SPIER & MACKAY - Official Affiliate Thread

[JTrent82]

You are right, but that's not the point.

I mean if your point is just criticizing Spier's choice of buttons then yes I agree. But if you really love the suit other than this small detail, it can be easily altered.

 

[Jamesbond1]

Looks exactly like an Ulster coat from last winter 🙂

Last year it was from Spier....this year it is from Mackay!

 

[classicoutfits]

Lanificio Bottoli. Thoughts on the quality of the fabrics?

I have this brown pow and I like the colors and quality. I couldn’t tell quality difference between this and other summer fabrics I have from vbc and drago. Having said that, I pay more attention and have better experience in colors and patterns so others may have different take on Bottolli

 

[Jamesbond1]

I have this brown pow and I like the colors and quality. I couldn’t tell quality difference between this and other summer fabrics I have from vbc and drago. Having said that, I pay more attention and have better experience in colors and patterns so others may have different take on Bottolli

Drago, Bottoli, VBC are all similar but different. For the price point here there is not much to nitpick.

Now if that VBC is sold with a Drapers tag then yes but at that price point you will not be on this Spier or Mackay thread!

 

[blewnote1]

Oh, you fawkers are the competition then? Unsure if it's due to SM sizing or #zegains, but the 44s are now cutting a bittttttt too slim for me. Wish they would offer some 46Ls.

SSD, hilarious aside about your mom & suits/SCs. Embarrassed to admit (well, not really...we're all weirdos here) I think the same when people compliment my getting dressed up in a suit...when wearing a navy jacket and grey trousers.

Every. Time. Black and cream POW sportcoat and grey flannels? Nice suit! Off white linen DB and high twist trews? Nice suit!

It's like the literal definition of a suit being all matching fabrics has been lost in the public consciousness.

Rocking my new camp collar shirt that I bought on sale from Spier. This fits really well!

View attachment 2012535

Got the same one and love it too. Have 3 now and they're all fun to wear, plus fairly breathable!

 

[CLH03]

Every. Time. Black and cream POW sportcoat and grey flannels? Nice suit! Off white linen DB and high twist trews? Nice suit!

It's like the literal definition of a suit being all matching fabrics has been lost in the public consciousness.

Got the same one and love it too. Have 3 now and they're all fun to wear, plus fairly breathable!

lol get this a lot. Never hear anyone say it when wearing a suit🤣

 

[blewnote1]

I bought a cream cotton knit polo in July along with some others in silk cotton. Loved the silk cotton fabric, and hoped that the silk would help keep the fabric looking crisp (the cotton knit polo I have from last summer aren't pilling but have a noticeably fuzzy texture compared to when they were new). I returned the cream cotton knit polo and bought one in silk/cotton and upon arrival it's more of an off white than cream, lacking the beautiful yellow tinge the pure cotton had. It still looks nice and I don't think it's worth returning again but I might have kept the cotton one if I'd known. Also, I don't know if they switched suppliers but the cotton knit polo may actually be better fabric than last year. Or it just seemed so since it was fresh (compared to mine from last summer that have seen a lot of wear).

The color difference is actually observable on the stock photos (although not quite as strikingly so as in real life), I just didn't think to compare them before returning and buying in the different fabric... Figured cream was cream, but I guess it's not!

In other notes, I picked up a hilts shawl collar in navy (I'm a 44r and wear XL in S & M knots, the XL fit perfectly), which I love... So soft, and a nice lighter weight which may be quite wearable here in the south. Also grabbed a chunky cardigan (also super soft and comfy feeling), trying to decide between keeping my normal knit size XL in the great moss green color and have a baggier fit, or go with a trimmer fit in dark green in size L. I don't know why they do this, but looking at the sizing chart for the hilts and the chunky cardigans, it's clear from the chest measurements that the chunky size chart is shifted one size down (as in an XL in the hilts = L for chunky). It really seems like the measurements should line up across items of the same type!

After searching through the thread it seems there is a dearth of fit pics of either of these items... Will try and post some pics soon.

 

[taargus_taargus]

Has anyone gotten last year's classic parka? I think the listed length (32.3" on a 38) is shorter than I'd like. What were your impressions?

There's no doubt that it's a well constructed garment. As far as functionality is concerned, it's probably the best piece of outerwear I've ever owned. My issue is 3 fold:

1) There is an excessive use of down feathers which makes me look like marshmallow man from ghostbusters when I zip it up. However, this makes it incredibly warm and I can only use it below 20-25 degrees Fahrenheit

2) I always order the smallest fit from SM and sometimes those fits are even too large for me. The parka is cut very thin, meaning I can only wear 2 layers max underneath. The amount of down greatly contributes to this. After that, it hampers my mobility. However, you would realistically never need more than two layers underneath. Even that is too hot.

3) The hood is almost unusable. I had to remove the faux fur and, for some reason, the strings used to tighten the hood do not work at all. I'm unsure of why this is? With the fur on and hood up my girlfriend refuses to go out with me because it looks so comical (but sometimes I like to bother her so this is an upside).

With that said, it was my go-to coat when the Midwest dropped below 0 degrees this past winter. At one point I was stuck outside for a bit and I think I was the only person not freezing ****** off.

 

[hpreston]

Mmm understood and I see it now. It hasn't ever occurred to me because with a suit like this I'd default to something like tobacco suede NSTs or my brown Fifth Streets, nothing black.

I already have a plain gray/black glen plaid suit from a long time ago before I knew about #menswear (Men's Wearhouse, Joseph Abboud MiUSA lol) so I'm probably going to pass on this one, esp. given my recent fail with an SM RTW vest in what was supposed to be my size, but I was actually thinking, if they could put a windowpane on top using hte same green as the backdrop of this pic (Racing green??) i'd definitely give it a shot.

Marginally relevant: can someone please straighten out the terminology for me? Derek mentioned this once but I cannot find the thread. Spier is calling it POW but I thought POW was only if this also had the windowpane, and that without one it was just glen plaid or perhaps glen urquhart? Or is it only PoW when it is a specific color, the one Albert liked? What about when there's no windowpane, but the edges of the plaid pattern are a different color, e.g. the suit above but with some blue mixed in?

Plz explain. Also, it continues to boggle my mind that a bunch of goons in the 1840s who believed in ghosts and leeches and using the Thames as a toilet was able to put all this together on an Industrial Revolution era loom, while I lack the spatial perception to make the five minute commute to work without GPS.

I know Wikipedia is not always definitive, but in this case, it lays out what I understand about POW/Glen Plaid....
Glen plaid (short for Glen Urquhart plaid), also known as Glenurquhart check or Prince of Wales check, is a woollen fabric with a woven twill design of small and large checks.[1] It is usually made of black/grey and white, or with more muted colours, particularly with two dark and two light stripes alternate with four dark and four light stripes which creates a crossing pattern of irregular checks.[2] Glen plaid as a woven pattern may be extended to cotton shirting and other non-woollen fabrics.
The name is taken from the valley of Glenurquhart in Inverness-shire, Scotland, where the checked wool was first used in the 19th century by the New Zealand-born Countess of Seafield[3] to fit out her gamekeepers,[1] though the name Glen plaid does not appear before 1926.[4] Glen plaid is also known as the Prince of Wales check, as it was popularized by King Edward VIII when he was Prince of Wales.[5]
In other words, despite its internationally known name (French prince de Galles, Spanish príncipe de Gales, Italian principe di Galles, etc.), the "Prince of Wales" fabric pattern is not a Welsh pattern but a Scottish one.

 

[7_rocket]

What exactly is the difference between the new longer Polo coats and the Ulster coats? I fail to spot any difference.

Long Polo coat
https://instagram.com/stories/spier...e=ig_story_item_share&igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

Ulster coat

Looks exactly like an Ulster coat from last winter 🙂

Maybe we can ask Spier and Mckay
@spiermackay
@SpierTeam

 

[JayDee90]

Do you own anything made up with fabrics sold by Drapers?

Drago, Bottoli, VBC are all similar but different. For the price point here there is not much to nitpick.

Now if that VBC is sold with a Drapers tag then yes but at that price point you will not be on this Spier or Mackay thread!

 

[DonRaphael]

Maybe we can ask Spier and Mckay
@spiermackay
@SpierTeam

Asked Rick on IG. He left me on read. Thus assuming it's the same.

 

[JTrent82]

Asked Rick on IG. He left me on read. Thus assuming it's the same.

I know the Ulster has previously had a roomier fit than the Polo. I assume this is still the case?

 

[Duke Santos]

OK, I'm sold on the paper chinos. This is the second day in a row with a heat index into the 110s in Chicago. I wore paper chinos both days, and they were about the most comfortable option I could imagine other than extremely light linen that would have been creased all to hell within 15 minutes of leaving the house.

 

[BlueSteel]

Unrelated to the current comments about buttons (which luckily for me I have never experienced), I was just contemplating this weekend what an incredible value S&M can present - especially during one of their sales.

Was focusing on the VBC flannel chalk stripe suits:

Spier & Mackay

Spier & Mackay

www.spierandmackay.com

The cloth in that suit is from VBC's Lady Sanfelice Flannels bunch. Nice cloth 340gsm (about 12oz). Same exact cloth used by Proper Cloth, Cavour, and others in suits that sell for way, way more than S&M's price.

Further, this cloth is sold through Drapers Italy (related company) and the non-trade price is just under 150 Euros a meter. I take one of the larger S&M sizes in suits (and I'm lucky that I get a very nice fit off the peg in their suits)...so conservatively to make such a suit for me I would have to consider buying 3.5 meters of this cloth.

At the non-trade price from Drapers Italy, just the VBC flannel cloth in the above suit in my size would cost me $777 Canadian.

That suit is currently on sale at S&M for $478 Canadian.

(Yes - I realize that tailors pay less for the cloth, and a big operator like S&M would pay even less again...but still...it presents an incredible - and likely unbeatable - value.)

Soooo...I convinced myself the more I thought about this...

VBC charcoal flannel suit just arrived (snagged at the great $478 CDN price...or about $350 USD for our friends south of the border).

Also happy to say that the jacket length on this one is dead-on the size chart! (I took some measurements on S&M stuff I own and posted awhile back that most of the jackets I have are somewhat shorter than the size chart indicates.)

Now just need the sleeves done by my tailor, and some cooler weather to put this into use!