S.E.H Kelly

[WhyUEarly]

Yes to the first question, but no to the second question: no canvassing here.

We are purveyors of casual outerwear rather than canvassed tailoring, so the SB3, while it has a tailored look, is made in the same way and materials as our car coat or trench or work jacket, or any of our other outerwear.

Makes sense. Thank you for the response.

 

[sehkelly]

Aside from looking at new woollens for the upcoming autumn and winter, the thing that animates me more than anything else is developing a new coat.

What's good at the moment is that we are developing two new coats, and redeveloping two previous coats. The latter is the duffle coat and the tielocken, which are undergoing a little bit of surgery, and will both reappear in the autumn in some nice new woollens (tying into my first hobby).

The two new coats are the Chesterfield -- which I have mentioned here before, and for which are have already developed a couple of toiles, but whose development is still ongoing -- and the ... shopcoat. Which I don't think I have mentioned here before.

The idea is a spiritual associate of the work jacket. Longer, with a collar and lapel, but the same concept of enormous bag-like pockets at the front. It is the sort of thing that shopkeepers and factory foremen used to wear in England in the middle of the last century onwards. We are updating it with quite a few new ideas, some of which have appeared on our other garments in the past -- and so are what I think of as fairly constant motifs -- and one or two of which are brand new. We are have developed a toile already, which is much too short. The final version will be much longer -- probably about the same as the tielocken or balmacaan.

The pockets are quite knotty and overlapping, which when the garment is finished will hopefully make it a very practical, workwear-style thing.

I have been looking at very hard, thick worsteds recently, and I think they could be a good candidate for this style of garment. Rather than the traditional cotton drill or twill, I mean. A worsted that looks like a heavy cotton but is a worsted and so has, to my mind, higher scores in certain areas.

I have another coat development in mind, too, which is quite a niche thing (even more than the shopcoat). That will be for another day.

Paul

 

[sehkelly]

All this talk of things upcoming and I overlook the very real here-and-now of our new standard trousers.

They are made with "union hopsack", which is an equal-parts mix of cotton and linen. It is a substantial cloth: proper workwear material, which has a pronounced texture, a certain starchiness when new, and the intermittent slub of linen. A very firm trouser.

Still -- quite breathable and cool to the touch on account of being half linen, and thus a good straddler of the divide between winter and the warmer stages of spring.

Paul

 

[RozenKristal]

All this talk of things upcoming and I overlook the very real here-and-now of our new standard trousers.

View attachment 1147649 View attachment 1147648 View attachment 1147647 View attachment 1147646

They are made with "union hopsack", which is an equal-parts mix of cotton and linen. It is a substantial cloth: proper workwear material, which has a pronounced texture, a certain starchiness when new, and the intermittent slub of linen. A very firm trouser.

Still -- quite breathable and cool to the touch on account of being half linen, and thus a good straddler of the divide between winter and the warmer stages of spring.

Paul

I have a question regarding sleeves shortening for you guys' coat. I love the designs of, pretty much all the coats, but my arms are pretty short. I tend to have to shorten about 2 inches for it to fit right, either from cuff or top of the sleeves around the shoulder.
Here is the thing, take the topcoat for example:
https://www.sehkelly.com/shop/coats/topcoat/topcoat-in-gravel-grey-covert-tweed/

It has functioning buttonholes at the cuff and a raglan design near the armpit, where does the alternation need to happen in this case? Or am I just out of luck?

 

[sehkelly]

I have a question regarding sleeves shortening for you guys' coat. I love the designs of, pretty much all the coats, but my arms are pretty short. I tend to have to shorten about 2 inches for it to fit right, either from cuff or top of the sleeves around the shoulder.
Here is the thing, take the topcoat for example:
https://www.sehkelly.com/shop/coats/topcoat/topcoat-in-gravel-grey-covert-tweed/

It has functioning buttonholes at the cuff and a raglan design near the armpit, where does the alternation need to happen in this case? Or am I just out of luck?

Well ... yes, many of our coats and jackets have unusual designs in the sleeve that make them tricky to alter, especially when there is some design at the end of the sleeve, too.

For the topcoat, a good tailor could shorten it from the shoulder, but it would require quite a bit of planning and drafting. I wouldn't relish the job, I must admit. The other option would be to assemble a new cuff which, again, isn't much fun, but is something a good tailor could do given the time (and costs) involved.

Sorry about that!

(To redeem myself, we are currently working on a new coat with completely plain sleeves and a standard set-in sleeve!)

 

[RozenKristal]

Well ... yes, many of our coats and jackets have unusual designs in the sleeve that make them tricky to alter, especially when there is some design at the end of the sleeve, too.

For the topcoat, a good tailor could shorten it from the shoulder, but it would require quite a bit of planning and drafting. I wouldn't relish the job, I must admit. The other option would be to assemble a new cuff which, again, isn't much fun, but is something a good tailor could do given the time (and costs) involved.

Sorry about that!

(To redeem myself, we are currently working on a new coat with completely plain sleeves and a standard set-in sleeve!)

Thank you for your response. I obtained a peacoat, the dark navy melton wool, and realized the notable features that make the coat great looking, a bit tricky to alter. It seems like the future looks promising for me now. Thank you so much and keep up the great works!

 

[sehkelly]

Thank you for your response. I obtained a peacoat, the dark navy melton wool, and realized the notable features that make the coat great looking, a bit tricky to alter. It seems like the future looks promising for me now. Thank you so much and keep up the great works!

Cheers!

We do approach every new jacket with an attempt to do something novel with the fundamental construction. I enjoy this but it sometimes this takes us down avenues which don’t lend themselves at all well to alteration.

But the shopcoat — which is the plain-sleeve style mentioned above — is one case where plain seemed most fitting. Before that, we have the field jacket, which is the absolute opposite: the sleeve has no top, because it extends into / becomes the body (although the cuff is relatively simple).

Paul

 

[cyc wid it]

New duffle? I'm sure it will be improved, though I do quite like the classic camel.

 

[sehkelly]

New duffle? I'm sure it will be improved, though I do quite like the classic camel.

I'd never say "improved", but we have made a few tweaks to the duffle coat, in readiness for release again after the summer.

The cloth will be the same very heavy melton in both camel and dark navy BUT woven into a hopsack rather than the usual twill.

 

[RozenKristal]

I'd never say "improved", but we have made a few tweaks to the duffle coat, in readiness for release again after the summer.

The cloth will be the same very heavy melton in both camel and dark navy BUT woven into a hopsack rather than the usual twill.

So it is a heavyweight cloth still but in open weave. I usually see hopsack weave for summer attire often. How is insulation in hopsack compare to twill? Or it also depends on the inner lining and the weight of the fabric as well? The hopsack texture will be very interesting for sure.

 

[sehkelly]

So it is a heavyweight cloth still but in open weave. I usually see hopsack weave for summer attire often. How is insulation in hopsack compare to twill? Or it also depends on the inner lining and the weight of the fabric as well? The hopsack texture will be very interesting for sure.

It'll be the same weight and warmth as the normal melton.

The "hopsack" part is just the weave or the structure of the weave: you can get dense, heavy hopsacks made with thick wool, and really lightweight and open hopsacks such as you describe.

These are both hopsacks, for instance (the heavy tweed balmacaan and the super-fine merino shirt) and they are very different indeed.

Perhaps hopsacks lend themselves well to being light and open and hence why the term is associated with summer fabric. I just like 'em because they are a nice orderly plain-weave, and I have an aversion to diagonal lines (a story for another time).

 

[RozenKristal]

It'll be the same weight and warmth as the normal melton.

The "hopsack" part is just the weave or the structure of the weave: you can get dense, heavy hopsacks made with thick wool, and really lightweight and open hopsacks such as you describe.

These are both hopsacks, for instance (the heavy tweed balmacaan and the super-fine merino shirt) and they are very different indeed.

View attachment 1148831
View attachment 1148830

Perhaps hopsacks lend themselves well to being light and open and hence why the term is associated with summer fabric. I just like 'em because they are a nice orderly plain-weave, and I have an aversion to diagonal lines (a story for another time).

Yup, the texture and pattern is amazing. I am excited and looking forward to it. The duffle is going to be on my radar now. Thank!

 

[sehkelly]

A couple of blasts from the past today ...

The field shirt is back after a one-year hiatus. We've tweaked it here and there, but it still has the same one-piece sleeve -- those pockets built into what is effectively the sleeve seam -- and the laid-on placket.

And the waistcoat. Now ... this one really does take me back: I think we last made these five years ago. Same cloth as above, which is the "stay-wax" canopy cotton, which is very stiff and rigid when new, but like good denim or heavy leather shoes, softens up a great deal and keeps acquiring character and "patina". We've employed some very heavy stitching to make the lines stand out, this time, too.

Paul

 

[sehkelly]

Things are coming into gear at the factory, with production underway simultaneously for the balmacaan, field jacket, SB3, and parka minor (as in parka major being the big one, and parka minor being its truncated sibling).

They all ought to be finished within the next ten days, which gives me approximately nine days of relative peace before we lug it all back from the factory and populating the workshop and website accordingly.

Shirts are still in work, too -- including the two below, which is the shirt with standard collar in desert cotton (cotton and linen) in pale grey, and the granddad collar in nano-check linen-merino (phew) in navy. More to come ...

Trousers, too ...

Another phew.

Paul

 

[Patrick R]

Shirts are still in work, too -- including the two below, which is the shirt with standard collar in desert cotton (cotton and linen) in pale grey
View attachment 1153311 View attachment 1153309 View attachment 1153310

What exactly is the "sleeve over shoulder" measurement. It looks like I would be a L in your shirts and, from experience with your jackets and knitwear, I assume the sleeves will work, but I'm used to seeing several more inches in the sleeve measurement.