Cordings of piccadilly

[Naive Jr.]

Anyway, swiftly moving on, Cordings have a bit of a promotion on at the moment, buy two pairs of trousers and the second pair is half-price. It's easy to become a bit jaded with these offers, shops in London seem to have them most of the time. There are a few eye-popping colours in corduroy, besides the less obtrusive. Their suits have reverted to pre-sale prices, however.

Cordings made me a fawn covert coat in 1984, which I've just sold (for roughly half what I paid then) through Savvy Row, along with various other cast-offs. There seems to be a healthy second-hand market for Cordings kit - quite good to know.

https://www.cordings.co.uk/menswear/trousers/corduroy

Dear Isbister, when is the next sale time?

 

[Isbister]

Dear Isbister, when is the next sale time?

As I mentioned earlier, there is a sale of sorts on at the moment, but only for trousers. They don't tend to announce sales in advance, but I suspect there won't be a proper sale now until immediately after Christmas, when there are usually some good reductions. The last two years, they seem to have had special suit sales during May or June when it's been possible to save around £200 on a suit.

 

[Naive Jr.]

No more trousers which shrink so much washed at 40 degrees they no longer fit and no more lack of humour by bosses, please. Better outsourced construction with 2% stretch on Piccadilly elsewhere despite Italian dye blotching at 40 degree hot water wash together with lighter trousers for which no retail responsibility responds. But summerweight silk mix jackets with 3 button frontal closure can't be falsely positioned. Despite Ich dien contra G&H my RTL jacket buy on sale now - good 2 button position. Bravo G&H RTL summer sale and jacket design!

 

[Isbister]

Personally I would not wish for 2% stretch in my trousers. Cordings cut them in such a way that it's not necessary, even for a normal active lifestyle, disco dancing included. And I've never found fault with their methods of construction. But from what you say, you seem to have had some unfortunate experiences there - dye blotching indeed.
Of course, one can purchase exactly the same trousers, made by the same maker, in one or two other outlets. Cordings just buy them in, it's the same with their suits nowadays, though not when I was a youngster.

 

[Equus Leather]

You are right if one looks at the website photos. Why didn't you buy larger sizes?
I can find a new owner for them unless you wish to keep them for your heir or until you thin.

Its not so much they are the wrong size - I just dont like the cut. Much to tight for my probably conservative tastes. I suspect they wont fit you either Im afraid!

 

[Naive Jr.]

Dear Isbister, It's not correct I wrote Cordings' trousers dye is a problem. Correct is I wrote there are better trousers than Cordings'
but those I bought elsewhere on Jermyn street when washed at 40 degrees together had a dye problem: the bordeaux/burgundy dye blotched the lila and pink trousers. The trousers didn't tell me
that, nor were the shop whose trousers are made for them in Italy interested to discover why my lila and my pink trousers developed strange dark blotches. Even refused to let me send them to Italy to the trouser manufacturer and told me a laboratory test to determine the nature of the dark blotches at £50 (I should pay shipping from abroad, too). But
aside from that dye problem, the trousers are superior to those of Cordings which shrink if washed so much they no longer fit not just because they shrink less. Nevertheless, I would recommend buying one size larger. Regarding size of Cordings and this other unnamed source which is highly sensitive and must remain anonymous here because I don't want to be blacklisted completely and even confronted by their solicitor, keep in mind both enterprises are tiny. Too bad a third but much larger trouser source Charles Tyrwhitt, whose cultivated Capricorn boss and tireless and engaged customer service although not always bright customer service are surely the best, doesn't have higher quality trousers.

 

[Naive Jr.]

Dear Charlie,
Tom Cridland CLAIMS he makes and sells trousers out of love, we all KNOW from our experience with you and your belts you make and sell your belts WITH love. Tom also is a musician in a band using electronic instruments, whereas you live in the country and take walks with your dog in Mother Nature and listen to the birds, etc. like Goethe. Maybe you might phone Tom and invite him to spend a day in your belt shop and relax on a walk in Mother Nature and show him what you don't like about his trousers? Unlike Cordings his all have belt loops. Which reminds me selling clothes for is not identical with fresh countryside atmosphere and a day trip
in Mother Nature heals humours - you could organize synergetic meetings with both firms at your workshop?!

 

[Isbister]

^ Personally I have sometimes been quite scatty on matters to do with laundry, but even so I would always try to separate it by colour - to put different colours in the same wash is courting disaster and I don't think you can blame the shop or the manufacturer for that. Perhaps there is a problem with your washing machine? I have found Cordings cotton trousers shrink, but only a little, say an inch or so in length. Normally I have them supplied with turn-ups, then after a few months I just turn down the turn-ups and the length is correct.

 

[Naive Jr.]

Sorry, Ibister, I live in an epoch where cloth is preshrunk and dye doesn't migrate to discolour. Which reminds me: Don't wear Favourbrook waistcoats and expect their backside not to discolour your shirt if you dance and PERSPIRE, and don't expect Favourbrook to reply if you write them to say your new white shirt is discoloured.

There's a problem indeed with the building's wash machine, more precisely with how it is used because its other users employ overdoses of cheap perfumed powder soap and additives of more cheaply perfumed "softeners". The cheaper and more soap they can buy, the better.
1. If the biggest soap box is so cheap, no limits to amount of soap to put in the washing machine!
2. If the clothes smell perfumed, they must be clean.

So I must cleanse the machine by hygienic 95 degree empty wash to remove unseen germs and rests of their "cleaning powder and softening fluid" before I wash my clothes with ecological soap.

 

[Isbister]

^ Cordings are certainly traditionalists, and for all I know there may be good reasons for them to be wary of pre-shrunk dye-fast fabrics, though I have to say I have not experienced the sort of problems you describe.

At one time, I was obliged to use commercial launderettes, and I can sympathise with you. Picking other people's lint off one's corduroy trousers is no fun.

 

[Naive Jr.]

Ibister, preshrunk cotton is presumably more expensive. Your assertion Cordings buys cordoroy which is not dye-fast contradicts the bottle green and dark red wide wale trousers I've washed many times at 40 degrees with many other light coloured ones. - Lint is visible, cheap laundry soap and softener perfume can be smelled and bacteria and spores must be killed by 95 degree hot water.

 

[Isbister]

Ibister, preshrunk cotton is presumably more expensive. Your assertion Cordings buys cordoroy which is not dye-fast contradicts the bottle green and dark red wide wale trousers I've washed many times at 40 degrees with many other light coloured ones. - Lint is visible, cheap laundry soap and softener perfume can be smelled and bacteria and spores must be killed by 95 degree hot water.

Sorry you've confused me - I thought you were the one who had had problems with colours running. But we're both merely guessing at the reasoning behind Cordings trouser specification. And I wasn't doubting your distaste for communal laundry systems, merely contributing my own rather limited experience of the situation.

 

[Naive Jr.]

Ibister, that you are confused we agree, that I'm responsible?
1. Cordings buys preshrunk and takes no responsibility for shrinkage
2. Cordings salesladies except one are sweet
3. Better trousers on Jermyn Street
but burgundy not dye-fast
4. Hygiene, aesthetics and courtesy
go hand-in-hand: Charlie is a gentleman.

 

[Naive Jr.]

PS: I don't speculate nor did I "express distaste for communal laundry systems".

 

[Isbister]

^ Something else you have mentioned also has caused me some fleeting sense of confusion, the identity of Cordings' "salesladies" - as whenever I have been there, all the staff other than the woman upstairs on the till have been men. Downstairs, in the fitting room - all men. You must be referring to some telesales staff for their mail order business, I think, unless there is some strange shift in their staffing rota that only comes into play whenever I am in Piccadilly, to keep me away from the sweet salesladies.