The London Lounge

Hello,

I am in need of advice here. This is first time I am going bespoke in linen.
Now I am thinking about DIY simple in-house anti-shrinkage/sanforization, i.e soaking, drying, steam ironing fabric lengths at home before bringing it to tailor.
Is it smart thing to do? If anyone here got experience or even theoretical knowledge of submerged rocks in this process?
Suits will be very casual. Jackets unlined (okay may be one of them quarter lined if tailor insist)
Fabrics I am thinking : W Bill Irish linen 380 gr and Harrison's Mersolair 350 gr.

Would also appreciate advice of gentlemen who has experience with these fabrics and can compare with LL' "The BANK quality heavyweight linen"
Which one would be your choice?

Thank you.
Alex.

Viator wrote: Now I am thinking about DIY simple in-house anti-shrinkage/sanforization, i.e soaking, drying, steam ironing fabric lengths at home before bringing it to tailor.
Is it smart thing to do?

Dear Alex,

not smart. Or do you insist in peeling the carrots yourself before ordering a salad in a restaurant?

Viator wrote:Suits will be very casual. Jackets unlined (okay may be one of them quarter lined if tailor insist)

May I recommend that you find a tailor before you put too much thought into the design of your first suit? And honestly, my first suit would not be in linen - although I love the cloth. Your first 2-3 suits should be standard, boring business suits in a grey or blue worsted cloth. Start with basic every day suits, not with things you would wear once or twice a month. Begin with a Mistral quality from the LL, or a standard 13oz cloth. You will be grateful forever. And if a suit is too formal, get a tweed coat and flannel trousers.

Cheers, David

davidhuh wrote:... I recommend that you find a tailor before you put too much thought into the design of your first suit....Your first 2-3 suits should be standard, boring business suits in a grey or blue worsted cloth.
Cheers, David

Thank you David.
This is precious indeed advice for those who start building wardrobe. Well, I am not wearing my worsted charcoal and navy anymore.
To clarify: this is my first bespoke venture into LINEN.
And I am happy with my cutter. I would risk to argue with my surgeon but not tailor.

Still, any different opinion from those gentlemen who also don't like starch-like sheen of new heavy linen fabric?

I too would like to hear from any fabric experts on this. I always had the impression that linen is meant to launder particularly well but...

I guess once the suit is made up, it would be dry-cleaned, right?

Dry cleaning can probably also make it shrink, and there are always those thunderstorms to worry about.

My guess is that a wash & dri followed by a pressing would make it somewhat more immune to abuse down the road. Certainly, I did that for a length of Nantucket Red cotton (Murray's). Even that might not have been enough, but it did provide a little pre-break-in.

Yesterday I received in the post hymo canvas, horsehair canvas and linen under collar cloth. I soaked it over night and this morning let it drip for a few hours, then put it all in the dryer on high for an hour. This definitely pre-shrinks and takes any stiffness or starch. You can do this with any linen but it does change the hand and you will end up with a bit less cloth. After this steam press the linen on the off side. I don’t do it with linen suiting, however. I shrink it and let it dry flat on a table or the floor.

old henry wrote:....You can do this with any linen but it does change the hand .....

Thank you, Sir! You are tailor, so I am relieved of this unpleasant sinking sensation of doing wrong thing. Home Shrunk then.

I lukewarm washed my heavy Irish linen Rota trousers few times. They did not shrink at all. No deformation.
They lost this slightly unnatural look and feel of new fabric and developed softer hand. I like it. A lot. This non-costumee look of man living in his convenient clothing. I bought these from NoManWalksAlone. And they are nice pants. When I asked owner and proprietor Greg his answer was
QUOTE
Unfortunately, Rota is very secretive about the fabrics they use. They never tell what the mill is (unless is Loro Piana, because prices are much more $$), and don't want to tell us what the references are.
UNQUOTE
What a shame..

Do you have and experience with these fabrics: my four candidates for relaxed summer linen suit: LL Bank 255g (it's call "heavy suiting" at 7.5oz/yd2), W Bill's Irish Linen 380g, Harrison's Mersolair 350g, Caccioppoli 300g?
I would appreciate if you can comment/ advise on these.

Harrison’s is mediocre

Viator wrote: Fabrics I am thinking : W Bill Irish linen 380 gr and Harrison's Mersolair 350 gr.

Would also appreciate advice of gentlemen who has experience with these fabrics and can compare with LL' "The BANK quality heavyweight linen"
Which one would be your choice?

I've coats in special edition LL Linen and Mersolair and a suit in the W Bill. I'll shortly be commissioning a suit in Bank having seen the circulating book.

If I needed to rank them, the LL would be Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, W Bill the Hairy Lemon and Mersolair I'm afraid is the equivalent of Taco Bell.

LL linen is the absolute best. And no bench tailor would disagree.

Viator wrote:

old henry wrote:....You can do this with any linen but it does change the hand .....

Thank you, Sir! You are tailor, so I am relieved of this unpleasant sinking sensation of doing wrong thing. Home Shrunk then.

Dear Viator,

my point was - why would you do this yourself, when using a bespoke tailor? I expect him to do a proper job and I'm happy to pay for it.

Cheers, David

I agreed %100 David. Your “pealing your own carrots in the restaurant” was perfect. I wouldn’t let my customer do it but let him have fun.

I just noticed the ticket on my LL SSG2 linen says washed. BTW I should be finally picking my sports coat in it up from the tailor next week.