not convinced with 'designer'/mega expensive fabrics
Published: Thursday, December 20th 2007
I have previously mentioned my position regarding expensive 'designer' cloths, and my thoughts on them.
I do carry bunches from some of the very well known cloth merchants, Scabal, Holland and Sherry to name but two as it would be foolish for me not to, but I am still not convinced as to the cost of these fabrics actually being worth the very high extra cost, which the client has to pay for.
I have been making a suit for a client in a fabric he selected from a Zegna cloth bunch, the real Zegna cloth bunches and not the cheap stuff.
To say it has been hard work to make, is an understatement.
The fabric is a silver 6 oz wool and silk blend, the pattern of the cloth has an extremely small diamond pattern to it and because of the style of this diamond weave, the cloth has a slight raised feeling to the touch.
I have had these particular bunches for a while now, and I have made several suits in various fabrics from the bunch the above fabric is from.
As well as being extremely hard to make and tailor, I am always not quite happy with the finishing of the suit, the pressing off of the suit namely, the cloth always seems to be 'fighting' with you.
I am not saying I give customers inferior work, as I do not give anything to clients unless I am totally happy with the finished garment, but the pressing always leaves me wanting more.
I have been cutting, making and 'pressing off suits ' for almost 25 years now, so I am no stranger to difficult very lightweight cloths, but as much as I try, I just don't see it with these new very expensive cloths the merchants are giving us.
Sure, the cloths are fantastic colours and as light as a shirt when wearing, but the fabrics lack body, substance and real guts. And "No" I am talking about wanting to be in a position to just being able to make 13 oz wool all the time which is easy.
The hard truth is they don't finish well, and look terrible after 10 minutes wearing due to the total lack of being able to resist creasing. But If you can afford them, and can live with these issues I suppose what I am saying really doesn't matter!
I would however like to know what the tailors who make for the farm it out boys think, it's very easy to sell a fabric and pass the headache to workmen. I bet the air is blue when the tailors get yet another high 'Super' numbered cloth to make!
If more tailors made their own work and did not just cut the clients suit, ( I don't just mean poking your head in and out of a workroom either ) they would know at first hand the problems these cloths raise and I believe the demand for them would be very small, that's my opinion any way!
The picture below shows the above mentioned cloth before cutting.
The next picture shows the front forepart section of the coat cut out. This jacket has been cut with a separate side body which is laid against the forepart.
The next picture shows the roll of the left lapel, the distortion is due to the diamond pattern of the cloth I explained earlier.
This is quite a modern styled suit and is very sharp, you may be just able to see the size of the breast welt pocket which I have made only 3/4" in size.
The next picture shows a closer shot of the breast welt pocket. You can see the reduced size of the welt, the hand stitching along the breast welt pocket, and a little more of the cloth composition.
The next picture shows the collar and lapel, I have put this picture as it is easier to see the hand drawn ( stitched ) seam I mentioned on an earlier tailoring entry.
The lapel looks a little wider in this picture than it actually is, the lapel is 3 1/2" measured straight across from lapel tip to the dummy, NOT along the seam.
The last picture shows a bit of the jacket on the dummy in my workroom. The jacket has black button holes with black real horn buttons.
This is a big jacket 50 chest, so it was pointless to give any full front shots as it buries the dummy in my workroom.
The next picture shows the right jacket front on my pressing buck prior to pressing off. You can see the cloth that needs smoothing, the slight rippling. The buttons are real horn ( as on all my bespoke garments )
The next picture shows the same jacket front as I press away the excess cloth that was shown on the previous picture.
You have to careful with these kind of cloths to not use the vac table too much as it will give heavy impressions that show on the outside/right side of the jacket.
The next picture shows me doing the same operation on one of the waistcoat fronts, "Yes", to make it worse, this is a three piece suit!
You can see in this picture the 'long point' style of waistcoat I cut, I like the finished look of long point waistcoats they just seem to suit clients better.
The next picture shows me pressing the other waistcoat front. The waistcoat has shawl lapels and two lower welt pockets.
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