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February 22, 2006

off to america...

[My niece, Laura Oddy. Photographed outside my Cumbrian offices at Warwick Hall.]

I'm just getting ready to fly off to America for my usual bespoke visit. Driving down to London today, appointments on Savile Row tomorrow, then arrive in Chicago on Friday. Then San Francisco, Atlanta and New York, all in just under two weeks.

My usual assistant, Lucy Adams is not coming with me this time, but in her place I've decided to treat my niece, Laura Oddy to her first trip to America. Recently graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University, studying mechanical engineering, she will helping me with my appointments. She looks forward to meeting you.

Lucy tells me she'll be back with me on my next US trip, around June.

My schedule in America is very tight, and my appointment diary is very full. If you wish to make a last-minute appointment, I hopefully should be able to make room for you, but until I return to England it's probably easier just to telephone me on my mobile, rather than arrange it via e-mail.

Mobile: +44 (0) 7811 388 536

My Savile Row appointments after America are on March 16th and 30th. Both are on a Thursday. If you wish to make an appointment for those, I would prefer if you sent me an e-mail.

All very exciting. Hopefully see you in America!

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February 18, 2006

100 suits per year...

[A coat waiting to go to the finisher.]

As any English Cut regular will know, the last year has been a very busy one for me, thanks to my many kind readers who have entrusted me with their business. And of course, for that I am extremely grateful.

But there's the rub. Suddenly I am so busy with orders, at this rate I will no longer be able properly keep up with the increase in demand. That is unacceptable to me.

I have two choices. Either keep selling more suits and scale up the business, or rein it in.

I think I prefer the latter course. Perhaps it's time to nip it in the bud.

So I'm considering limiting my output to one hundred suits per year. One hundred. No more.

Hopefully this will allow me to spend less time travelling, and more time doing what I love most- making beautiful suits that make my customers very happy.

This is about 2 suits per week, which is roughly the ideal number. Anything less and I'm twiddling my thumbs; anything more and things start getting hectic.

[Label prototype, with number and year- Number seventy seven out of a hundred, for the year 2007.]

So everybody would be very clear about this, every suit ordered in the the year would be numbered and dated.

1/100, 2006. 2/100, 2006... 85/100, 2006. And so on.

Then in 2007 the cycle begins again.

This is just an idea, but I'm very seriously condsidering it. Please let me know your thoughts, either in the comments or via e-mail. I would especially appreciate it if my existing customers would let me know what they think. Thank you.

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February 15, 2006

bespoke shirts

[Customers' shirt patterns.]

Like I said earlier, I was on the hunt for the best shirts made in England.

This search was brought about, of course, by readers of English Cut, and the desire of my clients to find a shirt to perfectly compliment the "soft structured" suits they were buying from me.

And as you read the other day, I reckon I've found one of the best shirtmakers out there: Nigel Sturges, of Rayner & Sturges.

[Nigel with his yardstick.]

English Cut shirts will work like this:

First of all, upon meeting myself for an appointment, I will show you a range of wonderful shirt fabrics, whose choices I have limited, under the good advice of Nigel Sturges, to the highest quality from SIC Tess in Italy, and Alumo in Switzerland.

Sadly, cotton of this quality is no longer made in England, at any price. But this fabric is made by two of the smallest and most exclusive mills in Europe, which in comparison to other cotton manufacturers, limit their production to about one tenth of commercial suppliers.

[Solid collar patterns- made of wood- which are used in the design of the customer's personal paper pattern.]

Unlike the Jermyn Street or Savile Row norm, there is no minimum order with English Cut. My customers can order only one shirt at a time, if they prefer.

I will then personally take the measurements myself, including discussing your requirements, showing you examples of all the collar and cuff styles, pocket details, and type of cut etc. All very similar to how you'd order a suit from me.

I then indiviudally discuss your requirements with Nigel Sturges at Rayner & Sturges, and once both parties are in accord, Nigel proceeds with the shirt's making.

[Nigel at his desk, customer patterns in the backdground.]

The first step is that their wonderful cutter, who has been in the business all his working life, will draft you an individual shirt pattern, which will be yours and yours alone, to be used and adjusted every time you order again, hopefully for many years to come.

[One of Nigel's shirtmakers.]

Once the pattern is made, the shirt goes into production. The core of craftsmen at Rayner & Sturges will then start to make your shirt, using a combination of hand cutting and individual machine work.

The linings that I have chosen to use in my collars and cuffs very much compliments the "soft" architecture of my suits, which will give the shirt a wonderful appearence of softness and depth, that will improve over time.

This has always been a bug-bear to me: how so many shirt manufacturers have an extremely hard, stretched look to their collars and cuffs, which can not only be uncomfortable, but even more concerning, ends up with an apparent "sameness" in both a £30 shirt and a £150 shirt.

[A butterfly gusset.]

Little details in the production make all the difference. The use of "single needle" work throughout the entire workings of the shirt, as opposed to the far more common (and cheaper) "double needle" mass-produced system. The beautiful "butterfly gusset" at the bottom of the sides. And of course, the highest grade mother-of-pearl buttons, instead of plastic or even the inferior troca pearl buttons.

[Mother of Pearl. Stunning.]

You can easily tell mother-of-pearl by its lovely iridescent colour, which when you compare to plastic, the latter looks dull and yellowy in comparison. This is especially apparent on a a classic white shirt.

Obviously the other details you'd expect will be there. Ten-piece collars, four-piece yokes, matching stripes and patterns, and as the shirt is designed to be worn only by yourself, any other details you may deem important.

In Jermyn Street shirtmaker's parlance, this process is called "Bespoke". However it varies slightly from the bespoke suits of Savile Row, as unlike the latter, there's no need for the customers to have a fitting halfway through the making.

Instead I "straight finish" your first shirt from the details I took at your initial appointment, then courier it to you. After that, I ask you to wear it and launder it a few times, to see how it wears on you. Then we discuss any further alterations that need to be made to your pattern, or to your style details.

Please do not be concerned that your first order can not be altered if it's slightly incorrect. We do have allowances built into the shirt, which we can use if necessary- lengthening sleeves etcetera.

The good news here is, after your first shirt has been deemed perfect for your needs and your happily wearing it, you will have now have an existing "bespoke" pattern available for any future shirts you may wish to order, with all your individuals details and adjustments already worked out. This will make ordering any subsequent shirts in the future extremely easy and efficient. No appointment with me necessary, just drop me an e-mail or phone me up, and I'll put Nigel on the case.

All in all, the time between placing an order and receiving your shirt via courier is about 28 days. The price per shirt is £150 [roughly $260 USD].

All technicalities aside, at the end of the day the most important thing to me and my customers is how these shirts feel. That is the proof of the pudding. This is the train of thought behind my bespoke suits, and now the selection of my shirtmaker.

If have any more questions, feel free to drop me an e-mail. Thank You.

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February 14, 2006

mr. hallbery...

[Click on image to enlarge.]

My teacher, the great Dennis Hallbery, head cutter at Anderson & Sheppard. This photo was taken circa 1990 by my friend, Michael Arter, a trouser-maker at A&S.

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February 7, 2006

brussels february 18th, 2006

[UPDATE:] I will be visiting Brussels on Saturday, February 18th, 2006.

As always, if you wish to make an appointment, please contact me through my usual channels.

I'll be staying at the Jolly Hotel, where I'll also be seeing my customers.

I look forward to seeing you there. Thank you.

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February 2, 2006

english shirts....

[The entrance to Rayner & Sturges Ltd.]

I mentioned earlier that I was on the hunt for the best English shirt made today, to supply to my customers.

Sadly, most of what is purchased in Jermyn Street these days is made in India, Peru or some other distant country, far from England's green and pleasant land. We all know the reasons for this, and I don't have a gripe with it. Everyone deserves to earn a living, and everybody benefits from the lower costs that manufacturing abroad affords them. But all this has made English manufacturing a very tough business to be in.

In spite of that, even if "Englishness" may not matter to everybody, it still matters to me. Having "English Cut" on the label is nice, but I believe "Made In England" is equally important. And if I have to pay extra to have that honour, then so be it. Life is short.

As far as I know there are only a handfull of proper shirtmakers left in the country. They're all producing shirts of exceptional quality, as they must, to survive the high cost of manufacturing here. For example there's Kerry at Russell & Hodge, and Turnbull & Asser, both super companies. But there are others, if you know where to look.

I'm very pleased to announce that I have indeed found a shirtmakers that will more than stand up to my scrutiny, and more importantly, to yours.

To make a long story short, my favourite shirt is one I've owned for over eight years. It still hangs in my wardrobe. It's all dog-eared and worn, because I've enjoyed wearing it so often. Sadly, the label only mentions the retailer who sold it to me, not the actual manaufacturer. The retailer I bought it from went out of business a few years ago, however there was something special about this one, so I kept it around as a reminder of how a real shirt should feel.

When I decided to start selling shirts, I promised myself that this old favourite shirt would be the inspiration. This old shirt embodied everything I was after.

I'm happy to report that after doing some digging and a lot of phone calls later, I finally discovered the manufacturer of the shirt. Rayner & Sturges Ltd, based in England's garden county of Kent, about an hour South of London.

[Nigel Sturges at his desk.]

I initially telephoned Nigel Sturges, and I immediately found him delightful. With a lifetime in the business he was one of the best authorities on shirtmaking alive today. The company was founded in 1913 by his great-grandfather and still occupies its original building.

When I first visited their workshop I was astonished to find such a gem of a company, still producing the best quality shirts available, still here in England.

I won't embarrass the blue-chip Jermyn Street shirtmakers who have at least some of their work done by Nigel, but they are numerous. If you are currently a Jermyn Street customer, the odds of you owning one of Nigel's shirts are remarkably high.

Needless to say, since our first meeting I've really had my eyes opened by Nigel and his colleagues, to this very special craft. All my demands in a shirt were well covered, and surpassed. Also, after spending several days with the company I've learnt some fantastic details which I never knew existed. And don't worry, I am determined that you'll also know all about it by the time I'm done.

[Nigel and myself outside the workshop.]

I shall let you know the full details of how the system will work very soon. But I do feel confident that I'm working with the best. I know a lot of tailors say they're shirtmakers, but more than often they're not. I'm certainly not a shirtmaker, but I will gladly act as a catalyst between my bespoke customers and one of the best shirtmakers in the world. I feel certain that between us we can do a pretty good job, with Nigel doing the making, and myself no slouch with the tape measure. I honestly do think we're going to be able to offer my customers something special that they'll be hard pressed to find anywhere else, including Jermyn Street.

I plan to have the shirtings available in time for my next American visit at the end of this month. Please let me know your thoughts, I would love to know what people think. Thank you.

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Posted by tom at 10:15 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack