The Perfect Navy Suit

[Soph]

With the navy/blue tie. Priceless!

 

[tiger02]

Mory's is better, and I bet he doesn't hang out with guys who wear pleather.

 

[denning]

Those are actually sequins, not pleather.

 

[tiger02]

I was thinking dog fur was another possibility, but I'll go with sequins

 

[Soph]

Thomas Mahon is the guy in the Navy suit in case you didn't know.

 

[tiger02]

I didn't, he looks different without glasses. I still like Mory's suit better. Is the other guy Sting?

 

[Duveen]

Originally Posted by tiger02

Is the other guy Sting?

Or Malcolm McLaren?

 

[A Y]

Here's the English Cut blog entry on the sparkly jacket, with a bigger version of the picture posted: http://www.englishcut.com/archives/000023.html Seeing Tom's suits on him was very influential in making me decide on his suits. There's another picture of Tom in this thread on LL: http://thelondonlounge.net/gl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=272 BTW, he gave that navy suit away to one of his lucky readers: http://www.englishcut.com/archives/000074.html http://www.englishcut.com/archives/000088.html --Andre

 

[Matt]

have you received your Mahon suit yet Andre?

 

[Duveen]

Another one for Andre (mainly 'cuz your link got me looking @ Mahon's blog, and Mahon is a good writer and salesman-of-self) - what was the fitting experience like? I'd imagine that Mr. Mahon is now mobbed on his visits, but that may not be the case. Curious to know what your experience was like. Also, had you bought bespoke before, or was this the first time you did so? I seem to remember that you had some experience with MTM.

 

[LabelKing]

Once, when I was at the opera there was a man, along with his wife, wearing a sequined sports jacket.

 

[Stuttjukken]

The navy suit to the right looks great, and I like it.

 

[A Y]

m@t, Duveen,

I've only had my first meeting, so I don't have my suit or my first fitting yet. Hopefully that will be in late May or early June when he returns.

It's my first bespoke experience, so I'm not sure how it compares to other bespoke tailors. Basically, you meet Tom in his hotel room, and talk for a bit about what you'd like the suit for, and other things that may come up (hobbies, interests, technical questions about tailoring). Then you select a cloth, with Tom giving you some advice and information about the swatches. Unlike the stores' salespeople that I've done MTM with (Zegna, Vacca/Attolini, and Borrelli), he actually knows a lot about each cloth, and in some cases even the actual people who weave it! I had mentioned to him that I was looking at a checked or windowpaned suit because I only have striped suits, and that I had really admired a POW check suit I saw in "Good night, and good luck", so we settled on a medium-weight 120s wool/cashmere blend (which he assures me is very durable) with a black-and-white background, and a blue overcheck.

We then talked about what kind of suit to make. I was thinking about a double-breasted jacket, but for his first-time customers, he prefers making a single-breasted jacket and checking the fit on that. Since this was my first experience, and knowing to follow the gentle advice given by one's bespoke tailor, I went along with his suggestions: 3-roll-2 SB jacket with notch lapels, slant pockets, ticket pocket, and vest. Pants were high backed and use only suspenders, and a zip fly --- Tom says buttons fall off the buttonfly too often for him.

He takes your measurements next, kind of talking to himself all the while, but I didn't count the number of measurements, though they were far more extensive than my MTM experiences, as one would expect. And that was all. It took about an hour, and could have been a bit shorter if we hadn't stopped the process many times along the way to chat about various things. In real life, he comes across as he does on his blog: forthright, friendly, and knowledgeable. He was quite kind to the Zegna MTM DB I was wearing, and pointed out a few things that would be different (and if you knew anything about suits, you also knew it would be better) like the shoulders and armholes, but not in an obnoxious way --- it almost seemed like he was setting my expectations for how his jacket would fit.

I also got to try on a couple of his own jackets, because we are approximately the same size, and what really surprised me --- and perhaps this was just the psychology of the moment --- was getting that Wow! feeling when you put on something really special for the first time. As I mentioned on AAAC in their copy of this thread, the last time I got that feeling was when I first put on a dinner jacket. It has not happened for anything else --- ironically, I was just at the Borrelli store an hour beforehand getting the sleeve and pants lengths measured for an MTM that had just come in, and I definitely did not get that feeling there. In his blog, Tom talks about the depth and character of a suit, and I kind of got the first clue what that means when I saw his work.

BTW, I believe sysdoc has commissioned a suit from Tom, and is quite a bit further along than I am, so perhaps he may jump in and add his comments.

--Andre

 

[Duveen]

Andre,

Thanks so much for the great summary/commentary - much appreciated!

Originally Posted by Andre Yew

BTW, I believe sysdoc has commissioned a suit from Tom, and is quite a bit further along than I am, so perhaps he may jump in and add his comments.

Interesting tidbit - I didn't know that Sysdoc had one in process as well. I'd (of course) love to hear from Sysdoc/see pics as the fittings progress, but that is obviously be up to him...