Ongoing Bespoke Projects

[jonathanS]

I received an email from Nina Penlington (former head cutter at Edward Sexton) this morning that she's starting her own brand. Since @Despos suggested that I work with a tailor whose jacket I like, I reached out to her and am meeting her in London next week.

She's having a US trunk show starting the last week of January through the 2nd week of February. She's going to be in NY, Nashville and LA. If interested, you can reach her at [email protected] for details. Her new Instagram handle is @ninapenlingtonbespoke.

Didn’t sexton have that young guy who was cutting for a while? I can’t remember his name. Maybe Domenic? What happened to him?

If you’re getting a sexton type coat, I’d go for a great coat type of militaristic thing with peak lapels and a darker color. I think it’d look more at home. Polos don’t look right to me with that kind of structure.

 

[jonathanS]

Speak! I'm listening. Very good advice.
Regarding the raglan sleeves, I think my tailor can do it, but I have to ask. Will send him some of the pictures. If not no big deal and we go for normal shoulders.
UPDATE: just asked Gianni Lovadina and he can make it, he tells me he is making a lot of women coats in that style so he is used to it. I told him that if he wasn't comfortable I would abandon the project. I have had multiple projects where the tailor (in my case shirtmaker) wanted to please me and try making something I had in mind, in the end it always became a disaster so I'm very reluctant asking tailors something. Enfin next time I visit him I will discuss it in more detail and think things through.

I will not go for slash pockets, never ever on a polocoat, what I would go for is a more 'italian' styling and go for the mailbox pockets on the italian coat dieworkwear once showed us in either his blogpost or over in this thread. So basically a mailbox pocket but with rounded corners.
Regarding the no breast pocket; if you make the lapels very wide/big in your face, a breast pocket would only distract from the whole coat. I would add 'no front darts' as well.

But I'm now hijacking the thread ppk was asking for feedback, not me (even If I think you stirred him in a good direction as well, I'm very happy with the advice) but I wouldn't want PPK to not get his info

Agreed about the breast pocket. Personally, I prefer a breast pocket. But others are free to disagree. I don’t think it’s a huge deal.

I never considered that more ladies wear a raglan coat than men. Personally, I don’t like the whole balmacaan look. But, I think it looks better as a db. And perhaps I need to see it done right.


Re: slash pockets vs. mailbox. The Napoli tailors do slash as a default on the manica forchetta coat. So I wouldn’t call it not Italian, per se. Slash strikes me as more practical. Im considering asking for mailbox pockets instead of slash on a coat as well. But im not sure.

As for dart / no dart, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. I’d rather have the coat fit right vs remove a dart. I thought about using a Florentine tailor to avoid the dart but decided against it in the end.

 

[clee1982]

Didn’t sexton have that young guy who was cutting for a while? I can’t remember his name. Maybe Domenic? What happened to him?

If you’re getting a sexton type coat, I’d go for a great coat type of militaristic thing with peak lapels and a darker color. I think it’d look more at home. Polos don’t look right to me with that kind of structure.

Dominic? He was with Nina last time I saw ES at NYC almost 2 years ago?

 

[ppk]

Didn’t sexton have that young guy who was cutting for a while? I can’t remember his name. Maybe Domenic? What happened to him?

If you’re getting a sexton type coat, I’d go for a great coat type of militaristic thing with peak lapels and a darker color. I think it’d look more at home. Polos don’t look right to me with that kind of structure.

Dominic Sebag-Montefiore is who you're thinking of. I'm not sure if he's taking over. I'll inquire when I'm there next week.

I don't want a militaristic style coat. I want a polo coat in the Noël Coward style as @L.deJong outlined in his post. If Nina won't or can't do it. I'll go with someone else.

 

[brax]

Okey so this maybe off kilter, but the Noël Coward polocoat came up again.
As I'm researching this coat, because I would like to have it 'copied' or atleast make it a bit in that style, I decided to do some research into the coat itself.
If you like this coat I would suggest bookmarking this post so you don't have to do a days research
Just for reference here is the famous shot (thanks to vox in high res):
View attachment 2309137


So what I gathered is the following, if we trust vox in dating this picture it's shot in 1937, on the internet we can find dates ranging from 1929 to 1939, so it should be in the general ball-park. There are actually three different polocoats worn by Noël, the famous one from the picture above (1937), another one from 1932 and one in 1957. The 1932 version is also an ulster but has three buttons and the sleeve has a buttoned tab instead of turnups.

Herby the 1932 coat (fu-ck album btw, not going to pay 50eu for just a picture, I hope they don’t mind…):
View attachment 2309169
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If you wanted to copy the famous ulster polocoat I would suggest going for the 1932 version and instead of buttoned tabs on the sleeves I would opt for turnups, it looks a lot like the ps tweed overcoat (herringbone one) https://www.permanentstyle.com/2023/11/introducing-the-english-tweed-overcoat.html only longer. It’s a very classic style, so nothing out of the ordinary. As we will see the coat from 1937 is way more flamboyant. It would also work much better because the 1937 overcoat needs (no DEMANDS) a heavy camelhair cloth.

The last coat that resembles a polocoat is from 1957, it’s actually more a balmacaan in polocoat cloth. Here, also nice but I would opt for a nice tweed if you go for this style: (btw have a look at photo's when Noël Coward is on Capri, he wears a nice balmacaan in herringbone tweed, lovely!)
View attachment 2309173

Let’s focus on the 1937 coat.
So here are a couple more pictures, what I gather out of this is that it’s actually a one button coat! With just a belt to fasten around the middle. The fabric itself is more luxurious than the 1932 coat and it's also heavier. I hope this helps you guys!

Here you see the luxurious fabric in action very nice 'nap' on it:
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Here you can see that there is only one button! (this pic is dated 1947 and could actually be a different coat just a copy), because the cloth looks less luxurious (but could also be the age of the thing, it's 10 years old by now)
View attachment 2309177

Different side of the same pic as vox:
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Coat in action when sitting, looks absolutely comfy, also you can see the belt in action here (c. 1945):
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The 1937 version is the inspiration behind the polo coat that I have envisioned. Once I work through a bit of a backlog on current USA commissions, I’m going to try to start this one (with some mods) out of the 1Kg cashmere.

 

[hitsuji]

Dominic Sebag-Montefiore is who you're thinking of. I'm not sure if he's taking over. I'll inquire when I'm there next week.

I don't want a militaristic style coat. I want a polo coat in the Noël Coward style as @L.deJong outlined in his post. If Nina won't or can't do it. I'll go with someone else.

I think Fred from Tailour would be your best bet here, try to get an appointment with him if you haven’t already. If you show him those pictures of the polo he can mock something up and discuss with you. As I understand from DWW, He makes a lot of tailoring for TV shows so is quite flexible

He often travels to the US too so might be able to meet him when he pops over. He’s a little pricy but hes about the same price as ES/Nina would be I’d imagine.

It wouldn’t make sense to go to Nina for this coat, it just strays away from that Nutters/ES cut too much, even if she does know your pattern.

(If a head cutter moves, I imagine all the patterns they’ve drafted stay in house anyways?)

 

[jonathanS]

I think Fred from Tailour would be your best bet here, try to get an appointment with him if you haven’t already. If you show him those pictures of the polo he can mock something up and discuss with you. As I understand from DWW, He makes a lot of tailoring for TV shows so is quite flexible

He often travels to the US too so might be able to meet him when he pops over. He’s a little pricy but hes about the same price as ES/Nina would be I’d imagine.

It wouldn’t make sense to go to Nina for this coat, it just strays away from that Nutters/ES cut too much, even if she does know your pattern.

(If a head cutter moves, I imagine all the patterns they’ve drafted stay in house anyways?)

He’s another option that hasn’t been mentioned - b&tailor.

I don’t understand the appeal of tailour, personally. I’ve heard mixed reviews from actual clients. But ymmv.

 

[tdang]

I know this is neither what @ppk is looking for nor a viable option of a maker geographically speaking, but I'd be darned if it wasn't the best coat I've ever worn.

 

[jonathanS]

I know this is neither what @ppk is looking for nor a viable option of a maker geographically speaking, but I'd be darned if it wasn't the best coat I've ever worn.

View attachment 2309627

Caid right? This was someone else’s coat right?

For me, this style is better as a manica forchetta. Jun makes quite a nice version of it. Personally, I prefer a double breasted coat to a single breasted coat.

 

[epsilon22]

He’s another option that hasn’t been mentioned - b&tailor.

I don’t understand the appeal of tailour, personally. I’ve heard mixed reviews from actual clients. But ymmv.

Speaking of which, how would you classify B&Tailor's house style? They're not exactly Neapolitan or Milanese right?

 

[ppk]

I think Fred from Tailour would be your best bet here, try to get an appointment with him if you haven’t already. If you show him those pictures of the polo he can mock something up and discuss with you. As I understand from DWW, He makes a lot of tailoring for TV shows so is quite flexible

He often travels to the US too so might be able to meet him when he pops over. He’s a little pricy but hes about the same price as ES/Nina would be I’d imagine.

It wouldn’t make sense to go to Nina for this coat, it just strays away from that Nutters/ES cut too much, even if she does know your pattern.

(If a head cutter moves, I imagine all the patterns they’ve drafted stay in house anyways?)

Good points.

I have made it clear to everyone that I'm talking to that I won't make a decision immediately. I want to get multiple perspectives (including folks here). DWW has also given me some guidance.

 

[ppk]

Speaking of which, how would you classify B&Tailor's house style? They're not exactly Neapolitan or Milanese right?

I love B&Tailor, but it's too difficult to travel to them. I go to London a few times a year but unfortunately not to Italy or Asia.

I wish more tailors came to San Francisco, but it is what it is.

 

[clee1982]

SF flight to NYC (B&Tailor do come) got to be cheaper than SF to London, though I assume London is work related so paid for...

 

[ppk]

SF flight to NYC (B&Tailor do come) got to be cheaper than SF to London, though I assume London is work related so paid for...

Yup. To some extent it's not the cost, it's the timing. The problem with going to another US city is that my schedule and theirs might not align. When they are in NYC, I might not be able to travel there. Coincidentally, Taillour; does come to SF regularly.

 

[ppk]

BTW, I am very grateful for all the advice and input from all of you. What an amazing community.