S.E.H Kelly

[ojaw]

"if not more practical"
These are interesting jackets but I can't agree with the lack of a collar being more practical than having one, maybe it's the climate that I was born into.

 

[sehkelly]

Those are probably some of the most appealing pieces of yours I've seen, particularly the engineer jacket. It's not just another chore coat. The baseball jersey-like neckline is a draw IMO, as is the unique pocket configuration. A lot of people here go nuts for boxy and/or traditionally cut designs by brands like Lemaire and Evan Kinori with minor tweaks and details that neither enhance their designs nor create interest, and I think you do an excellent job in the same aesthetic space making clothing that is both more interesting and equally, if not more, practical.

Thanks very much for the kind words! First time around, I mis-read your first line as "those are the least appealing pieces ..." so was struggling for a while to work out the sentiment of what you were saying. The second reading made it easier.

Because we're trying, over the years, to develop one good version of every conceivable (within reason) article in a man's wardrobe, we find ourselves exploring increasingly niche ... niches and recesses within that remit. Hence the engineer jacket. And the pyjama jacket, too. Neither of these are very commonplace or standard pieces in a wardrobe.

Combined with that, we're not happy to recycle ideas, and so try to imbue every new development with fresh thinking and novel approaches. This is especially the case when it comes to sleeves, pockets, and collars.

Those two trends, taken together, I guess will mean our work will become increasingly esoteric in style, and likewise in construction, as all the "normal" ways have already been done. Thankfully, there's an inexhaustible number of ways of doing things, and exploring new ways of making a sleeve or designing a pocket keeps life interesting.

We also have lots of existing styles to go back and improve. Plus a long list of things that have never been developed because other (at the time) more exciting things jumped the queue. We have a good idea for a DB jacket (a double-breasted suit jacket, I mean) which has never seen light of day, and which I mean to get around to developing later this year.

 

[sehkelly]

"if not more practical"
These are interesting jackets but I can't agree with the lack of a collar being more practical than having one, maybe it's the climate that I was born into.

I think climate is a big factor!

The engineer jacket took as its base a style we had in our collection quite a few years back, but which really only saw light of day in Japan. (No other country in the world showed much interest in it.)

It was a collarless jacket, known, quite originally, as the "collarless jacket", very similar on the face of things to the engineer jacket.

I was never sure if it was more popular in Japan because the climate, or collarless styles were more traditional or accepted over there.

I'm also quite long and thin of neck myself, and generally avoid anything without a collar on account of it exaggerating this pencil-like part of my physique.

 

[ojaw]

pencil-like part of my physique.

Cheers, me too!
Makes sense about the general acceptance in Japan as well.

 

[Oldsrocket27]

I personally wrote that because I've found that layering light jackets with collars can interfere with collared shirts and scarves and I like the idea that for spring/fall weight layering pieces it be easier for everything to work together. The collar of a patterned or contrasting shirt poking over the engineer coat or a light scarf tight around the neck, either running loose or tucked into the coat, sounds appealing and practical to me.

 

[WizardVigilante]

I was never sure if it was more popular in Japan because the climate, or collarless styles were more traditional or accepted over there.

Popularity of baseball in Japan a possible contributing factor?

 

[sehkelly]

Popularity of baseball in Japan a possible contributing factor?

Possibly!

But then what came first -- the love of baseball or the love of baseball jersey-collarless jackets?

 

[sehkelly]

Happy Easter weekend, one and all.

I thought I'd share this.

It's the popover shirt, which I've mentioned a few times, and on which we've had to hit the pause button because of the horrible business with the pandemic.

Hopefully, good news will come along sooner rather than later, and we can all rejoice and get back to normal life -- and maybe there will still be some time left in the summer to put this into production. Who knows?

A short-sleeve shirt is the idea, anyway, which you pull (or pop) over your head, and which has a one-piece collar -- i.e. without a collar-stand -- and is cut in a way which fans out neatly, styled halfway, hopefully, between the confident, climate-embracing style of things about which I've heard tell over on the continent, and the more reserved way we go about business here in Britain.

This is not to be confused with the smock / henley, by the way (title still to be finalised). That one is finished, and ready to be buttoned and pressed and photographed and added to the website, all being well, next week.

Paul

 

[sehkelly]

Oh — and I am reminded, since it is the banner at the top of the current page, that "Styleforum is going on Instagram Live with Paul Kelly of S.E.H. Kelly on Friday, April 10, 7:00 a.m. PDT."

That was yesterday.

Good fun!

Perhaps it'll be made available in a non-live (I am better non-live) format on here or on Instagram sometime soon. I spent most of it wittering uncontrollably about sleeves, which is very much par for the course.

 

[sehkelly]

Oh — and I am reminded, since it is the banner at the top of the current page, that "Styleforum is going on Instagram Live with Paul Kelly of S.E.H. Kelly on Friday, April 10, 7:00 a.m. PDT."

At the risk of putting off their hot cross buns this mornjng ...

.

 

[ojaw]

7:00 AM, lol

 

[sehkelly]

7:00 AM, lol

It was 3 in the afternoon in London, but I do look and indeed was born looking like it is extremely early in the morning.

 

[ojaw]

It was 3 in the afternoon in London, but I do look and indeed was born looking like it is extremely early in the morning.

Yah, no worries.

 

[sehkelly]

I sincerely hope everyone's weeks are ticking along with a relative sense of normality.

The new knitwear (boatneck, cardigan, v-neck) that I mentioned last week or the week before finally arrived this morning. I'll endeavour to get it online over the course of the next week.

The smock (née henley) is finished, too, in two colours of heavy linen and two colours of bobbly silk-linen. It has worked out exactly as hoped: a light, easy thing to throw on when a shirt is too much effort. Those, too, will appear on the website well before the end of the month, if my eyeballs don't resign in protest the meantime.

And here -- new shorts!

This is the same stay-wax cotton that we used last year for the balmacaan. The shorts really highlight the hilarious cardboard-like quality of the cloth: not so much creases as folds, and a tendency to mark-up in the same way as a traditional waxed cloth. Truth is, it's not a cloth suitable for lots of things, but it is light, and breathable, and dries very quickly when damp — quite good for shorts, then.

Paul

 

[sehkelly]

Here's the new boatneck, in cotton, in malt and in navy.

It's the first item of knitwear we've made with rolled edges, which you can see at the neck and the hem.

Also quite unusual, and something I've not seen on knitwear before (or any item of clothing that springs to mind right now) is a full side-panel gusset. It runs all the way up the side of the body and up through the underside of the sleeve to the cuff. It's an extension — taken to the maximum extent — of the concept of an underarm gusset, to aid movement, which you sometimes see on old seafaring sweaters.

Quite a lot of hand-linking involved, all told.

It's the heaviest item of cotton knitwear we've made, with the front being six-ply. Still quite an open stitch, though, and a very dry, spongy cotton, so should be nice to wear over a t-shirt or less in the spring and early summer.