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Anyone have any experience with Super 160's suiting?

sseedragon

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Fabric come from England ... Do they wrinkle easy? How long do the suit last? If i have 8 suits of super 160's will they last me at-least 3 years?
 

Xiaogou

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Originally Posted by sseedragon
Fabric come from England ... Do they wrinkle easy? How long do the suit last? If i have 8 suits of super 160's will they last me at-least 3 years?

I have some 180 and it wrinkles if just by looking at it!! I'll never go that high in thread count for a business suit.
 

Michael Ay329

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I found Style Forum through an article critical of wools with high Super numbers attached. It quoted Manton under his pseudonym and also introduced me to Michael Alden's London Lounge

Why do you desire a Super 160

The standards are inconsistent when going past Super 120 and the prices are all over the board

For a durable and professional cloth, I'm content with Super 90 cloth made in Huddersfield. Its about 11-12oz.

If I want something more softer, more luxurious and almost as durable as the Super 90, I've run into some Huddersfield made Super 120 cloth in a 10-11oz. weight. Naturally the Super 90 stuff will see more years of action...but the Super 120 stuff felt so nice.

I'm having suits made up of both cloths. At the cloth store I recently bought both the Super 90 and Super 120 fabrics, the merchant along with his 2 employees had bespoke trousers made out of the Super 90 Huddersfield cloth and all raved about the adequate strength of it.

He would have happily sold me the more expensive, yet inferior, label whore stuff, but he opted to win a client (note, the other cloth store 100 meters away lost me as a client cuz of this)

Don't be a label whore...find a respectable cloth merchant...not a salesman, and perhaps they will divulge their personal recommendations on which cloth to purchase.
 

Despos

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Favorite suits in my closet are 90's quality.

Problem with high supers is inconsistency, as you pointed out. But I do not dismiss them. Some of the best 150'S and 160'S today are from Holland & Sherry. Cloudy Bay 150'S & Swan Hill 160'S. They tailor beautifully and look remarkable.
 

contaygious

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I was under the impression that 150 was good quality for a suit and 100 was good for a tweed am I wrong? I don't own anything under that I believe.

Examples:
IMG_3913.jpg

IMG_3948.jpg
 

Despos

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Majority of tweeds are under 100's quality. Sometimes 60's & 70's.
 

apropos

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The higher the super number, the softer the fabric feels to touch. High supers wool can feel incredibly luxurious, just like cashmere. But, there are drawbacks: - less durable - less wrinkle-resistant - more expensive (sometimes horrendously so) - more prone to shine And some 'mixed' qualities: - more likely to be a lightweight fabric - and thus drapes/falls differently over one's frame (weight plays a major factor) IME, as long as you stick to 10 ounces and above and don't intend to use it as a 'beater' suit, Super 150s is just fine - I've not gone any higher than that though.
Originally Posted by Despos
Favorite suits in my closet are 90's quality. Problem with high supers is inconsistency, as you pointed out. But I do not dismiss them. Some of the best 150'S and 160'S today are from Holland & Sherry. Cloudy Bay 150'S & Swan Hill 160'S. They tailor beautifully and look remarkable.
Seems as though the current zeitgeist amongst SF iGentry is to intentionally go for low(er) Super numbers wool. Not sure if they realise that their lower Super wool is nothing like the lower Super wools of yore - after all, all the thinner fibres have been combed out!!
 

koolhistorian

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Originally Posted by contaygious
I was under the impression that 150 was good quality for a suit and 100 was good for a tweed am I wrong? I don't own anything under that I believe.

Examples:
IMG_3948.jpg


Got the same Zegna "Donnegal tweed", but I do not see as a real tweed (if I remember well, it has a certain content of cashmere). It was very funny, when I bought the cloth, it was put on the ladies section, not in mens cloth, and I had to argue for a certain time with the shop owner about how suitable is for men!
160 (I can see where you want to buy the cloth) is a little too much, I had very good results with 100 and 120's for lighter suits, they drape better and have more "fullness". On the other hand, as I understood, the high threads are better for industrial make (fused, etc) and they are, at a lesser quality in the fabric making process, a better result.
 

Atlantic herring

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The problem with high super numbers is that they tend to be a bit light weight. They are often to expensive to make a heavier cloth. I think that is the main problem. As a result they don't fall as nice and wrinkle easier. It's fine for a summer suit, and the feel of a super 160 and up is amazing! But for every day office ware, I wouldn't recommend it. I also discovered that there seem to be a big leap in cost between a S 150 and a S 160, then prices just sky rocket for decent qualities.
 

Despos

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Supers are high priced but the price increase to produce heavy weight cloth from high supers is significant.
 

apropos

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Originally Posted by Despos
Supers are high priced but the price increase to produce heavy weight cloth from high supers is significant.
+1: it's slightly uncommon to see even 9.5oz Super 150s and above - they mostly seem to hover about the 9oz range. Despos, I have a bit of an odd question: could you comment on fabrics woven in West Yorkshire? Is the provenance an independent indicator of quality?
 

sseedragon

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This is a Dark Gray Super 160 weight about 8.5 ounce


This is a Blue herringbone Super 180 with cashmere about 8.5 ounce
 

HRoi

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i have a jacket marked Super 180's. yes, it's wonderfully light and wonderful to the touch. and yes, it wrinkles like a mofo
 

Anachronist

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If you have a wardrobe of various suits that allow you frequent change and therefore, say, an average wear of this suit of maybe up to max 10-15 times a year, you should be fine and it will give you, with good care, several years of good wear. I agree with the previous posters that fabrics in the range of Super 90-120ies are the best for business wear, but I also have some S150 and S160 garments (e.g. several slacks made of VBC Greenhills woolens) that are a dream, especially in summer. The only thing you need to really pay attention to is staying away from thorns and sharp corners... I tore one of my aforementioned slacks getting up from a chair just in front of a wall with a aluminium framed picture on it and the fabric got caught at the corner of the frame *ouch*...
 

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