Simonnot-Godard no longer making shirtings?

[radicaldog]

Since I find it ecologically indefensible to source French shirtings from a US retailer (Will) who will then ship them to my Italian shirtmaker, I tried contacting an Italian distributor for Simonnot-Godard. He replied that SG has decided to stop producing shirtings. So is Will selling the last remaining bolts, or a special order, or a reproduction of the original fabrics? The wording on his site is just about compatible will all three options. More importantly, where can we source similar fabric (both voile and chambray) in Europe?

 

[Manton]

You can get voile from lots of source but IME their chambray is/was unique.

 

[radicaldog]

All the voile I've seen is too translucent.

 

[Manton]

that's the nature of voile though.

 

[radicaldog]

I've never seen the SG voile in the flesh, but doesn't the Interwebz legend say that it isn't see-through?

Also, Rubinacci sells RTW buttondown shirts in a beautiful chambray (saw them in their little Rome shop). Is it SG or something else we could source?

 

[Manton]

I believe the R shirts are S&G.

 

[F. Corbera]



More importantly, where can we source similar fabric...

Have you tried contacting Carl at CEGO about the SG chambray?

 

[F. Corbera]



I've never seen the SG voile in the flesh, but doesn't the Interwebz legend say that it isn't see-through?

It is not completely opaque, but far more so than a typical voile.

Torsten Grunwald does (did?) carry the SG "old" chambray: http://grunwald-true-style.com/Shirtings.html .

 

[Ataturk]

It was too hard to get ahold of those ancient, 18th century 60" looms.

 

[F. Corbera]



It was too hard to get ahold of those ancient, 18th century 60" looms.

 

[Kuro]



Have you tried contacting Carl at CEGO about the SG chambray?

wait a second...

 

[Despos]

It's true about the looms. They stopped using the really, really old ones in the past few years. The speed they worked at was archaic and they would break down every couple of days and take a day or two to repair so they were abandoned. Couldn't say they were 18th century but they were old.

 

[F. Corbera]



The speed they worked at was archaic and they would break down every couple of days and take a day or two to repair so they were abandoned.

The same fate as many a good tailor.

 

[radicaldog]

Thanks, all. The European source above (also kindly PM-ed to me) seems excellent and I'll order from him.

 

[Ataturk]

Are you sure that's the "chambray" and not the "viole"--remember the big confusion about the difference between the two?

Edit: oh, you seem to be content with either of them. Ok.