Construction Questions

[paul6001]

I just undertook an agonizing reappraisal of my suits and jackets. It was past time to admit that I’m not going to diet my way into this suit. Time to declare that jacket obsolete. Maybe my brother can use the other one.

Truth be told, I’m working remotely half the time and when I’m in the office, there’s less incentive to dress up. (Incentive being defined as the number of women for whom I’m trying to look good.) It wouldn’t be crazy to declare them all obsolete but I plan to be one of the last of the die-hards.

As part of this appraisal, I wanted to make a final decision as to which were all canvas, which were half canvas, which were fused.

A difficult decision. (Difficult enough to make me wonder if it was so important.) Some jackets, like my beloved Attolini cashmere blazer, are clearly full canvas. The pinch test reveals three distinct layers: the outermost is the shell fabric, canvas, lining. Few were so plain and simple.

For most of the jackets, the pinch test again revealed three layers, but the shell fabric was not simply fabric. Something else was sewn or glued to the shell fabric. And then there’s another layer of construction material underneath that, and then the lining.

I’m tempted to default to call this half canvas, particularly since the price range of most of my stuff would seem to land in the half canvas world, but that’s not my (limited) understanding of half canvas. I thought that half canvas meant that part of the jacket was canvased, like my Attolini, and the rest was just shell and lining.

What seems to be going on with most of my jackets is that the entire front of the jacket is lightly fused and the upper part of the jacket has an additional layer of canvas. Does that make sense?

My final question of the collected wisdom of this forum regards chest pieces. Volumes and volumes have been written about canvas but chest pieces are largely ignored. To me, however, they seem like the thickest and most substantial part of the jacket. The most important, in other words. So how come chest pieces don’t get the screen time they deserve?

Many, many thanks for the education.

 

[breakaway01]

This has almost all of the answers to your questions from a real tailor:

The Difference Between Full Canvas and Fused Suits Explained

Difference between fused suits and full canvas suits: what makes one better than the other? Read it in this informative article.

journal.styleforum.net

You are correct that people talk more about full vs half canvas and really not so much about how the rest of the jacket is constructed. I suspect this is because it is very difficult to discern differences without taking the jacket apart, so people who obsess about these sorts of things can only talk about whether they can feel the canvas layer in a fully canvassed jacket. If you are interested, the same person who wrote the guide above has a great (if somewhat old) website in which he has taken apart many tailored jackets to discuss construction details.

Made by Hand- the great Sartorial Debate

tuttofattoamano.blogspot.com

But overall my advice is not to worry too much about construction. Fit & styling are paramount. I'd rather have a half-canvassed $350 jacket that looks great on me than a full-canvassed $3500 jacket that looks bad.

 

[jefferyd]

there’s less incentive to dress up. (Incentive being defined as the number of women for whom I’m trying to look good.)

Here is the most important sentence of your post. We all wear clothing for different reasons, this is yours, and it is valid.

So when assessing your wardrobe, the question you should be asking is not "is it full canvas" (much less how the chest is constructed), but do you look good to women? How likely is it that canvas is going to affect that? Fit, color, style, etc. is a far more important consideration. A full canvas suit made from dull fabric or which doesn't fit should be tossed in favor of a fully-fused suit in which you look good. Wait, @breakaway01 already said that. Your level of comfort is also important- if you are squeezed into your suit with a shoe horn you are unlikely to make a good impression. It doesn't mean you need to be wearing pyjamas, however, but the clothing in question needs to reinforce your sense of self-confidence.

Chest construction is complicated because there can be multiple layers of different materials to different effects and it's well beyond the need for anyone to know much about it other than 1. Does this look good on me? and 2. Am I comfortable in it?

 

[paul6001]

jeffreyd, I guess that I have to thank you for your response and your concern. Everyone seems very worried that I'm lying awake at night, obsessing about the canvas details of my suits. Maybe addicted to Benzos to diminish the tension I'm feeling about whether my canvas is keeping up.

Really, sincerely, none of that is happening. It's actually a subject that hasn't crossed my mind in years. Recently, a recent major closet culling brought raised the subject. And I promise you that canvas played no role in what I kept and what I gave away. It's simply a matter of curiosity. That's all. I'm also curious about how well Jake DeGrom's shoulder will hold up this year. I'm curious about a lot of things. But, I promise you, that's it.