Ongoing Bespoke Projects

[ppk]

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.

Here's an Instagram post from the Rake featuring a coat from Sartoria Ciccio with manica forchetta. This does look beautiful.

 

[comrade]

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

Great discussion.I've learned a lot. But I have one question, do you (PPK)
travel to cold climates regularly.? We both live on the San Francisco Peninsula.
I moved here over 30 years ago from Chicago with three overcoats The 32 oz.
Brirish Warm was wearing out and went to Goodwill. The Melton Greatcoat has
never been worn and the Burberry Balmacaan was adequate for several trips
including a week in New York during the Polar Vortex 11 years ago. Around
here I have worn an overcoat maybe 2 or 3 times. I love overcoats but would never
get another because for me in our local climate one does not need one.

 

[ppk]

Great discussion.I've learned a lot. But I have one question, do you (PPK)
travel to cold climates regularly.? We both live on the San Francisco Peninsula.
I moved here over 30 years ago from Chicago with three overcoats The 32 oz.
Brirish Warm was wearing out and went to Goodwill. The Melton Greatcoat has
never been worn and the Burberry Balmacaan was adequate for several trips
including a week in New York during the Polar Vortex 11 years ago. Around
here I have worn an overcoat maybe 2 or 3 times. I love overcoats but would never
get another because for me in our local climate one does not need one.

I travel to the East Coast (mostly NY & Boston) regularly and to Europe & the UK on average twice a winter. Also, I run cold. I wear an overcoat in the evenings or early mornings. I wore one today.

Having said that, could I live without one? Yes.

 

[marcusngjm]

For a very reasonable price, Assisi mtm raglan coat

 

[L.deJong]

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.

The balmacaan for me is way more practical, I will order one in this: https://lovatmill.com/bunches/heritage-coatings/
And then the navy master tweed (around 800gr) is much darker in person more a true blueish navy.

Or I may change my mind and do something else with the cloth, let me know if you have suggestions.

Enfin back to the balmacaan, I rarely wear tailoring, yes it sounds strange I have a lot of suits, jackets etc. But I live in a rural area so when I go out and do groceries I normally wear a rugby shirt or ocbd with a barbour or a baracuta or valstarino. So for me it shoud also work without a jacket so I can wear it more often. That's why I want something like a balmacaan and an ulster with spalla forchetta.

I have no idea about womens tailoring, but I do know that Gianni makes a ton of womens wear, when I visited him (back in 2018, really have to go again was lovely) he had a couple of coats on the mannequin for women. Lovely stuff. I reckon raglan sleeves are popular in womenswear because of the more casual nature. But what do I know.
I will have some more experience with womens tailoring because my sister will order an overcoat next time Gianni comes over.

I found the picture for the 'italian' mailbox pockets.

 

[DorianGreen]

The balmacaan for me is way more practical, I will order one in this: https://lovatmill.com/bunches/heritage-coatings/
And then the navy master tweed (around 800gr) is much darker in person more a true blueish navy.

Or I may change my mind and do something else with the cloth, let me know if you have suggestions.

Enfin back to the balmacaan, I rarely wear tailoring, yes it sounds strange I have a lot of suits, jackets etc. But I live in a rural area so when I go out and do groceries I normally wear a rugby shirt or ocbd with a barbour or a baracuta or valstarino. So for me it shoud also work without a jacket so I can wear it more often. That's why I want something like a balmacaan and an ulster with spalla forchetta.

I have no idea about womens tailoring, but I do know that Gianni makes a ton of womens wear, when I visited him (back in 2018, really have to go again was lovely) he had a couple of coats on the mannequin for women. Lovely stuff. I reckon raglan sleeves are popular in womenswear because of the more casual nature. But what do I know.
I will have some more experience with womens tailoring because my sister will order an overcoat next time Gianni comes over.

I found the picture for the 'italian' mailbox pockets.
View attachment 2309703

That pocket looks so nice, so neatly done.

 

[L.deJong]

That pocket looks so nice, so neatly done.

It's fairly common in Italy I reckon, I had to search and search for that pic, I knew I had seen it somewhere.
Just now I put on a coat made by Orazio Luciano, it has the same pocket style... LoL only now noticed it.

 

[tim_horton]

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.

Nice. I have always liked the Sexton style from afar... I'm very happy with my current tailoring setup but if this had happened a few years ago, I would definitely have given this a shot. Hell, I'm tempted to anyway, as a one off.

Just received this from the tailor yesterday. This was my first try with the 14.5 ounce Harrison flannel; it’s been an interesting departure in feel from my other VBC and Fox flannels which are decidedly softer. It will go for its first trial run tomorrow as it should be suitably chilly out for a 3-piece in heavy flannel. I am hoping to feel like a 1940s banker in London all day, unless I catch a glimpse of the ridiculous lining.
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Beautiful. I love the lining, I always go with a boring lining when it's time to choose, then I see posts like this and regret it.

Personally I prefer flannel that's a bit stiffer, I've heard Harrison's is one of the best in that regards.

 

[jonathanS]

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

Like other Asian tailors (Assisi, ww Chan, anthology etc.) they’re not really married to one specific style or silhouette.

I think b&tailor would sit between Napoli and Florence. But it’s closer to Napoli. Silhouette wise, id say Napoli. But their lapels are shaped differently from traditional Neapolitan tailors. They use a front dart but it only goes to the pocket (vs. all the way down).

But this lack of a defined married silhouette works in their benefit for something like a polo coat. They’re a lot more willing to study coats of the past and look at the silhouette previous tailors aimed for and try to fit that. Whereas some tailors just become in their ways of what they think looks best vs. what the customer is going for. A great example of this is when I see an English tailor making an ulster: it doesn’t look quite right.

 

[WhereNext]

Nice. I have always liked the Sexton style from afar... I'm very happy with my current tailoring setup but if this had happened a few years ago, I would definitely have given this a shot. Hell, I'm tempted to anyway, as a one off.

Beautiful. I love the lining, I always go with a boring lining when it's time to choose, then I see posts like this and regret it.

Personally I prefer flannel that's a bit stiffer, I've heard Harrison's is one of the best in that regards.

I’m sort of the opposite: I used to always get a very plain lining but started gravitating away from them so now it’s always something more interesting, if I can. Just a bit of fun for me, and I don’t have a life where there would be any sort of downside for the extravagance.

As for the cloth, yes, it’s definitely a bit stiffer than the other flannels I’ve used, which seemed a better fit for this suit in terms of cut and the chalk stripe pattern on dark grey. The trousers held a very good crease all day despite a lot of time spent sitting, so it’s worked as I hoped it would and still looked quite crisp at the end of the day. I’d consider it again when I look at replacing my plain mid-grey and plain charcoal suits in a year or so, as I’d like those to be a tiny bit sharper and a bit more generically “British” in terms of style. Most of my stuff is now fairly soft in cut and overall look, so I’d probably not use it for that side of things.

 

[aristoi bcn]

Finita:

View attachment 2309121

Some more pictures of my new Milanese DB jacket.

 

[CLH03]

Some more pictures of my new Milanese DB jacket.

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Those buttonholes are delightful

 

[aristoi bcn]

And some pictures of the first and last fitting for this LP summer cotton number in dark navy:

 

[Sreezy36]

And some pictures of the first and last fitting for this LP summer cotton number in dark navy:

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Askokey would not approve of those trousers!!!

 

[hitsuji]

After putting in a new commission with my tailor and walking through some of the details I wanted, in retrospect I thought to myself that I may of been too particular about things such as a higher collar, Longer length, slightly more shoulder extension, etc compared to my previous suit.

At what stage do you guys think its “micromanaging a tailor” vs being particular about details you want?