English RTW suits

[demeis]

I came to the realization that i don't know to many RTW english suit makers and was wondering if someone could give me a short list of RTW English suit makers.

 

[sirgarnetwolseley]

A list of RTW suit makers in order of quality;

1. Chester Barrie (now Cheshire Clothing Company or something)

That is all.

 

[Will]

The short list of quality English RTW suits has no-one on it.

Go to Italy.

 

[Hoya Saxa]

I think Hield deserves at least an honorable mention. You get a canvassed suit, good fabric, English cut with working buttonholes for about $1200. Check 'em out at Saks.

I'm not suggesting that they are on par with Chester Barrie, but I do think they are a solid value.

Cheers,

Hoya

 

[RJman]

I think Hield deserves at least an honorable mention.  You get a canvassed suit, good fabric, English cut with working buttonholes for about $1200.  Check 'em out at Saks.

I'm not suggesting that they are on par with Chester Barrie, but I do think they are a solid value.

Cheers,

Hoya

Hield is a branch of the Cheshire Clothing Company (the Chester Barrie parent company); I believe their suits are made by Chester Barrie. I believe Chester Barrie may have several levels of quality but am unsure.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

You get a canvassed suit, good fabric, English cut with working buttonholes for about $1200.

How can the buttonholes be working on an OTR suit? The number of customers who won't need sleeve alterations is probably small, so won't the store have to shell out more for the alterations on this type of jacket as compared to jackets with basted sleeves or faux-buttonholes? It doesn't make business sense.

Obviously, if we were talking about some cheap cotton, casual jacket at Banana Republic or Express (the "American chav" look of which many are so fond) that happened to have working buttonholes (this counts for "luxury" to those people, I guess)...then things would be different.

 

[novalis]

A number of Savile Row houses have their own RTW line (Gieves & Hawkes, Kilgour and Huntsman, which uses Chester Barrie).

If my memory is correct, there's also Aquascutum, Burberry, Daks and Hackett.

 

[Ed355]

Kilgour French's RTW suits are quite good - canvas front, fasteners at the sides. Also uses cloth from Holland & Sherry.

 

[Hoya Saxa]

How can the buttonholes be working on an OTR suit? The number of customers who won't need sleeve alterations is probably small, so won't the store have to shell out more for the alterations on this type of jacket as compared to jackets with basted sleeves or faux-buttonholes? It doesn't make business sense.

Sorry for being opaque on this ... the sleeves are basted/unfinished.

Saks will make the alteration and cut the buttonholes for a few extra dollars. The last time I had them do this it was only about $40 extra -- this was last year at the Saks Mens Store in DC. Won't exactly break the bank.

Cheers,

Hoya

 

[imageWIS]

The short list of quality English RTW suits has no-one on it.

Go to Italy.

1) Chester Barrie
2) Kilgour

Jon.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Sorry for being opaque on this ... the sleeves are basted/unfinished.  

Hoya, Thanks for the clarification. That makes sense to me now.

I agree about Chester Barrie--very nice. Don't have any experience with recent Kilgour (i.e. not KFS).

Burberry is very middle-of-the-road. Wouldn't pay full retail, that's for sure.

Aquascutum and Gieves & Hawkes I've seen only at Century 21 and Filene's Basement. What I saw was...not so good.

 

[jcusey]

Burberry is very middle-of-the-road. Wouldn't pay full retail, that's for sure.

Aquascutum and Gieves & Hawkes I've seen only at Century 21 and Filene's Basement. What I saw was...not so good.

I believe that Burberry and Aquascutum in the United States are proproduced under license by Hickey Freeman. At least one of them is. In any event, they're not really British RTW suits.

 

[RJman]

Hickey-Freeman made the US Gieves and Burberry suits (AFAIK).  Aquascutum is made by H. Freeman, an unrelated company.

Even in the UK, most SR tailors do not make their own RTW. Kilgour might be an exception given what they say about their new incarnation. I wonder if their RTW is made in China by their Shanghai tailors. The better RTW is made by Chester Barrie, from 600 quid way on up to almost 4000 dollars for Spencer Hart. The worse RTW is made in other factories. Richard James suits are made in some factory; another company named Marchpole was making Boateng clothing although I'm not sure if that was in the UK.

I very much doubt that Burberry/Aqua/etc. make their own suits in the UK either.

 

[sirgarnetwolseley]

I very much doubt that Burberry/Aqua/etc. make their own suits in the UK

Someone here posted recently that they had inspected some Aquascutum (or was it Daks?) suits in London and were pleasantly surprised. I cannot remember who that poster was, or in what topic they posted their comments.

 

[Brian SD]

Burberry Prorsum, Paul Smith, Ozwald Boateng.

Not sure if any of those are made in England, but I figured we're talking English design.

Edit: Boateng is made in England, for certain.