Savile Row Tailors, English Cut The Web Blog of Thomas Mahon, Bespoke Tailor

lapels are back….

(old school)

I don’t know if it’s just me but there’s an interesting shift in style ideas going on, certainly with a lot of our bespoke at the moment. Although many of the high street suits and including James Bond’s are going for an almost 60′s style slimmness of cut and thin lapels.

(Mr Sinatra with proper lapels)

However, many of my clients are asking for wider lapels, especially in double breasted. Also, there’s a strong return to shawl collars, such as the one I’m cutting here. This is particularly unusual as it’s a shawl collar on a double breasted dinner jacket. There’s no doubt it’s a beautiful classic style but I have haven’t cut something like this in years. (Mr Bond, very slim and a bit short in back balance) When I talk about the DB lapels being wider I mean really wide, almost coming out the full width of the shoulder.

(slim cut Mr Bond and a bit short in back balance)

It seems strange to cut these these days but I must admit when a client of mine dropped in to see me in NYC last week he did look fantastic. It’s literally time travel, back to the 30′s and 40′s. It’s not a look everyone can pull off and the rest of your dress has to match but there’s no doubting that that’s from an incredibly stylish era. All we need to do is get a run on the hat wearing then we will have gone full circle.

(Basil Rathbone, a very elegant Sherlock Holmes)

So you’ll have to decide if you want to be James Bond or Sherlock Holmes.. I’m begining to prefer the latter :)

Tags: savile row bespoke

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2012 at 9:46 am and is filed under ready to wear, savile row, technical, traveling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.