New year, new suit

Flickr: Matt512

First off, a Happy New Year to all readers and I hope you had a great Christmas. Everyone is now back to work of course, so it may be time to think about a new work suit (and no, the picture isn't of my dog although she's the same breed).

The question is what to look for. In terms of business suits, a bit of tradition never did anyone any harm. All but the slimmest people do well to go for darker colours, and ideally these should be in blocks rather than loud patterns. I'm currently quite drawn to suits that look as though they're a solid colour but when you get close there's a subtle Prince of Wales check like my blue number, or a thin, subtle pinstripe like the one I'm picking up on Thursday.

Two buttons is classic and will suit most builds; if, again, you're very slim you might get away with three buttons but if like me you're a little 'broader' (euphemism alert) I'd suggest sticking with two. Skinny collars and skinny ties will work only if you're skinny yourself, otherwise they end up working as a contrast and showing your own well-upholstered proportions in a poor light.

If you want a bit of fun in spite of being businessy, have a think about a lively colour for the lining. People do see it when you take the jacket off or when you move around, so you might as well go for something less than dull; if you're looking for a tailored suit you'll be able to choose something individual. The weight of the cloth is important; you might find something warm a bit comforting right now but you're likely to regret this as the weather gets milder. I have a blue 'winter' suit which seemed a great idea at the time but I barely use it as most of the year it's too hot.

Contrasting stitching is a good way of picking detail out that makes your suit individual without being ostentatious. When I'm having things tailored (and it doesn't cost as much as you might think) I normally opt to have the cuff buttonhole stitched to match the lining. I once went for this on the lapel buttonhole as well, which was a bit of a mistake as it limits the ties I can wear and look reasonable.

Watch out for other 'fun' bits as well. Ages ago on this blog I went for a morning designing suits with A Suit That Fits. It was fun and I liked the John Steed/Avengers look of the velvet collar I'd put in. So, being an incredibly sensible and wise person, I ordered the suit later - and have hardly worn it. I just don't get invited to the 'showy' occasions on which an ostentatious feature like that is going to work, and would have been better off opting for a standard collar that doesn't stand out.

It's all about what works for you and above all the context in which you're going to wear the thing. You can always liven it up with a fun tie from someone like Victoria Richards, a firm favourite, or Duchamp, of which I'm also rather fond (although if you see something reduced on the Duchamp site at the moment, do check it against prices of the same product from John Lewis in the sale - I'm finding the discounts are deeper there in the January sales).

Right, it's New Year and I'm off to the gym for the first time in about ten months. And I'm happy to note the shorts still fit, which is not a bad start to 2013.  

Bespoke suit, bespoke lining..?

Sometimes there's an idea that sounds fun on paper but when you see it, you just wonder why you would. That was my feeling when I saw the bespoke linings launched by my first tailor, A Suit That Fits (sponsored link, anyone buying a suit through it will be rewarding me indirectly).

The principle is simple. You get measured for a suit in the usual way of course BUT you upload a picture to the website and they put it onto the lining, much as in the illustration on the right. Click on it for a bigger view if you like. You need to click on disclaimers confirming that you own the rights to reproduce the pictures - no doubt sneaky unlicensed Lady Ga Ga or 007 logo pictures (we've all been sloshed at the computer, come on) will be intercepted. Endearingly, the spokeswoman at the launch said "we're trying to avoid comparisons with Boots" or words to that effect - putting us all in mind of Boots, immediately, of course. This is the Boots where you take your picture in and they put it on mugs, tee-shirts, whatever.

But a suit lining? I find my other tailor, King and Allen, a bit restricted in that way if I'm honest; you get a plain lining and that's that. The paisley and jacquard offered by ASTF can be very appealing, but for me this is a little OTT. The spokeswoman said they found it worked well for wedding suits, and if that's who's buying it, fair enough. It's probably not for me, but if people are responding, good luck to them!

Are bow ties cool? Doctor Who returns...

Photo: Credit: BBC/Todd Antony/Adrian Rogers Copyright BBC

Tune into the BBC this evening or in the very near future and you're going to find the trailers for the new season of Doctor Who starting up. This is of course a cultural milestone (and yes I'll write something about the Olympics soon) and leads to a major, major style question: Are bow ties cool? You can click on the picture for a larger image.

This is actually not a straightforward question. There are a few things the good Doctor does that aren't actually all that cool but he and actor Matt Smith get away with them. Take bow ties anywhere other than somewhere formal. He, and predecessors Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee, got away with these spectacularly (in the sixties you'd have seen more of them anyway, when Troughton was in the role). By now, wearing them without a tuxedo you tend to have to be pretty damned young to get away with them and have them "ironically". Or you're playing a 900-year-old Time Lord. Conversely, my continuing inability to tie a bow tie is most certainly not cool. I told you it wasn't straightforward.

This isn't all Smith does that won't work elsewhere, though. Take braces. As you'll see from the pic, he wears them and he wears them well. You need an ironing board flat stomach to get away with those or they start looking like a contour map of your gut.

I like Harris Tweed jackets. My wife doesn't. What I do know is that they have to be carefully cut - it's appallingly easy to end up looking a bit charity shop and a bit pretending-to-dress-middle-aged-without-realising-you're-actually-pretty-old. In fact I'd say anyone who, like me, woke up in January 2010 and found themselves old enough to be Doctor Who's dad should probably steer clear unless the cut is seriously flattering.

Trailer for the new series appears below for anyone who's interested:

What to wear on stage - a new comedian writes

Flickr: Doug Hay

Some of you who follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, friends on Facebook or anything like that, might have noticed the messages saying I'm having a go at stand-up comedy on Monday evening (9th July, Dirty Dick's on Bishopsgate opposite Liverpool Street Station, 5 minutes as one of the open mic slots, which start at 7pm). It's a long story that started as part of a course in sharpening my general presentation skills.

So tempting to think "right, get an outfit together to fit the blog, something a little bit humorous, a bit edgy perhaps" - then I got a corporate gig during the day, there won't be time to nip back and forth home to change, so 'suit' it is. The tie, if I'm wearing one for my meeting, will come off and that's about it.

But then, that tends to be what most comedians wear anyway. Have you seen Michael McIntyre recently? Or not recently? He always looks completely sharp and is very well tailored. His shape has changed substantially over the years (he's currently looking pretty damned healthy) and everything is always an immaculate fit. Jack Dee, too, has always opted for the 'sharp' look and mostly tops it with a tie. He is also a tricky shape as a small man; my guess, once again, is that he goes bespoke.

Younger comedians are a bit more variable. Russell Howard goes for jeans and t-shirt. Russell Kane would make a suit look conspicuous with that hair - and it's not just the younger variety, Paul Merton's shirts on "Have I Got News for You" could give EastEnders' Alfie Moon a run for his money.

So I'll be aiming for 'inconspicuous' for three reasons. First it pays to be age-appropriate unless you're as talented as Paul Merton. Second, I'm only doing it for five minutes, you think I'm going to dress up? Third, if it did go any further - and that's not the aim - I might as well start with a look that's not going to make me shudder in future!

Shopping for duty free tailoring

Flickr: Hakan Dahlstrom

OK, here's an idea. I've done some business travelling recently and as such been in a few airports. One thing that occurred to me whilst doing all this was that it would have been good to know where the best Duty Free shops are so I could plan a bit before leaving. So, here's a brief summary of my recent notes - anyone wanting to add their own destinations and comments would be more than welcome. I'm excluding spirits and tobacco because that's not what this blog is about - of course all the usual duty free stuff is available.

London City Airport: Tiny as you'd expect from a small airport but a good selection of Boss shirts (not to my taste), Mont Blanc pens and accessories for the rich and I bought a nice Dunhill tie for my meeting (at which nobody wore ties so it's unworn). This was £62 as I was travelling just outside the EU.

Gatwick North Terminal: Under modernisation, sports gear, Harrods, Kurt Geiger shoes, no doubt there will be more as works progress.

Gatwick South Terminal: Fat Face, Boss, Kurt Geiger, several others - remember to check the retail prices outside the airport as many people have a perpetual sale on.

Heathrow T5: Vast shopping experience if you have the time, dominated by Harrods which has most of the designer brands you'd want - Hilfiger, Polo, just about everything. Also several designer shops opposite.

Copenhagen: Actually bigger than Heathrow T5. We're talking Boss, Polo Ralph Lauren, Burberry and Hermes with their own shops and a couple of menswear shops with a selection including LaCoste and others.

Luxembourg: Small but perfectly formed - as long as you like Boss and Lacoste in the menswear department. I was thinking about Polo Ralph Lauren shorts, the shape of which seems to sit OK on my body - and there were none.

Istanbul: Less of the clothing, just one or two shops, but an extensive selection of scent (as most of them have) and a Mont Blanc shop to go and drool over (I do like Mont Blanc pens, why the hell I can't develop cheaper tastes I don't know).

Milan Lenate: Are you kidding, it's Milan! Superb shirt shop caught my eye, if only I'd needed some shirts. Sadly I didn't. Also good shoes and suits - does anyone really buy suits duty free, though? Not easy to return goods I'd have thought.

Newcastle: Believe it or not you can buy duty free in internal flights, look, don't stare, I didn't know. Mostly sports gear and the usual drinks and stuff, but some nice watches at a better price than average.

Zurich: Curiously little in the tailoring department unless I walked straight past it whilst looking for my wife's cosmetics, which is entirely possible.

Please note this is not intended as a definitive guide - I wasn't specifically looking to write this entry when visiting most of these over the last 12 months or so, and may well have overlooked items. I'll welcome corrections and of course additions as comments and will add to and update this entry - leaving a note and link to say it's updated as and when.

So, what have you found recently on any business or pleasure travels whilst in the duty free shop?

A (pocket) square world

Older readers will notice the Michael Bentine reference in that title. That's irrelevant - today I've been considering the pocket square. For a young relative's birthday recently I was dragged screaming - sorry, taken around Liberty's, and in the menswear department I noticed the patterned pocket square is making a comeback. There are some nice ones available from Richard James of Savile Row as well.

While I was growing up the pocket square - or "handkerchief" - was pretty much out of fashion, for the dandy only. I'm quite pleased to see them back. There are a number of ways of wearing them; folded flat and seen only as a line above the breast pocket in the so-called Presidential Fold works well in formal settings, as does the triangular folded-to-a-point and the three point (peak in the middle and two peaks either side). The latter two look a bit waiterish for my tastes - every respect to actual waiters but if I'm dining in a restaurant I'd rather not be asked for the wine list.

My own preference is illustrated in the picture, with thanks to A Suit That Fits for thje picture. Fold in half, bring the corners to the middle, fold the top down a bit, fold that bit down a little on either side, stick in pocket and squish. A Suit That Fits also has the good sense to offer matching squares with the linings of its suits, so you hardly notice you're spending money when you buy one. The other tailor I use, King and Allen, doesn't offer this but it designs its breast pockets so that they can be turned inside out and made to look like pocket squares; I tried this once with my pale grey suit on television and it looked exactly as if I'd turned my pocket inside out.

So - do readers wear these squares? And if so, how?

Declaration: The above links are completely without affiliation except for A Suit That Fits; if you buy a suit through this link you will get a £25 discount and I get £25 cash. This has not prejudiced their inclusion in this blog entry.

A Suit that Fits hits John Lewis

I've written in the past about a few tailors - I went and visited my current supplier, King and Allen, only yesterday. My introduction to having stuff made to measure, though, was with A Suit That Fits (order a suit through that link and I get a voucher - I mention this in the interests of full declaration). And they've done something interesting by getting a concession area in John Lewis in London's Oxford Street.

If I'm honest, this is a slightly odd one in my opinion. If I go into a shop to buy something I tend to want to walk out with my purchase. This clearly isn't the way the operation works. Also if I'm in most retail premises I tend not to want to need to make an appointment. The model from A Suit That Fits, however, remains appointment only - mostly because they expect to take an hour measuring you up and going through the various fabric and style options with you. I can see how you wouldn't want passing trade with a business like that.

This is why I find it's an odd fit within a busy department store, particularly when the business has a permanent office just down the road off Regent Street. Nevertheless the branding's a bit of a coup for the company and will no doubt confound several of the competition. The publicity says you'll get a bespoke suit for prices from £299; technically this is true but the limitations on style and fabric will be pretty severe at that price, I'd expect to pay around £500 for something better, and wait around 6-8 weeks before it's wearable unless you're an awkward shape in which case you may need more than one fitting.

There's no reason not to wish them well - but I'd welcome readers' comments on whether you'd be comfortable making an hour-long appointment in a busy department store in London.

Discounted tailoring for LifeOver35 readers

OK, back from holiday and I'm in a position to offer a 25% discount on tailoring. It's from Clements and Church and it's easy for you - just enter the promotional code CC76937235 during the checkout process online and they'll lop off twenty five pee in the pound for your first order.

Suits, jackets, ties, cufflinks, less formal stuff like denim and even umbrellas - they've offered this to LifeOver35 readers to celebrate (or market) the launch of their new e-commerce site.

I'm grateful for the offer and would be interested to hear how any readers get on. The offer is open until 14 May.

Declaration: just for clarity - LifeOver35 isn't getting a cut of this, there's literally nothing in this offer for us bar goodwill, we're highlighting it only because readers may be interested.

New accessory shop - ties, cufflinks, braces...

It's always good to welcome a new business so today I'd like to introduce a Dorset-based company called PerUomo - here's a link to the website - which gets brownie points immediately from me for using a model who looks as though he may actually have seen his 30th birthday, men's magazines please take note.

Cutting to the chase it has some good stuff on display. As regular readers will know I've been looking at refreshing my tie collection a bit as I've been doing a small amount of telly. One of my pet hates is boring Paisley designs; you get a lot which are self-consciously loud but end up a bit samey. The pattern on PerUomo's Italian pure silk green and blue is regular enough not to be utterly garish but spaced out enough to be a bit interesting, which is my idea of a good design. Others may disagree of course but at £34.95 it's certainly on my list of possibles. There's a good range of colours for people who don'y fancy this one. I can't speak for how well-made they are because I haven't actually seen one in the flesh, but I have no reason to doubt them.

To accompany this I might consider a pair of cufflinks from the company, although if I were matching them I'd have to see them in person to decide. There are a lot of designs similar to many I've seen before but I'm quite taken with this blue and white gilt pair. You know the routine, a shade too big and they might swamp an otherwise quite tasteful outfit. They also sell braces which are not my thing, but they have a good selection for wearers.

The family members who run this site already have one placeholder for a forthcoming range of cufflinks in addition to those already on the site. I'll be watching what comes in with interest.

Your shirts, collared

The guys at A Suit That Fits (sponsored link) have come up with a new wheeze. Well, a very old one I suppose - the age of the detachable collar and cuff is back, it seems. In the olden days people used to freshen up their shirts by attaching fresh collars and cuffs, and didn't have to wash the whole shirt for a few days.

There are times when our ancestors' habits really start to make me pleased I wasn't around at the time. Men in particular - and this is within living memory, I'm only talking about the 1970s - would regard deodorant as something a bit girly or alien, it would go nowhere near them; a generation earlier, we're now reminded, they would change part of a shirt rather than the whole thing. Of course the climate has changed so during the summer in particular it's much hotter now than it would have been in the detachable days, This is the reason why I'm hoping the idea won't catch on as a means of saving on washing time and soap suds; we're a different generation, we're more aware of hygiene, oh sod it, we're cleaner, OK?


Where it's likely to score is in the multi-use stakes. I bought a shirt from these guys a little while ago with one of their three button high collars, just for a change. My wife informs me it's ghastly. If the detachable collar had been around at the time that would have been fine, I could simply have whipped it off and put something more classic on in its place. Likewise I have shirts of which I am very fond but which need cufflinks every time and the occasion's not always right (cufflinks and jeans is a very particular look to carry off, and whatever it takes I haven't got it). The ability to whip double cuffs off a clean shirt and put a single on with buttons instead could save my having to buy another shirt.

Prices are £80 for a shirt with detachable collar and cuffs, three shirts with five detachable collars and cuffs or five shirts with five collars for £285. If I didn't have more than enough shirts already I could be quite tempted by the middle option because of the choice you'd get. I do wonder, though, whether the market's going to welcome a move back to this sort of dressing.

A shorts question

Flickr: Lululemon athletics

So I'm just considering buying a new pair or two of shorts for the summer - the waistband on the others has obviously shrunk in my drawer over the winter - and I see this Tweet from @iainmartin1, who says: "Gets worse every summer. The spread of the awful 3/4 length casual trouser for men continues."

I kind of know what he means. We rarely look terrific in shorts unless we're actually playing sport, in which case the redness of my face makes a welcome distraction from the leg area. Put on a few pounds and the tapering off into your ankle makes you look like a Weeble.

But I'm still going to get some, partly because I work from home so don't care, they don't bother the dog, and partly because of my sense of equality and natural justice. It's the summer, it's getting hot and I'm going to be sensible. This means it's that time of year when women are apparently around to trot around the place half naked and we men are expected to swelter, particularly in formal situations - in spite of the blog entry I did a while ago on suits for hot weather, there really isn't a way of looking smart without sweltering when the temperature goes up.

So I'm having cargo shorts and the hell with the fashionistas. Yes, they'd look better if they were on a younger man or someone slimmer (a lot of things would) and no, I won't wear them to meetings, I'll still be in suits for those. But at least - hopefully - I won't pass out in the heat or something ludicrous.

It could be worse. Those of us who grew up in the seventies will remember the old-style shorts as worn by footballers and tennis players - basically underpants with slight flaps. Given my current physique I can only think...yicch.

Is expensive tailoring doomed?

I saw in the Times over the weekend - which had published the men's style page in its Magazine, we often get chopped - that yet another low-budget tailor had opened up. I say "low budget"; if you fit a Marks and Sparks suit for £120 you're going to think these others are very costly.

But they're proliferating. The handful I know of include:

A Suit that Fits
King and Allen
Cad and the Dandy
Dress2Kill

(Usual routine, the first of those links is my usual people and I get loyalty points if anyone clicks through - I mention this purely in the interests of full disclosure).

You can now add October House, the newest and perhaps understandably the one with the least informative website as yet. No doubt these guys will all debate the merits and demerits of their ranges and methods, but what you get is a well fitted suit (which may take more than one go to get right), in the material and cut of your own choosing, made by hand in most cases. You'll usually get change from (or can opt to get change from) £500 - if you go for something with polyester in it you can get it for less than £300 from some of them, although why you'd go out of your way to have tailored polyester is beyond me.

Or you can go to Savile Row and spend thousands.

I had to ask: why would anyone do so when the alternative is to spend...er...loads less? So I mailed four Savile Row tailors yesterday and asked why it was worth spending all that cash.

I should stress that they've only had a day to respond. So the fact that only one of them has done so is no reflection on the others. Nonetheless I'm grateful to Tom Mahon of English Cut: Bespoke Savile Row who is no longer based on the Row full time but he's experienced there, for taking the time to reply.

He's not down on the cheaper stuff. He's quick to state that if you spend around £800 with some of the budget people you'll get a pretty decent suit. "True bespoke is at least twice that and although our prices are pretty reasonable you'll have very little change out of £3000," he adds. He suggests that many of the lower cost items use basically the same factory production methods as High Street ready to wear clothes (in my experience they're more likely to offshore the cutting and making, which is what brings the cost down). The extra range of fabrics can make it worth doing, he's keen to stress, but the experience is different.

"I can't put into words the difference of true bespoke," he says. There are a couple of things that suggest his clients, at least, are happy with it at the price. First he's about to blog that he's not taking on any new clients for a few months. "The reason is because of my existing clients re-ordering which is what is keeping us so busy.

"Bearing in mind these are successful, educated people I very much doubt that they'd be prepared to pay three times as much, wait three times as long for something that wasn't really in a class of its own. I'd love to say that it was down to my sparkling personality but in reality it's the artisans who make these that create something special."

Returning customers are a compelling argument and I'm grateful for the response but still no wiser as to what makes a Savile Row suit worth several times the price of the competition. Some of the answers are in my entry on floating canvases last month - but not all.

I'll update this entry with comments from the other tailors as and when they respond. And of course I'd be delighted to hear on the comments section from anyone who's used an upmarket service and can shed any light.

What to do with a swatch

Flickr: My Love For You

Getting your clothes tailored should be a pleasure but so often it gets confusing if you don't know exactly what you're doing. I made a mistake with my first suit I had tailored a couple of years ago, for example - and if I'd known a bit more about swatches of fabric I probably wouldn't have done the same thing.

I was looking through the various offerings and was very pleased to see there was a linen available, in the summer this seemed a very good idea. The colour seemed just about dark enough - they had a near white, a blue and a beige. I went for the beige.

Mistake. This was where I learned my first big lesson about swatches. The material always looks lighter en masse. The suit was perfectly fitted and exactly what I'd ordered - and it wasn't flattering. For the second one I ordered I opted for what I thought was a dark grey. It turned out to be mid grey for the same reason. It looks good on me but it was luck rather than judgment.

So what do you look for in a swatch? First, get a sample at home if you can. My usual tailors at A Suit That Fits (sponsored link, I get loyalty points for click-throughs and that's the only payment I get for this blog) will send up to three, no problem at all. Others, like King and Allen who I met recently (not a sponsored link) will prefer to sit you down and talk you through the fabrics. Remember they'll look lighter; compare them to your shirts, think about the lining and what's going to work and what isn't.

Feel it. If you think it's too rough, it's too rough - only buy something you like. Then screw it up. Go ahead - you're looking to see whether it creases. Then pour flour on it, or toothpaste - see how easily it brushes clean. Don't expect miracles, it's a suit after all, not a raincoat, but it should be relatively cleanable. After that you're ready to order - unless you can actually get to visit the tailor. If you can do that, ask them if they've got any suits made up in the fabric you're thinking of. You're spending the money, they'll fall over themselves to show you.

If you don't get the suit right after that, you're not trying...

P. S. A warm welcome to any new readers who saw the piece on the BBC's webwise site. I hope you'll find something of interest in here.

Smart casual and the eye of the beholder

Lunch today with fellow author Heather Townsend, whose book the FT Guide to Business Networking is coming out in a couple of months. My lightweight linen jacket is off to the cleaners so I was wearing a Marks and Sparks blazer, which we agreed was ridging terribly across my back so I'm more determined than ever to keep buying tailored stuff (you reach a certain shape it's just better, and not always as expensive as people think).

But we got to talking about the dreaded smart/casual conundrum so many blokes go through. What does it mean? She knew one guy who had loads of jeans for knocking about in and being really casual and some pretty decent suits, but he was a bit bewildered by what should come in the middle.

My instinct - non-denim jeans or chinos, blazer or some sort of smart-ish jacket but keeping to separates anyway, tends to keep me out of trouble. And I avoid cutaway shirts when I'm going for the open necked look - cutaways always look like they're missing a tie, as that's how they're designed.

I'm a little concerned, though, that the jeans-and-jacket combo makes me look like a fat Jeremy Clarkson. What's everyone else do?

Tailoring links:

A Suit that Fits (sponsored link)
King and Allen (not a sponsored link at all, I get nothing whether you click or not)

Win a tailored suit

Just a quickie today. A Suit That Fits is running a competition so you can win a tailored suit from them.

The link I've put up is a sponsored one (please click generously, I get loyalty points) - but if you scour the site and find the pic of the guy holding the Easter Egg, and then tell them the URL on this entry form (which also signs you up to their newsletter), they'll tailor you a suit free of charge.

They won't be expensive suits - I've had a few made and never paid over £400, which for a tailored fit I find unbelievable.

There it is. Free tailoring. Nothing to do with me, I'm just telling you.

Good luck.

What's a floating canvas?

A tailor, from Flickr: Smabs Sputzer

My thanks to Adam King of Surbiton-based tailor King and Allen for a convivial couple of hours and a coffee last week, during which we discussed some of the finer points of tailoring. He'd invited me along to one of his pop-up tailoring events partly because he wanted to meet me and I accepted for that reason plus the fact that I've been guilty of writing mostly about one tailor alone in this blog so far.

I'm pleased to say he wasn't one of these people who believes in diminishing the competition - although he (along with A Suit That Fits) was bemused by a recent Financial Times interview with another of the competition for budget tailoring which referred to the interviewees (established 2008) as more established than his company (set up 2004, and A Suit That Fits launched in 2006).

He was keen instead to communicate his enthusiasm for what he does and the difference between his outfits and those of some for which you might pay a good deal less. There was the quality of the cloth - we met at one of his suppliers (Holland and Sherry) in Savile Row to underline this point.

But there was also the floating canvas. This I found quite interesting. If you go to the High Street and pay your £200 or so for a suit, you'll get the best approximate fit you can (I always find the shoulders ruck up terribly because I'm this awkward square-backed shape) - and there will be a lot of glue in the suit. It holds the canvas reinforcement to the cloth people will actually see.

There's nothing wrong with this, nobody should be getting snobby about it, but it's a fact. This is why less expensive suits pucker up quite a bit when they've been dry cleaned too often, because the glue has melted at high temperatures, or when it rains - I've had to take suits back because a downpour has ruined them (and the tailor replaced them by making new ones for me, I should add, then investigated why there was a problem - I have no complaints at all).

When you move towards the tailored, you move away from glue. At the less expensive end of tailored suits, say £250-£300, you're likely to get a partially glued, partially-sewn suit or "partial floating canvas". You couldn't commission someone to sew it by hand at that price. So the suit will be more durable (and therefore probably less expensive in the longer term) than an el cheapo jobbie and it'll be an excellent fit. I have a number of these at this price point and believe me they look good.

King and Allen majors on the fully floating canvas - so you can soak the suit, boil it, anything, you'll find only cotton and wool and silk for the lining in their suits, so there'll be no puckering, after a press it shoud look fine again. You can even pour oil all over it - mind you, that'll ruin it completely so I wouldn't.

You can actually get a sense of where these various companies are in the market. Move away from off-the-peg as I've done and you can be delighted to find A Suit That Fits costs only a little more, and you can design clothes online and have them delivered once the measurements are right - you can even take your own. Their founders have told me that their business is based on the principle that too many people buy off the peg. King and Allen (only my opinion) is nibbling away at the customers of the more traditional tailor - they won't let you take your own measurements, they sell a fully floating canvas and there's another couple of hundred quid in the equation accordingly.

Then there's Gieves and Hawkes - no. 1 Savile Row, all of the ritual and comfort of ordering from an upmarket establishment with access to the very best materials. And you'll pay more than I paid for my last car - I can't see myself troubling them unduly with my custom in the foreseeable future but if anyone could supply me with the next lottery tickets I might - and I'm gaining an understanding of why you might want to.

Designer labels: don't be fooled

I've just been blogging at Dailyfinance.co.uk - one of my paid gigs - on a new survey reported in the Daily Mail today. It seems employers are falling for the "designer label" look something rotten, giving people better jobs as a result and in some cases 9% higher salaries.

In the picture on the left I'm wearing a designer shirt I suppose - it's a Ralph Lauren with a Polo logo. I have it because I bought it in a sale at a lower price than you'd expect to cough up for an off-the-peg Marks and Sparks shirt when you're buying it new. Personally I don't think this makes me particularly affluent, any more than  visiting my mother in Dorset and swinging by the Outlet stores in Clark's Village in Street. By all means visit the place looking for bargains; you won't be disappointed and by no means should you miss the Jaeger store where you can pick up some very nice looking formal shirts indeed for about thirty quid a throw (people who're fooled by designer labels will be disappointed to note that these shirts are unmarked).

Then there's T. K. Maxx. One of my favourite shirts (until it got caught on a loose screw in my wardrobe) was a mint green thing my wife bought me; it looked great, was emblazoned with the Polo Ralph Lauren logo and - you guessed it - came in at under £30.

Designer logos, in an era of outlet stores and discount places like T. K. Maxx, aren't a sign of affluence. They're as likely to be a sign of precisely the reverse. Use them by all means to trap unwary employers, but beware - they might have twigged too, and will be listening to what you say rather than the way you look.

P. S. The other designer item I'm wearing in the picture is the suit. It was made by A Suit That Fits (affiliate link, do click, it'll cost you nothing but I get loyalty points) - and technically I'm the designer because you get to specify everything. It's the same with other tailors like King and Allen, quoted on this blog last week - and either of these companies will kit you out with something to your own spec and your individual measurements, with prices starting below £300. Designer gear, phooey...

When it's too hot for a suit

My tailor friends at A Suit That Fits (that's a sponsored link, costs you nothing, I get loyalty points for click-throughs) have been designing again. The summer is coming and Mighel Critten, after a sweltering season last year, has come up with a cotton suit.

He doesn't wear the trousers. They ended up looking a bit too much like pyjamas, he says. The jacket and waistcoat, though, he's happy with.


He looks pretty good in it. This is for two reasons. First the suit is designed around him as you'd expect from any tailoring service - but more importantly he's young and has a frame bordering on "wiry", certainly on the slim side.


That's why I won't be getting one, and why I can't honestly recommend it to anyone with a build like mine (think "really must go on that diet sometime"). I do have an unstructured jacket at home - in other words it has no lining or padding so it sits exactly on my frame, hanging more like a tee-shirt.


It's not a flattering look. It is not good on me, it is bad and ugly - emphasising all the wrong bits. Charles Tyrwhitt had an unstructured jacket in the catalogue a while back and the blurb said, euphemistically, that if you were lucky enough to be blessed with an athletic frame this would look marvellous on you.


Ahem. Very few of us have, particularly after gravity's had a go at any muscle structure we might have neglected over a period of time.


Other tailors feel strongly about cotton. "It will crease immediately and you will like you’ve been dragged through a hedge within the hour. There are plenty of viable (and more affordable) options out there if you do your homework," says Adam King of Surbiton-based King and Allen (not a sponsored link by the way). He suggests wool/cashmere blends (although the cheaper ones can be scratchy so either get a swatch or visit a tailor and have a good feel of the fabric first) or a mohair. He also suggests mohair, and watch the lining. "Ideally it should be made from 100% natural fibres. Manmade fibres do not breathe as well and cause sweating," he says. Light grey is a good summer colour, he adds. There are also specific summery fabrics - King recommends the Holland and Sherry CrispAir range, although it's not cheap at £799 for a suit compared to the £499 the company would charge for something in a "cool wool".


Then there's linen. I have a couple of linen suits, one of which is only part lined (I bought mine last August from A Suit That Fits but King and Allen has also offered a similar half-lined idea for almost a year, ask for the Dragonfly Lining). This is cool enough and in a good dark blue it looks pretty good as well, hanging right over the chest and shoulders and since it's tailored it has all the nips and tucks needed to keep me looking lifelike. The other one is also tailored and looks fine, but it has a full lining so isn't as cool - and I don't wear the trousers because, wait for it, I went and ordered a pale linen suit. You have to have a certain whatsit to carry that look off, and "expanded waistline" is 100 per cent the wrong shape.


I'd be interested to hear what other men do in the summer for a formal meeting when an ordinary suit is just too hot.

Designing suits with A Suit That Fits

So I've been out playing - my regular suit makers, A Suit That Fits (sponsored link, I get loyalty points for click-throughs but they cost the clicker nothing), had a few journalists and bloggers in, playing with suit design. None of your computerised stuff this time around - we had pencils, we had paper.

There were some good ideas on display by the time we'd finished. Mine were on the conservative (small "c") side. This blog is for males who don't want to look like a walking mid-life crisis and who've reached the age at which "young' is a memory rather than a reality. So I stuck with the classic suit outline, notched collar, dark blue birdeye material for a bit of texture and because it folds well when you move about. I put a velvet collar on for a bit of fun - this is a "going out" suit rather than something for business, a touch of John Steed for us mid-lifers. One of the staff knew what I was talking about when I said that; the other one, when I said it was supposed to be a bit Avengers, probably assumed I was going to dress up as Captain America.

I included silver striped lining so there's something good to notice when you whip the jacket off - if you're designing a suit never forget the lining. Two vents in the back because a single vent or no vent isn't very flattering on a larger bloke (euphemism alert there). Trousers with belt hoops rather than attachments for braces, a back pocket and definitely no turnups on the leg (my instinct is that these are going to take a long time to recover from their moment in the sun during the 1980s). I put in working butons on the cuff as another little detail people will notice if they're checking your style out.

I call it the "LifeOver35 suit", imaginatively, and if you're inspired to buy it made to measure you can - here's the link, all you have to do is add measurements. That's not a sponsored link, I get nothing whether you buy or not - working on the principal that nobody will.

As you'll gather, I have all the visual imagination of a myopic hamster. One of the staff said she liked my design and it "looked like a Suit that Fits suit", which tells you a lot! The guy from Men's Health was suitably ripped and designed a suit to emphasise the upper body, he called it the "muscle suit". I'd rather have something I can still wear in a few year's time and, how can I put this tactfully, those muscles don't last without a very large amount of work. A couple of other bloggers had more extreme ideas; narrow leg, a border around the lapel, shortened jacket and very slim fits on everything. Colour was a vital part of what they were about - the brighter the better in some cases. OK, but if you're being practical...

Maybe the idea wasn't necessarily to be practical the whole time. Speaking of unusual suits I saw something else while I was there; the company will next week launch suit designer Mighel's cotton suit. He developed it whilst coming into work sweltering last summer. It's an unstructured suit with less lining than you'd normally get, so it falls around your body shape - do not buy it if you look like me (my unstructured jacket I bought last year is a sight...) but if you're slim and reasonably well-exercised it could be a blessing if we get another heatwave.

Meanwhile there are still a couple of weeks to have a go at suits yourself and enter the Suit that Fits design competition, which you can enter by clicking here. The winner (again, that's not a sponsored link) gets their suit hand made to measure and it'll go into the A Suit That Fits online shop so other people can buy it, and you get a cut of the takings.

I might enter my own design. You never know, the judges might like myopic hamsters.

Suits and tailoring: choosing the features

I tend to buy suits tailored these days. There are two reasons for this: first I'm a slightly awkward shape even if I lose some weight, a very square back makes off-the-peg jackets ruck up on me terribly and this in turn leads to the lapel area bowing out. Frankly, they don't fit.

The second reason is that it's nowhere near as expensive as you might think. The linen suit in the picture came in for under £300 and although I'd freeze half to death if I wore it right now, I'm presenting at Bafta this evening and will be wearing another tailored jobbie from the same place (anyone wanting more info is welcome to mail me - they have a loyalty scheme so I can refer people and get points against future purchases).

I was wearing one yesterday, though, and one of the women at the meeting said she was surprised anyone would choose such a non-fancy lining for a bespoke suit. She probably had a point; it was one of my first tailored suits and I probably went in too conservatively. On the other hand you don't want to look an idiot - so what to do? Here are some points to consider when you're going tailored for the first time (I'd have loved a list like this when I started, and I'd welcome additional thoughts).

1. The fit
Luckily I was advised that slim fit isn't just for slim people. Ultra-fitted would make me look fat (and yes I understand it's no use blaming the suit); slim, as in the picture, is just that bit better shaped than a standard fit.

2. Working cuffs
One of the things that distinguishes a well tailored suit from off the peg in many people's eyes - I've read it often enough. It's a mark of quality, some people say; in my tailor's case it's a mark of my throwing an extra £25 at the thing so I can undo one of the buttons and pose a bit. Whatever. Don't have these for your first made to measure suit, though; if you're not happy with the sleeve length the tailor won't have the same leeway for alterations as they would with non-working buttons.

3. Lining
Go on, treat yourself to a slightly fancy lining. Patterns, something with a sheen, have some fun - nobody's going to see it much until you take it off, but it definitely adds to the effect. Make sure the back of the waistcoat (if you're having one, which I wouldn't necessarily recommend as they can look a bit stuffy and also emphasise any protruberance of gut) matches the lining of the suit and you're automatically co-ordinated. Opt for a pocket square (or "hankie" as they're sometimes known) of the same stuff and you're really co-ordinated. Go for something too quiet and the suit's likely to look off the peg - which of course may not be a problem to you.

4. Stitching
A hand-stitched lapel used to add an air of authenticity, proving something had been hand made. Since Marks and Sparks now have handstitch lookalike jackets available off the peg I suggest the benefits are diminishing - I like the look so I have it, but it's purely a matter of taste.

5. Buttonhole stitching
Tailors will be pleased to stitch the lapel button and the cuff buttons to match the lining rather than the suit if you want. I wasn't sure at first but went for it on the suit that arrived yesterday and am very pleased with the effect; nobody's going to notice unless they look for it but it'll give me a bit more confidence this evening. My tailor, at least, doesn't charge extra.

Oh, and always examine any guarantee they offer in terms of the fit. Some will guarantee to alter a suit even if there's nothing wrong with it and you've changed shape through weight loss or gain.