After you’ve been measured for a bespoke suit, the next stage is the basted fitting. This may be anywhere from three weeks to three months after the initial appointment, depending on the business of the tailor and – frankly – his attitude to taking on new work. Some tailors work harder when there’s more business; others take on more staff; some just let the time between fittings drag out.
The little extras will come after measuring
Having clothes made by a tailor can be a frustrating business. Truth is, few of us are any good at designing clothes. That’s what makes the retail experience satisfying: browsing designs and being inspired by something that we love but would never have imagined. Other people design for us.
Socks: www.DandyStore.fr
Here’s my personal tip for telling instantly how style-aware a man in a suit is – check whether his socks match or complement his trousers.
Herbert Hoover covers his waist
In the last post – part 1 of this couple on evening dress – we discussed the biggest mistakes men make when donning black tie. They were: wearing it during the day, not covering their waist and mis-matching the formality of their shirt, collar and waist-covering.
Bogart wears a tropical dinner jacket, with shawl collar
A man’s dress used to be driven by social propriety – what his peers considered to be fit and proper. Most of the rules for dress that we have inherited were formalised by social norms. Style icons were made when those that could (usually royalty) broke with convention and wore. Hence the wearing of suede shoes and double-breasted jackets by Edward VIII when he was Prince of Wales. He made that acceptable – but he was not necessarily the first to do so, just the first to sufficiently encourage others to follow his lead.
Try to ignore the plane. How high are those trousers?
OK, it’s a fair cop.
Someone commented to me recently that I wasn’t living by my waistcoat theory (see post on January 15) and they’re right. I don’t pursue it every day by any means but I still believe in its internal logic, and the clothing combination it suggests is certainly something I make use of regularly. I just like a little variety.
Note the salt and pepper look of Donegal
Time was, a man would only wear tweed or linen at the weekend. The dignity of business necessitated sleeker cloths during the week. Now in many offices round the world, a man is smart if he wears a jacket of any material. A sharply cut jacket in grey Donegal tweed is still a lot smarter than a sweater. So knowing how to wear tweed, linen and all the various incarnations of cotton is an important skill.
Grey flannel used to be a sign of uniformity. Not any more
What you know is worsted. That’s what 99% of the ready-to-wear suits out there are made of. It’s wool that has been smoothed in the yarn and again in its interlacing, to produce a clean finish. There are many different types of worsted – serge and gabardine are both worsteds yet feel very different – but again, this is a tiny proportion of the cloth on offer.
Kilgour ready-to-wear black tie
Looking back at the sales season that has just passed, it was hard to sit at home while luxury items are being reduced all over the city. But it was worth it.
