Norman Hilton

[Knox]

Fashion--well, yes. There's truth to that. Again, a matter of taste.

I disagree: there is a market. And it's growing. Younger men who want to dress well are moving steadily away from the heavily padded clothing that's just plain uncomfortable.

Remember that Norman Hilton, while an undegrad at Princeton, looked around and, with an eye for detail, noticed what the New England boarding school lot were wearing. And what were they wearing? Comfortable-but-tailored jackets made by the tailors at Rosenberg, Chipp, Press, and Brooks. So, if there's novelty here at all, it extends way, way back. And beyond the borders, since the jackets were based on country clothing being worn in the British Isles. It's as much about comfort as anything.

What made the jackets unique in the 60s? The combination of soft tailoring and, equally important, exceptional cloth.

I look forward to the expansion of the current Norman Hilton line. If he continues to source the cloth from Lovat, the possibilities are endless, since they offer (and make, upon request) just about anything, including hightweist plain-weaves and hopsacks. (Isn't Lovat the source for most of LondonLounge Alden's custom cloth?).

I'd like to see a few suits added to the line--maybe a medium grey flannel and a light grey tropical/panama.

We shall see.

 

[comrade]



It's all fashion.
Norman Hilton had a good run in the 50s and 60s because Ivy League natural shoulder clothing was the fashion. In the 70s the fashion changed, and NH began to wither.
Look at the fits from NH ads of 50 years ago. You can't sell these today outside of, perhaps, J Press.
But note that J Press is now owned by a Japanese company, and the US operation is just the tail of the dog. At Paul Stuart as well, lucrative Asian licenses do a lot to help the bottom line.
The American market alone doesn't support such stuff anymore in any quantity.
If you want something like the good old days, try buying one size larger and one length longer, and fume about something else.
Kids these days are always doing something. I think some are on your lawn right now.

Not on my lawn. I live in Palo Alto--The kids around here wear dockers, or worse, with polo shirts and running shoes. They also drive Porsches, or Aston Martins. The area does, however, support a Nieman Marcus, and local Wilkes Bashford, neither of which feature fabric remotely like NH. I did pick up some Belvest items from Wilkes, that offer the fit and natural shoulders that I like. Needless to say Wilkes' new owners have dropped Belvest. I think,I'm ready to go back to Chipp, (Winston Tailors), who I stopped using when I moved to CA 20 + years ago because I had too much tsuris (trouble, to you gringos) with made to measure projects that didn't come out right the first time.

 

[comrade]

And so it goes. Nick Hilton is offering "deals".
Not a good sign. The Website itself, to be chariable,
is barely adequate. They sell tailored clothing and
list several of the usual brands, which they call "designers",
but fail to show any illustrations of tailored clothing. On
tha same page they assert that they specialize in "Custom-Made Apparel".
Again, no elaboration. Is this the "Norman Hilton" MTM program
referred to above, or is it with their current vendors, Canali and Samuelsohn?
Unfortunately, it appears that Nick Hilton is no more than a
provincial men's shop that sells some high-end clothing. It isn't even an
Andover Shop, or an O'Donnells, for Ivy purists, nor a Syd Mashburn,
or a Khaki's of Carmel which sell a more contemporary take on "trad"
style. Its' days are probably numbered.

http://nickhilton.com/package-deals/

 

[mack11211]

Stop that tut-tutting!

This is not a deal for Norman Hilton clothing, otherwise they would have said so.

Nick Hilton (son of Norman) had his own "NH 1988" RTW business that did well in the 90s. The package deal may be for suiting from his own patterns...who knows. He's had the shop in Princeton for about 15 years at least.

I think his Norman Hilton revival did not go very far. Just two or three seasons. Now the website seems to be gone. They got into the Ivy League revival a bit late in the cycle, and now the fashion is turning away from it. Oh well. I still have great Norman Hilton coats from the 60s and 70s and will hang on to them.