an addictive business. No sooner is one commission finished than you begin to plan the next.

Whether it’s bespoke or top end made to measure, the knowledge that you can have your heart’s desire made real is a powerful temptation; and like Oscar Wilde ‘I can resist all things but temptation’.

As it happens I’ve already commissioned a second suit from a new tailor recommended by Adam Atkinson of CHERCHBI. This suit is rather pedestrian in comparison to the last, a simple single breasted navy suit with peak labels.

But before the cloth has even been cut I’m considering my next commission. There are innumerable options but I have rounded it down to a few basic concepts. The first is the weekend suit.

According to my father, when he and my aunt were children my grandfather would go to the football every Saturday afternoon without fail. The uniform for this occasion was suit and tie, raincoat and cap. He was by no means alone; this was the uniform for all the men of this era (1950s). Remarkable really, when you consider he was a toolmaker in the local car factory.

Since then society has increasingly moved towards the informal in its modes of dress. It is odd then that we still admire most those men whose wardrobe staple, at work rest or play, was the suit. The pictures of them we most keenly study almost always see them suited.

Of course, in those pictures the guises of the suit are more varied than we are used to seeing today. Who now owns a white flannel suit for summer? Few enough own even linen suits, or wear tweed suits in the countryside. But the point is that a suit need not be grey or blue and it can be worn with just as much casual aplomb as jeans and a shirt, to infinitely better effect.

In truth, no single item in a man’s wardrobe flatters the essence of manliness quite like a suit. If well cut and well made, it is nothing short of armour in which to take on the daily trials of life; in one swift stroke it hides, disguises, conceals, enhances and augments. Only a military uniform, I would imagine, could empower the wearer more. And yet like most men of my generation I am inexorably dragged kicking and screaming towards ever greater informality of dress.

But, having matured in years and feeling less and less concerned about the opinions, or approval, of others I have come to the conclusion that what I need is a casual suit.

I want something as natural to throw on of a weekend when going out as my chinos and jean jacket. I want something which I can where as comfortably to dinner or a bar on a Saturday night as I can to visit a shirt maker or fashion show; something which is a suit, but doesn’t necessarily feel like one. Of course I doubt I’ll ever muster the casual, easy aplomb demonstrated by Bryan Ferry. But hope springs eternal.

To that end it’s not so much the style of suit that’s important as the cloth. The basic rule of thumb for suiting is that the further away you move from plain grey and navy blue worsted cloth the less formal and less business appropriate the suit is. This provides many options including cord, cotton and linen. However, I’ve decided that my weekend suit needs to be a bold check and a wool cloth.

My feeling is that any plain cloth would still be a little too formal for my project, and while cord would be less formal it lacks seasonal versatility. Linen, even a check linen cloth, would have the same problem. But a wool cloth of around 10oz with some form of bold check would provide the seasonal flexibility I’m after – except on all but the hottest days - while checks have a natural informality. They also resonate with country tweeds and so seem a much more fitting material for a weekend suit. I have seen this concept of the weekend or casual suit done well and it’s one I’m desperate to get underway. But, as I have some equally pressing needs within my suiting armoury I’ve held fire.

In the next posting I’ll highlight two other concepts under active consideration.

Turquoise

This season I’ve developed a bit of an obsession with the colour turquoise. That’s not a sentence you’ll read very often, and with good cause.

As colours go it’s jarring to the eye and seems almost unnatural. It would seem impossible to pair it successfully; and incorporating it into a look certainly appears to go against the accepted wisdom that a successful look is one of harmony. What might conceivably harmonise with such a colour?

But sometimes things can be so damned ugly that they become beautiful, and I’ve developed a strange appreciation for this colour which possesses a peculiar versatility.

I’ll confess I’m not a fan of summer clothing. Consequently, most of my purchasing takes place in the autumn and winter months, and are of a weight and colour palette to match. But the clothes of a well dressed man should compliment the season as much as they do the wearer and each other.

And so rather than try and reinvent my wardrobe from scratch or try and become something I’m not, I’ve been using turquoise to reinvigorate my core wardrobe and provide a splash of summer vibrancy and seasonal harmony.

Turquoise sits well with all shades of blue as well as browns, from tobacco to beige. If you want brighter and lighter, it compliments white without that common conformity of white and navy. And for those with boldness coursing through their veins, then try turquoise with orange, particularly burnt orange, and red. However, this last combination works best when the red is confined to a tie or handkerchief.

Personally, despite this new found fascination I’d still take my turquoise in smallish doses. I’m not sure of the virtue of a Turquoise jacket for example.

But, whether you opt to take that splash of summer colour in the form of a shirt, bag, watch strap or sock you could do far worse than opt for turquoise.

Useful Sources: Shoenet.co.uk

The internet has been a boon to independent retailers. While this is a positive thing, it’s not without its pitfalls, particularly when a retailer has no bricks and mortar retail unit to provide a sense of reassurance. Just who is at the other end of your monitor?

One of the things I like to do on Bespokeme is highlighting dependable online only retailers. This usually entails calling people up and interviewing them over the phone, and taking a punt and trying their website of course.

In the case of shoenet.co.uk this was an easier undertaking than most. It just so happens that the guy who sits behind me in the office, Edward, is also a part owner of the business.

It’s actually run by his uncle, and it wasn’t until we got talking (read drinking) that I discovered the family’s involvement with shoemaking goes back as far as 1898.

I doubt it’s a company you’ve heard of, but the owners of Shoenet are family firm Livingston & Doughty. Originally founded in Leicester in 1898 they started out supplying shoe components to England’s burgeoning shoemaking industry.

Today, they supply the cork filler, or Flexofil as it’s known in the trade, which is a key component in Goodyear Welted shoes. It’s the cork layer between the insole and the sole of the shoe that means the shoe not only moulds to your foot but it also act as an additional cushion, and barrier, between the foot and sole. They currently supply cork to most of England’s shoemakers, from Church’s, Joseph Cheaney, John Lobb and Crockett & Jones to Loake, Barker and Grenson. They also export their formula all over the world.

Shoenet isn’t the flashest retailing website out there, and a few more pictures of the shoes would be helpful, but it does offer a solid range of classic Goodyear Welted shoes at competitive prices. In particular, and what prompted me to use them, was the fact they sell the Grenson Rose collection.

I’m something of a fan of Grenson shoes, but curiously they come in for a bit of stick amongst the clothing chat forums. For the money I think they’re great value and are perfectly well made. But some of this antipathy stems from a confusion regarding whether they are made in England or aboard.

When this solid but uninspiring firm was taken over by City financier James Purslow in 2004, he set out to reinvigorate the brand. Bringing in London shoe designer Tim Little – who has had some success in his own right and recently bought the whole enterprise- they set about capturing a slightly younger market. Echoing the company’s traditional designs but incorporating subtle tweaks, these shoes have a modern edge. And it’s a strategy that’s worked. That range is the Rushton collection which can be found on the Grenson’s new retail website at around the £120-180 mark. It is these shoes which are made up in India. I don’t hold that against them, it’s an increasingly common feature of modern shoemaking when you aim for a price point of around £100-£180. You might find this excellent article on TheShoeSnob interesting reading.

However the more expensive Rose collection, which is the one I’m interested in, retails at around £225 and upwards. These shoes are most definitely made in Northampton, and it is from this collection that I recently took delivery of a beautiful pair of tan, double sole Albert brogues.

The shoes came with shoehorn and a spare pair of laces. The shipping charges are reasonable and they ship all over the world. In short, they’re a useful website with a solid history in shoemaking as guarantor.

It’s worth getting to know that guy who sits behind you in the office.

Made to Measure Suiting at Stephan Shirts: Part 4

Well here we are then, the final part in the series (follow the links for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3). The suit is made and I couldn’t be more pleased with the result, particularly with regard to the trousers.

Indeed, the suit must have something about it as I wore it to a second round interview and got the job. That’s one special suit alright.

Recapping, I set Erlend at Stephan Shirts a number of difficult tasks to test his made-to-measure suit service. First there was the suit jacket, a 4×2 double breasted in the Kent style. Because of the need for perfect button placement and a soft roll lapel it’s a tricky jacket to get right. Other details include five button working cuffs, a loop behind the lapel buttonhole and the jacket’s distinctive British Racing Green lining –which I chose- is even carried over into the top pocket.

While the suit is still a little stiff and needs a little more wear to soften it, you can see the jacket is pretty much as requested and desired.

The next most difficult task was getting the trousers right. Trousers don’t sound a tricky matter but then I’m well over my fighting weight.

I asked for two pairs to be made, the first pair having classic English pleats, also referred to as ‘inward’ or ‘forward’ pleats, because the pleat goes in the direction of the fly (‘outward’ or ‘reverse pleats’ open in the direction of the pockets). This style of trouser only really works when the trousers sit on the natural waist and are held up by braces, for which I wanted a fishmouth waistband.

Erlend has cut the trousers just right in my view. The danger with pleats –even inward facing pleats- is that they can make you look big, particularly if you actually are a bigger build. The high waist helps to counter this, but only a skilled cutter could make a trouser that fitted my large waist and seat whilst managing to emphasise what are nicely slim legs.  Nice little details include the half waistband and one piece back leading up to the fishmouth. Normally there would be a full waistband and then a second piece of cloth would be attached to that. It was my choice to have no back pockets on the trousers. I really don’t see the point of them.

The second pair of trousers I term Italian styled. These are flat front with much thinner legs leading to a narrower opening and a full two inch turn-up. Sitting just above the hips but below the waist they’re slightly shorter in length than the first pair and work perfectly with loafers. Again, flat front trouser are a tricky proposition for the bigger man, but these look natural and sit perfectly. Indeed, I’m so pleased I’ve considered asking Erlend if in future he’ll make all my trousers.

Now, at the risk of stating the obvious, the purpose of investing in bespoke is to get something which perfectly fits your body shape and masks, or at least de-emphasises, any physical quirks. However, all that comes at a hefty price, usually £1000 plus. Made to measure gives you some of those attributes and comes in at a much lower cost. Ultimately it’s a trade-off. But I can honestly say with Erlend’s suits those trade-offs are virtually nonexistent. The man himself is perfectly honest about what he provides. He calls it made-to-measure and doesn’t pretend otherwise, as you might expect from a former Savile Row cutter. Prices start at £495 and when you consider just what he is able to provide, the degree to which he is able to cut a pattern to suit your frame, and the level of understanding he has for the business of making a suit, I can’t help feeling that calling it made-to-measure is selling it short.