• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • We would like to welcome House of Huntington as an official Affiliate Vendor. Shop past season Drake's, Nigel Cabourn, Private White V.C. and other menswear luxury brands at exceptional prices below retail. Please visit the Houise of Huntington thread and welcome them to the forum.

  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

The Official Dieworkwear Appreciation Thread

Chaconne

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2015
Messages
1,697
Reaction score
3,336
I disagree with Greg on this one. I believe you will see a resurgence in classic tailoring for the same reasons it had a renaissance after the Great Recession in 2008. Men will want safe, proven and reliable wardrobes. You may see neckties suffer, but the suit and certainly the blazer will reclaim their traditional status.
Could be, but this one feels different to me. I’m thinking we’ll see people wanting a lot of color and excitement after being stuck inside so long. I won’t wager on it but my gut tells me there’ll be peacocking and flamboyance like we haven’t seen since the 70s.
 

imatlas

Saucy White Boy
Joined
May 27, 2008
Messages
24,666
Reaction score
28,329
Could be, but this one feels different to me. I’m thinking we’ll see people wanting a lot of color and excitement after being stuck inside so long. I won’t wager on it but my gut tells me there’ll be peacocking and flamboyance like we haven’t seen since the 70s.

My prediction:

74B47B77-D98A-441D-9E22-9DCFBBD01866.jpeg
 

dieworkwear

Mahatma Jawndi
Dubiously Honored
Joined
Apr 10, 2011
Messages
27,320
Reaction score
69,972
I disagree with Greg on this one. I believe you will see a resurgence in classic tailoring for the same reasons it had a renaissance after the Great Recession in 2008. Men will want safe, proven and reliable wardrobes. You may see neckties suffer, but the suit and certainly the blazer will reclaim their traditional status.
Could be, but this one feels different to me. I’m thinking we’ll see people wanting a lot of color and excitement after being stuck inside so long. I won’t wager on it but my gut tells me there’ll be peacocking and flamboyance like we haven’t seen since the 70s.

I've always thought of the heritage menswear movement as being driven not so much by economic factors, but cultural ones. I think the fashion press often likes to link fashion trends to macro issues -- such as in times of war, they'll point to field jackets, even though field jackets are perennial. But the links are often tenuous.

I think the heritage menswear movement grew out of the hipster movement in the early aughts. During the early aughts, there was a huge obsession with authenticity, which eventually bled over into what Guillermo Roditi Dominguez dubbed "The Quaint Economy." The idea is that the story behind a product matters more than the product itself. Granted, this has always been true, but it's true in a very specific sense with heritage menswear. Heritage, after all, was about the history of something.

Dominguez phrased The Quaint Economy as: “It’s our desire to drink cocktails out of mason jars, rather than mass-produced glasses at Ikea, at a bar covered in reclaimed wood from a barn in Kentucky rather than something you’d find in the interior of a DMV.” It’s the consumer quest for all things “authentic” and “pre-modern,” which conflates quality with nostalgia. The quainter the story, the better.

Portlandia captures that zeitgeist really well -- the farm to table restaurant, the quaint pickle store, the bow ties (put a bird on it!), etc. Here's the artisanal knot store sketch:





David Rees also captured this in his comedic sketch about artisanal pencil sharpening. Remember the ethos here is all about craft. Sometimes the debates here about how to shine shoes remind me of this sketch. Or the discussions of how something was made (even the banalest of items).





The other big cultural factor was Mad Men. I think it's hard to overstate the influence of that show. Banana Republic eventually did a Mad Men collab. You can also see the effect of Mad Men in the suits. Things were already slimming up then because of broader fashion trends, along with hipster trends in the early aughts. But when we think of heritage menswear, which I think of as starting around 2007 or so, the suit silhouette was very Mad Men inspired. Thick as Thieves on here, for example, was almost a copy-and-paste of that look. J. Crew's suits were very Mad Men-ish at the time. The Liquor Store to me also seemed to carry that 1950s/ 60s bar culture sensibility.

I think suits will eventually come back, but it will take another big cultural force for them to come back in the way they did in 2007 or so. It can't just be the economy or a random swinging of fashion trends. You need some big cultural force, such as something in music, movies, or TV, to drive that change. I also don't know if it'll come back in that heritage way. Again, I think that came out of hipster culture, not necessarily an economic downturn, and we just don't have the seeds for that right now.
 
Last edited:

Royal_Airforce

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2020
Messages
140
Reaction score
317
As @dieworkwear kindly wrote a wonderful article on spring tailorings, which i highly recommend, i thought it proper that i venture into opening up the discussion on some of the grails I’m eyeing for at Cavour, who is doing a site-wide 30% off sale (again, related to Derek’s write-up on the importance of small businesses):

1. Navy mockleno
6DDCC9D3-DAAC-44D0-9316-698C413F56CE.jpeg


This definitely falls into ‘The Basic’ category. Surprisingly I still don’t have a single breaste navy sport coat (so can only do with wearing the navy suit jacket). It’s currently on sale at $564. Not at the most attractive price for me to cop now since i may well encounter one just as good (and especially since I can go to a Mirador baotou sifu alternatively, at similar cost). But this navy hopsack is just so quintessential.

2. Oatmeal wool-linen hopsack
CDCA3B86-7699-4A00-9D0D-E89EA2D0B857.jpeg


This lies between ‘The Basic’ and ‘The Advanced’, in that the light colour is immediately noticeably different from your navy and grey, but the pale oatmeal keeps it neat, versatile and professionally appropriate. I particularly like the understated textures. It’s currently selling at $420, very lucrative.

3. Navy Glencheck silk
7E0DFFC6-5C1C-464B-8631-DE07590589AE.jpeg


An antithesis to the one above, this one’s got dark colour but some deep tone variations in the glenchecks and rich lustre. Goes with anything short of my light grey PoW fresco trousers. It is selling at $480.

I do have 2 bits of concern though, being longevity / fragility, and that silk might not wear as cool as wool mockleno or wool-silk hopsack in tropical HK. (Anecdotally, I heard that pure silk jackets stink after being cleaned?)

4. Light brown checked silk
ECF805C4-02AE-4696-85F1-95FADCBC43F2.jpeg


Outright a more casual option in ‘The Advanced’ category, without looking too oustentious. Easy to wear with mid to dark grey trousers, but also cream. Selling at $480.

Though probably not so easy to wear with checkered summer ties (especially the cotton madras ones or woven tartan ones from Brooks Brothers) since their checks are of a similar scale?
3698FAEB-14B9-4CAC-B950-1D6F6C134C0E.jpeg

074E1E2F-2420-41CB-B68C-4B4D96BE2754.jpeg

181F1B9D-8604-406D-B5ED-06F299D55FC9.jpeg


My spring / summer tailorings at hand are basically a structured navy suit, a soft suit in light grey PoW, a navy DB sport coat in 8oz LGB (which might be a bit light weight / too fine to be worn too frequently, and which errs a bit into ‘The Very Advanced’ category in Derek’s write-up?), a bottle green Farquharson tartan sport coat in cotton-linen, a milk-and-sugar seersucker from Uniqlo (which has like 0.5 inch lapels and can only be worn in a few occasions)

Love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers,
Royal_Airforce
 
Last edited:

Texasmade

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Apr 26, 2008
Messages
28,267
Reaction score
37,028
I completely forgot about Thick as Thieves. I remember they were all the rage back when I first joined SF. Now you don’t hear about them at all.
 

Thin White Duke

Distinguished Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
Messages
5,287
Reaction score
7,730
I completely forgot about Thick as Thieves. I remember they were all the rage back when I first joined SF. Now you don’t hear about them at all.

Except from me!

My TaT experiences are far and away the best I’ve had out of all my attempts at bespoke and MTM.

i’d also argue that the TaT aesthetic is influenced by the sixties English Mod look not so much Mad Men although there’s obviously a similarity there. I remember Banana Republic doing a short-lived confab with Mad Men but the J Crew (Ludlow?) slim lapel suits predated BR by quite some time.
 

Attachments

  • 8B6F5043-D8A9-4459-8103-77E0403D5947.jpeg
    8B6F5043-D8A9-4459-8103-77E0403D5947.jpeg
    107.8 KB · Views: 54
  • BC6D7B7E-4D86-4E5E-BEFB-5287173BE65B.jpeg
    BC6D7B7E-4D86-4E5E-BEFB-5287173BE65B.jpeg
    51.5 KB · Views: 54
Last edited:

Van Veen

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Jun 14, 2011
Messages
12,740
Reaction score
14,249
I've always thought of the heritage menswear movement as being driven not so much by economic factors, but cultural ones. I think the fashion press often likes to link fashion trends to macro issues -- such as in times of war, they'll point to field jackets, even though field jackets are perennial. But the links are often tenuous.

I think the heritage menswear movement grew out of the hipster movement in the early aughts. During the early aughts, there was a huge obsession with authenticity, which eventually bled over into what Guillermo Roditi Dominguez dubbed "The Quaint Economy." The idea is that the story behind a product matters more than the product itself. Granted, this has always been true, but it's true in a very specific sense with heritage menswear. Heritage, after all, was about the history of something.

Dominguez phrased The Quaint Economy as: “It’s our desire to drink cocktails out of mason jars, rather than mass-produced glasses at Ikea, at a bar covered in reclaimed wood from a barn in Kentucky rather than something you’d find in the interior of a DMV.” It’s the consumer quest for all things “authentic” and “pre-modern,” which conflates quality with nostalgia. The quainter the story, the better.

Portlandia captures that zeitgeist really well -- the farm to table restaurant, the quaint pickle store, the bow ties (put a bird on it!), etc. Here's the artisanal knot store sketch:





David Rees also captured this in his comedic sketch about artisanal pencil sharpening. Remember the ethos here is all about craft. Sometimes the debates here about how to shine shoes remind me of this sketch. Or the discussions of how something was made (even the banalest of items).





The other big cultural factor was Mad Men. I think it's hard to overstate the influence of that show. Banana Republic eventually did a Mad Men collab. You can also see the effect of Mad Men in the suits. Things were already slimming up then because of broader fashion trends, along with hipster trends in the early aughts. But when we think of heritage menswear, which I think of as starting around 2007 or so, the suit silhouette was very Mad Men inspired. Thick as Thieves on here, for example, was almost a copy-and-paste of that look. J. Crew's suits were very Mad Men-ish at the time. The Liquor Store to me also seemed to carry that 1950s/ 60s bar culture sensibility.

I think suits will eventually come back, but it will take another big cultural force for them to come back in the way they did in 2007 or so. It can't just be the economy or a random swinging of fashion trends. You need some big cultural force, such as something in music, movies, or TV, to drive that change. I also don't know if it'll come back in that heritage way. Again, I think that came out of hipster culture, not necessarily an economic downturn, and we just don't have the seeds for that right now.

Part of me thinks this is a generational shift -- a reaction to the culture one grew up in. My parents' generation (boomers) embraced mass production and disposable culture. It's partly because of technological advances, I'm sure, but another part of it is that their parents grew up in the depression and maintained that frugality throughout their lives. (My dad talks about how whatever meat his family bought when he was growing up was stretched into multiple meals for the week, for example.) Their children emerged as adults into this land of plenty, with mass production and global trade, and they didn't have environmental consciousness drilled into them as children. (My mom loved those Oriental Trading Company catalogs when I was a kid, and now she loves the ******* dollar store. It's not out of necessity. Never buy knockoff dollar store M&Ms, by the way.)

I believe the "artisanal culture" of millennials is partly a reaction to the "disposable culture" of boomers. Once again it's aided by technology. 20 years ago, I would have had no idea that LL Bean duck boots are the authentic choice. I would have just gone to the store and bought whatever they had that I liked. Now I'm a ******* snob and refuse to buy anything else. That's 100% thanks to the Internet. We have reviews and blogs to guide us. We have easy access to products from all manufacturers, and it's easier for small startups to enter the game. Another factor is that more millennials went away for college than boomers. There was more intermingling of culture and class in the formative college years.

(Of course, this is all from a broadly middle class perspective.)
 
Last edited:

UrbanComposition

Distinguished Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2010
Messages
6,583
Reaction score
19,823
TaT was one of my first forays into made to measure. I even met the guy in...Altadena I think...and he measured me himself. Sadly it didn’t fit very well. The jacket was too big.

I really like that look and had a lot of fun with it. We had 60s parties all the time in Oakland at various friends’ apartments where bands would play and then DJ. I’ll always have fold memories of those days and that aesthetic.
925D521D-3791-4688-98E3-52A74572AABA.jpeg
319F03E2-77A3-43D8-81A2-FDAE41A9D508.jpeg
F04897C1-5550-4545-BC66-03ACF2704665.jpeg
E2525195-C15F-44A5-8296-089F62047AEB.jpeg
0D954228-C0C6-4FDA-887A-1A32DCC4111C.jpeg
CCF2BC0D-DBF3-402D-9EAF-992BAF95FE88.jpeg
68321AAE-5001-4321-865C-10496B87C16D.jpeg
F8C2B29A-11FF-4006-94AE-8AD6AFEF3A19.jpeg
 

Salad

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2006
Messages
1,046
Reaction score
540
igent 2021

Bespoke Tychem 10000 suit. Plenty of drape and spalla disease-ia shoulder construction.

tychem.jpg
 

Thin White Duke

Distinguished Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
Messages
5,287
Reaction score
7,730
Too bad it didn’t work out for you Pete. Jason has got my fit dialled in (I met him once too when I was out west - great lad!) and his remote MTM works out better for me than when I‘ve tried bespoke at four times the cost.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, you do miss the experience of several fittings and bantering with the tailor etc. but the ultimate aim is to get a jacket / suit that fits and that tan linen upthread fits me better than any bespoke experiences I’ve had.
 

vida

Senior Member
Joined
May 6, 2010
Messages
771
Reaction score
353
Could be, but this one feels different to me. I’m thinking we’ll see people wanting a lot of color and excitement after being stuck inside so long. I won’t wager on it but my gut tells me there’ll be peacocking and flamboyance like we haven’t seen since the 70s.
I thought about this also and you may be right. I still believe it will be within the CM context.
 

dieworkwear

Mahatma Jawndi
Dubiously Honored
Joined
Apr 10, 2011
Messages
27,320
Reaction score
69,972
As @dieworkwear kindly wrote a wonderful article on spring tailorings, which i highly recommend, i thought it proper that i venture into opening up the discussion on some of the grails I’m eyeing for at Cavour, who is doing a site-wide 30% off sale (again, related to Derek’s write-up on the importance of small businesses):

1. Navy mockleno
View attachment 1362390

This definitely falls into ‘The Basic’ category. Surprisingly I still don’t have a single breaste navy sport coat (so can only do with wearing the navy suit jacket). It’s currently on sale at $564. Not at the most attractive price for me to cop now since i may well encounter one just as good (and especially since I can go to a Mirador baotou sifu alternatively, at similar cost). But this navy hopsack is just so quintessential.

2. Oatmeal wool-linen hopsack
View attachment 1362391

This lies between ‘The Basic’ and ‘The Advanced’, in that the light colour is immediately noticeably different from your navy and grey, but the pale oatmeal keeps it neat, versatile and professionally appropriate. I particularly like the understated textures. It’s currently selling at $420, very lucrative.

3. Navy Glencheck silk
View attachment 1362394

An antithesis to the one above, this one’s got dark colour but some deep tone variations in the glenchecks and rich lustre. Goes with anything short of my light grey PoW fresco trousers. It is selling at $480.

I do have 2 bits of concern though, being longevity / fragility, and that silk might not wear as cool as wool mockleno or wool-silk hopsack in tropical HK. (Anecdotally, I heard that pure silk jackets stink after being cleaned?)

4. Light brown checked silk
View attachment 1362395

Outright a more casual option in ‘The Advanced’ category, without looking too oustentious. Easy to wear with mid to dark grey trousers, but also cream. Selling at $480.

Though probably not so easy to wear with checkered summer ties (especially the cotton madras ones or woven tartan ones from Brooks Brothers) since their checks are of a similar scale?
View attachment 1362397
View attachment 1362398
View attachment 1362399

My spring / summer tailorings at hand are basically a structured navy suit, a soft suit in light grey PoW, a navy DB sport coat in 8oz LGB (which might be a bit light weight / too fine to be worn too frequently, and which errs a bit into ‘The Very Advanced’ category in Derek’s write-up?), a bottle green Farquharson tartan sport coat in cotton-linen, a milk-and-sugar seersucker from Uniqlo (which has like 0.5 inch lapels and can only be worn in a few occasions)

Love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers,
Royal_Airforce

If you don't yet have a single-breasted navy sport coat, it would be hard to go wrong with a navy sport coat, I think.

If your navy suit isn't made from a very fine, silky worsted, then it probably doesn't make that big of a difference. I think I have six or seven navy sport coats at this point. One of them is part of a suit that's made from Harrison's Oyster cloth. I think most of them are interchangeable on some level. I sometimes wear the suit jacket as a sport coat and probably wouldn't miss the other navy sport coats if they disappeared.

If your navy suit is made from a very fine, silky worsted, however, then it might be a bit more difficult to wear the coat as an odd jacket. In that case, it may be worth getting a standalone navy sport coat. Otherwise, I think the oatmeal wool-linen on your list is nice. I think that can be worn with grey or mid-brown trousers.
 

Royal_Airforce

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2020
Messages
140
Reaction score
317
If you don't yet have a single-breasted navy sport coat, it would be hard to go wrong with a navy sport coat, I think.

If your navy suit isn't made from a very fine, silky worsted, then it probably doesn't make that big of a difference. I think I have six or seven navy sport coats at this point. One of them is part of a suit that's made from Harrison's Oyster cloth. I think most of them are interchangeable on some level. I sometimes wear the suit jacket as a sport coat and probably wouldn't miss the other navy sport coats if they disappeared.

If your navy suit is made from a very fine, silky worsted, however, then it might be a bit more difficult to wear the coat as an odd jacket. In that case, it may be worth getting a standalone navy sport coat. Otherwise, I think the oatmeal wool-linen on your list is nice. I think that can be worn with grey or mid-brown trousers.

Your words are such a joy to read, Derek!

Look:

First i don’t have a single breasted navy sport coat, so acquiring one makes sense.

Then my summer navy suit is kinda in an open weave wool, so not silky super-wool (though not so texture-rich as hopsack, mesh or mockleno either; closer to Finmeresco or Crispaire in terms of hand), so it may function as a navy sport coat occasionally.

And still, that navy suit is in English cut with structured shoulders, bellies lapels and jetted pockets, making it a little formal to be worn as a sport coat (esp for the weekend).

So in the end, my situation ends up in almost every scenario of your ‘If’ sentences - which tortures a consultant’s MECE minds hahah!

Joking aside, really appreciate your input Derek, and I think i’m now erring to either the navy glen check silk or oatmeal wool-linen hopsack!

Keep on brewing the good write-ups btw, we need those spiritual liquor.
 

CBrown85

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2009
Messages
6,131
Reaction score
2,249
TaT was one of my first forays into made to measure. I even met the guy in...Altadena I think...and he measured me himself. Sadly it didn’t fit very well. The jacket was too big.

I really like that look and had a lot of fun with it. We had 60s parties all the time in Oakland at various friends’ apartments where bands would play and then DJ. I’ll always have fold memories of those days and that aesthetic.
View attachment 1362544 View attachment 1362545 View attachment 1362546 View attachment 1362547 View attachment 1362548 View attachment 1362549 View attachment 1362550 View attachment 1362552

Don't get me wrong, I love being 34, but being 24 all over again would be fantastic.
 

inTROYspection

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
582
Reaction score
435
@dieworkwear, I just read your latest piece on Put This On about shoe care, and I'm curious if you know anything about possible idiosyncrasies in taking care of waxed calf leather?

I recently purchased these loafers from Crockett & Jones for The Rake, but I'm not sure whether I should be applying leather conditioner and cream polish to waxed calf?
 

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 45 40.5%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 44 39.6%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 5 4.5%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 18 16.2%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 25 22.5%

Forum statistics

Threads
504,424
Messages
10,573,945
Members
223,691
Latest member
MidwestMase
Top