Hand & Lock

The intricate and painstaking handwork that goes into trimming out military dress uniforms and smoking jackets makes embroidery perhaps the most couture-like of any single aspect of menswear, current or historical. One of the leading suppliers of hand embroidery is Hand & Lock.

I'm tempted to say the following two videos go, well, hand in hand:

Review: Gentlemen of Style

I had the pleasure of reading Gentlemen of Style by Sven Raphael Schneider of the Gentleman's Gazette, which was published recently as a free e-book.

Some of you who feverishly mined the men's clothing discussion forums in the exciting, early days circa 2004 may remember one poster who went by the name of "etutee". He was the probably first to scan and post images of old Apparel Arts illustrations of the 1930s on AskAndy and London Lounge, accompanied by extensive, historically relevant commentary and exposition. Unfortunately, most of etutee's posts have disappeared from the forum archives.

Source: gentlemansgazette.com via Sleevehead on Pinterest

If I remember correctly, etutee's posts were probably my first exposure to Apparel Arts. That led of course to a hunt for old copies of Apparel Arts on eBay, as well as recompilations of Apparel Arts such as Woody Hochswender's Men in Style and the related reference bible of men's clothing, Esquire's Encyclopedia of 20th Century Men's Fashions. The latter two can run easily into hundreds of dollars. A rather expensive hobby!

A much more affordable introduction to the world of Apparel Arts is Sven's e-book which contains rare images of 1930s Apparel Arts illustrations that define the Golden Age of modern menswear. The book is divided into three sections on suits, jackets and overcoats.

Like the etutee of internet yore, Sven adds his own interesting commentary to the illustrations. Sven is very sympathetic to the classical canon of Apparel Arts but also reflects a modern and up-to-date viewpoint. Instead of treating the illustrations as sacrosanct and untouchable relics, he suggests improvements on pattern and color combinations found in the illustrations. In particular, I like his color recommendations.

Keep in mind you'll have to go a well-stocked public library to find copies of Apparel Arts (or buy them). Given the scarcity of this magazine, you can't go wrong downloading this e-book sampler of Apparel Arts. Highly recommended.

Trimmings for dinner jackets

I have successfully concluded my recent search for what English tailors call "corded silk" for facings or lapels of dinner jackets or tuxedos. This is the less common alternative to silk satin, which has a bit of a sheen and less elegant in my view. Corded silk has more pronounced cross-grain ribbing, which absorbs and disperses light, lending a matte look.

I became curious about sourcing this particular type of trimming after learning from my tailor in Los Angeles that his sources for such silk had dried up. The corded silk used for facings typically come in 18 or 24 inches, which are "bastard" or unusual widths, at least for silk trimmings and ribbons. Below is a photo of the facing used in my Kilgour dinner jacket.

Source: Uploaded by user via Sleevehead on Pinterest

After asking around, I finally found a source for corded silk in London and one in New York City. The stuff is actually woven in France (next time I'll have to ask the name of the French weaver) and is fairly expensive.

First, London. Last month I visited London and stopped by Savile Row to visit a particular tailor which sells fabrics by the length to customers. That tailor is Davies and Sons.

Source: daviesandsonsavilerow.com via Sleevehead on Pinterest

I chatted with Robert Bailey and learned that Davies sells the 18 inch variety which is made in France. One meter is typically needed for peak or notch lapels, 1.1 meter for a shawl collar. Price is 120 GBP per meter. Davies (as well as the other tailors like Kilgour) source this silk and other specialty wovens from their trimmings merchants.

Source: Uploaded by user via Sleevehead on Pinterest

The other source is B&J Fabrics in NYC's Garment District. The equivalent American term for corded silk is "silk faille back satin" which is a literal description of the two weaves found respectively on the face and technical side. The width is 45 inches and is priced at $180 per yard. The merchant carries this in two colors - black and cream.

Source: bandjfabrics.com via Sleevehead on Pinterest

Below is a photo comparing all three examples (from left to right, Kilgour, Davies and B&J Fabrics):

Source: Uploaded by user via Sleevehead on Pinterest

As you can perhaps see, both the Kilgour and Davies corded silk feature slightly wider ribbing compared to B&J's version.

A textile without qualities...

...is perhaps almost as impossible to find as "a man without qualities". I mentioned recently in a tweet that I've taken the step of enrolling in a textile quality management class. I'm doing so because quality is an oft-used but rather poorly understood word in the consumer world of menswear. Even among men's clothing aficionados, discussion of textile quality is based almost entirely on the impressionistic assay of fabrics. Sometimes it is based on years of experience in having bespoke garments made. However, experience in the end-use of fabrics, while helpful, is not sufficient.

For example, a common way among aficionados to ascertain fabric "quality" and "performance" is through the hand feel of fabrics. The hand of a fabric is simply one measure of aesthetics and comfort but many aficionados seem to believe that hand feel alone can be a good indicator for textile quality. Ask a textile professional if hand feel is a reliable and complete indicator of overall quality and performance and the diplomatic response would be a simple but decisive "no".

Back to the class I'm taking. Our term project involves testing 4 yards of a knitted (or woven) fabric through a battery of tests for durability (abrasion, pilling), strength, colorfastness, moisture management, shrinkage (dimensional stability), etc. My sample is a wool/polyester blend which I picked up at Mood Fabrics in NYC's Garment District.

The yield scale below measures the weight of a cloth based on a standard sample cut of the fabric:

Alfred Suter yield scale (probably c. 1960s)

Below is the sample cutter used to punch out a sample of my test fabric:

Sample cutter (likely pre-1950s)

Five shades of grey

Last week I visited Tip-Top Fabrics in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and learned that they recently received a shipment of Carlo Barbera worsted flannel…in five shades of grey. Weight is probably in the 13oz range. I picked up a suiting length of the darkest grey and a trouser length in a mid-grey. Tempted to go back and pick up another shade of grey before they run out.

I also picked up an end bolt of a navy cavalry twill by Halstead, probably in the 14oz range. Last but not least, I saw an excellent, crisp Drapers gaberdine in classic tan and beige that will make up nicely into a pair of trousers.

New cloths: Carlo Barbera and William Halstead

Halstead "cashmere stripes" trousering

Carlo Barbera cashmere jacketing

Glenplaid wool suiting and Barbera jacketing

Update: Los Angeles tailor Enzo Caruso

Some more photos of Enzo Caruso's store, located in Santa Monica, which he has been gradually updating the last few months:

Storefront

New organizing wall for swatch books

Shelving and storage for cloth

The avant-gardes sartorially speaking...

[Photo by Douglas H. Jeffrey] 

The year is 1964 and the men, from left to right, are:  John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg.

Gambert Shirts

Gambert Shirts is located in downtown Newark, NJ on Washington Street.

English soles, Hawaiian sidewalks

Happy new year! It was a busy Christmas day last week when I stopped by the new flagship Leather Soul shop in Honolulu. LS is quite possibly the most comprehensive, high end men's shoe store in the US.

Unpacking a Marinella bespoke tie

Ivy League exhibition

If you missed the Ivy League symposium back in November or the special tours with curator Patricia Mears and Richard Press, you can still virtually walk through the exhibition with them in the video tour. Definitely worth a visit before it closes in early January. The highlights for me were the raccoon coat and the vintage school blazers (for the technically minded, check out the front darts on the blazers).

Florsheim by Duckie Brown SS 2013

I recently attended a spring/summer 2013 preview of Florsheim by Duckie Brown, which are very affordably priced shoes.



I met Steve and Dan, the designers behind Duckie Brown, and they shared a bit of their journey in designing for this old mainstay American shoe brand. After being sold a few times, the company was reacquired several years ago by members of the original family that founded the company in 1892.

During their visits to the Florsheim headquarters north of Milwaukee, Steve and Dan naturally perused the company archives for design inspiration. During my visit, they pulled out and showed me a terrific vintage Florsheim 1941-42 shoe catalog that featured everything from boots to brogues. I would love to spend an afternoon in the Florsheim archives one of these days.

Noel Coward exhibition

Very few individuals are multi-generationally stylish. These are individuals who remain firmly on center stage over time and continue to maintain a stylistic influence across decades and continents.

Entertainer Noel Coward is one of those rare individuals who achieved this in the first half of the 20th century. I recently attended the Noel Coward exhibition in NYC this past summer and have included photos of some of the exhibits below.

Noel Coward dressing gown (bought from DeFree's, New York)

Coward's dark brown polyester dinner jacket (made by Douglas Hayward)

Shoulder line of Douglas Hayward dinner jacket

Noel Coward (left, in DB suit) and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr

Cole Lesley, Coward's business manager, in morning dress

The ubiquitous trenchcoat and the ultimate hold-all

Casablanca is probably the first film that comes to mind when one of thinks of trenchcoats, in particular the final scene with Bogart and Bergman. But Le Cercle Rouge (Red Circle) beats it in terms of the sheer number of appearances the trenchcoat makes in a film. In no other film that I'm aware of does the trench coat seem so “entrenched”, as it were. In nearly every outdoors scene and a good percentage of the interior scenes, the lead protagonists and their counterparts often wear a trenchcoat, or occasionally a dark Chesterfield overcoat.

Also, unusually for a film, luggage plays a leading role. In this case, the luggage to watch for are two enormous Louis Vuitton steamer trunks and two beautiful chestnut finish leather hold-alls. The former belongs to a washed out cop who teams up with Alain Delon and his cronies in a jewelry heist. The latter is where the pilfered jewelry makes it home. The hold-alls feature straps at the ends that attach to the handle.



Forward to 1:39 in the above Youtube clip of the film and you'll catch an initial close-up of one of the hold-alls. The rest of the clip shows the ending of the film in which the hold-alls go along for a punishing run in a soggy field where the holders of the hold-alls meet their slippery demise.

A call to readers - I have tried to research the maker of those hold-all bags but to no avail. If you know anything about their make or manufacture, please share.

Bonfanti's shuttle looms

Below is a short clip of Bonfanti's Omita shuttle loom which are nearly 50 years old.



Keep in mind many looms these days are shuttleless which are designed for much faster production (and hence lower cost).

New shirtings from Tip-Top Fabrics

Cappelleria Vitali

Earlier this year I strolled by Cappelleria Vitali, a hat store in the resort town of Rimini.

Herring shoes: Kirkdale boots

I recently received a pair of Chelsea boots from UK-based Herring Shoes. These are called the Kirkdale boots and are made by Cheaney on the 175 last featuring Dainite soles and veldtschoen construction.

As used in English shoemaking, "veldtschoen" construction means the upper leather is turned outward and stitched onto the midsole rather than turned underneath the insole. In theory, this "would direct unwanted debris and water, dependent on materials used, away from the foot instead of inside the shoe".

Naturally, I intend to put this theory to the test this autumn and winter!

Henry Tomkins customized grip bag

I recently received a customized version of the Henry Tomkins grip bag. Mr. Tomkins is an English leather goods craftsman based in Devon, England. The original grip bag is shown below:

The version I ordered is slightly downsized to fit underneath an airline seat and uses the #2 leather (see below):

Palmisciano sports jacket

I recently picked up a sports jacket made by Sicilian tailor Palmisciano, based in Catania, whom I write about in my guide to Sicilian tailors.

The cloth is a Super 150s Drapers jacketing.

Arrigo alpaca topcoat

This is an alpaca Ulster-style topcoat which is being made by Messina tailor Arrigo, whom I describe in my guide to Sicilian tailors.

Alpaca should probably not be your first choice in topcoating fabric. This particular alpaca is made by the Italian textile mill Agnona. The fabric could be an interesting third or fourth choice for a casual topcoat if you're looking for something different from the usual wool or cashmere options.

Toronto hatmaker: Stephen Temkin

I wrote about Stephen almost 2 years ago and finally met him in person earlier this summer in Toronto. He kindly walked me through the well-thought out setup for his bespoke hatmaking operation. Enjoy the photos.