Jermyn St the peking order of shirtmakers

[mathew]

All the fabrics displayed on the Emma Willis web site are by Alumo.

[Concordia]

From Alumo, the cloths you seek are called "Soyella" (2x2 170s) and "Soyella Deuxieme" (2x2 200s).

I haven't dared get those yet-- I need to lay down more basics before wallowing in such shameless luxury-- but the Soyella 170 is indeed beautiful. Maybe next year.

[TVD]

They can be a wise investment. In certain situations, the feel of a superfine fabric has a most welcome effect on the person touching it. Works best in combination with generous helpings of Champagne.

On that note, while the Alumo stuff is good, nothing I know can beat the hand of a S200s twill from D & J Anderson / Albini.

[mathew]

My Dear Monsieur Kabbaz, your French is going to rubbish. Deuxieme means "second," no? Isn't Duecento of the Italian language the name you seek?

(Running for cover)

[T4phage]

They can be a wise investment. In certain situations, the feel of a superfine fabric has a most welcome effect on the person touching it. Works best in combination with generous helpings of Champagne.

On that note, while the Alumo stuff is good, nothing I know can beat the hand of a S200s twill from D & J Anderson / Albini.

Ah, but the wrinkling.......

[TVD]

The wrinkling is usually made even worse by the behaviour one's company dispalys after touching a S200s shirt.

I must observe, however, that the twill weaves wrinkle far less than poplin.

[Dorian271]

Has anyone expirience with Ede&Ravenscroft shirts?

[TVD]

Only the ready to wear, which are all right, cannot recall why I bought one.

They do bespoke in Chancery Lane, and their shirtmaker there has a rather good reputation. But I never tried them out.

[AlexanderKabbaz]

On that note, while the Alumo stuff is good, nothing I know can beat the hand of a S200s twill from D & J Anderson / Albini.

The history is thus: Alumo, then Albrecht & Morgan, debuted Soyella 170s in 1983 or 1984. I honestly don't remember if it was shuttle loomed, but I believe so. At the time ... and for quite some time to follow, Soyella (which hadn't yet been named Soyella - it was known simply by its Stock # 425) was the World's premier shirt fabric. I remember it well beause, during the ensuing five years, I took great pleasure in seeing the astonished looks on my clients' faces as I converted the vast majority from 120s to the new cloth. Their orders for three and four shirts were rapidly followed by frantic crys for a dozen more. Shortages were common - I remember going more than three months with no white in 1985.
After their restructuring (or maybe it was during it), the now-called Alumo tried to make history again by issuing sample cuts of Stock #426 ... a 200s 2x2. But they mucked it up. Packed it too tightly with a much too high yarn count. Thin? Yes. Light? Yes. Supple? About as supple as a sheet of teakwood. About a year later, they tried again with Stock #427. Much better this time. But around that time, Albini came out with their 200s. I suspect they learned from the misadventures of Alumo and their first distributed offerings were top-notch. They also added on the twill 200s noted above by TVD. With the hand of the 200s ... but much less wrinkle prone due to the twill weave ... he is right that this is a cloth to die for.
Then came 2006. I haven't quite figured out what the heck Alumo did to this year's new crop of 200s broadcloths. But it leaves the Albini offerings waaay back in the dust. The hand is absolutely incomparable. I have not ever felt anything like it and, in the high-yarn-number contest, it has far outclassed Albini. Bear in mind that I'm talking a difference something like between 23kt and 23.5kt gold. Neither of these are anything to sneeze at. But this year, Alumo is definitely taking home the trophy.
The only downside - and it is only from my p.o.v. as a maker - is that the new Alumo's are really slippery as all get-out. Working with them is proving a tremendous challenge but the results are well-worth the extra effort.

My Dear Monsieur Kabbaz, your French is going to rubbish. Deuxieme means "second," no? Isn't Duecento of the Italian language the name you seek?

(Running for cover)

And now for you, Mr. Mathew. You'd better run for cover!
Here's the scoop.
My French is not going to rubbish. It has always been rubbish. You are correct that Soyella Duecento is their title and I flubbed it badly. But for the rest of you, here's the whole story about Mathew's sudden expertise with this particular fabric title.
When the Alumo shipment arrived, storage problems were an issue. On a temporary basis, we had to store the entire 3000 meter order in the spare studio building bedroom. The night before the Sartorial Excellence show, Mathew came to visit. Naturally, he stayed in the spare bedroom ... with all the newly arrived gems from Alumo. Somehow, when I went to clean the room next day, I noticed that all of the Duecento tags had fingerprints on them and the bolts of (slightly wrinkled) fabric were arranged in a 6' rectangle on the floor. Seemed strange to me ... until I noticed that the bed had not been slept in.

And as if that weren't enough, our aspiring bespoke shirtmaker went to even further lengths to pave the road for his future. But I'll save the delicious cakes he baked for Joelle and I in an underhanded attempt to make my entire shirt wardrobe no longer fit properly tale for another day.

[TVD]

It seems I need to get hold of the Alumo swatch book. Reports have reached me from London that indeed they are most impressive right now.

I am also being told that S.I.C. Tess is not sleeping. Any inside view?

On a slightly different matter, I always found the S200s (fake) Oxfords a bit de trop. What is the best traditional Oxford fabric? I know Emma Willis stocks some silk Oxford like fabric, but I do not know who weaves it. They say its exclusive to them.

[bry2000]

Thanks for the post, Alex. In your view, how do the SIC Tess fabrics compare with those from Alumo? Thanks.

[Concordia]

I tried to get something going with T&A so that I might diversify. (I also like their fabrics). After three utter failures at a sample shirt, I got a nice letter from their Chief Financial Officer suggesting that I might be happier at another firm.

That about sums it up. You reached the financial break even line and that would have made a less stellar quarterly report. Worry not! That the stripes don't match. It is more important to insure the proper "beat last year" graph.

Reflect on that for a moment if you would. One of the oldest, most venerable British bespoke firms. One which for years carried the HRH warrant. Disgusting.

I'm glad that your standards are high enough to keep you out of messes like this, although I'd put a different spin on the situation than you did. In this debacle, we had the man in New York (a very accomodating and expert salesperson), the cutter in London (who has probably done good work for a lot of other people), and maybe some third person in the workroom. They go to it. Sample one, not too good. Sample two (with the model of an elderly shirt from my closet provided to check body measurements) also not good, maybe worse. Third try, different set of problems. In no case was the person making my shirt able to see the result of his work live and in person.

My take is that somebody needed to step in and stop the slide into further embarrassment, and it was logical for that person to be the guy cutting checks-- presumably also senior in the company hierarchy to the abovementioned shirt guys. I can only imagine the conversation: "This is getting ridiculous. I'm putting a stop to this before you make us look even worse. No commission for you in New York, and early to bed with no dessert for you in London. "

I wasn't kidding about the letter, BTW. It really was very nice, and as it contained the words "mutual agony" I have no doubt that it was intended to signify a strategic retreat on their part. Too bad-- I'm not an uncritical admirer of their styling choices, but their fabrics and buttons are really very nice.

[TVD]

Some of their stripes are exclusive to T&A. They also get a lot from Albini (Thomas Mason / D&J Anderson). Maybe you should have a look at their bunches.

[AlexanderKabbaz]

Thanks for the post, Alex. In your view, how do the SIC Tess fabrics compare with those from Alumo? Thanks.

Disclaimer: General Motors makes Cavaliers and Cadillacs. Such is the case with many weaving houses. S.I.C. Tessuti is one house which weaves cloth, not solely for its own account, but for others who market the fabric under their own name.

My longest SIC Tess experience is with their 140s striated "French" voile. This is a cloth which I have worked with since the early 1980s. It was made by request beginning shortly after the famous French house, Hubert Dupon, was taken over by Dupon's son and run into the ground in something under two years. Of all of the voiles woven until a couple of years ago, this was by far my favorite. I must confess to owning at least two dozen shirts and, for many of my Southern clients, this is their staple shirt. More recently, Alumo released a line of 170s voiles which significantly outclass the SIC Tess offerings.

About 2-3 years ago, SIC Tess shuttle loomed a series of 36" cloths - broadcloths and twills - which were also top-of-class. They were never as fine as the Alumo high-count broadcloths and certainly no match for Alumo's current crop, my opinion of which has been stated above.

A word to the wise: Very recently a couple of mills discussed in this thread and elsewhere have been implicated in a somewhat nefarious plot to lower the cost of a certain famous reseller's shirtings by mimicing the original line with a same-yarn-number but lower-yarn-count imitation. Please don't ask for more specifics in thie regard, when I have incontrovertable evidence rather than spoken testimony I shall be more forthcoming. Until then, I plan to stick with Alumo and Albini as well as Bonfanti goods furnished to me by clients.

In this debacle, we had the man in New York (a very accomodating and expert salesperson), the cutter in London (who has probably done good work for a lot of other people), and maybe some third person in the workroom. They go to it. Sample one, not too good. Sample two (with the model of an elderly shirt from my closet provided to check body measurements) also not good, maybe worse. Third try, different set of problems. In no case was the person making my shirt able to see the result of his work live and in person.

My take is that somebody needed to step in and stop the slide into further embarrassment, and it was logical for that person to be the guy cutting checks-- presumably also senior in the company hierarchy to the abovementioned shirt guys. I can only imagine the conversation: "This is getting ridiculous. I'm putting a stop to this before you make us look even worse. No commission for you in New York, and early to bed with no dessert for you in London. "

I wasn't kidding about the letter, BTW. It really was very nice, and as it contained the words "mutual agony" I have no doubt that it was intended to signify a strategic retreat on their part.

With all due respect, I reject this approach. I contend that there was no mutual agony - at least not for the surface reasons. In my opinion, this is simply unacceptable. Here is why:
Turnbull is an old-line, widely respected firm which trades on a huge reputation. The average view among the general non-LL population is that T&A is the "top of the mountain". They should take responsibility and go to whatever lengths necessary to fit a client, even if that means not profiting on the first order. That may require the cutter making semi-annual trips to the New York shop. Whatever it takes, issuing a missive from a top officer telling you, in effect, that you are not worth the bother is simply unacceptable.
I rarely, if ever, break even on the first order of a new client and sometimes not even on the second. The proper place of a bespoke shirtmaker is to base their business plan on long-term, satisfied clients. If a firm has not the desire and/or has not the ability, then perhaps the charade is finished and they should look for other arenas - such as RTW - in which to trade on their reputation.

[Concordia]

If I were running T&A, I'd be pretty POd at either the people or the production system that made such screwups possible. It does not bespeak a world-class operation to fail to do what can be done at least in a half-baked way by any number of Hong Kong competitors. I never liked Ascot Chang shirts, but they never got my chest measurement wrong by well over two inches.

Looking at the problem from my selfish end, I am happy not to be left waiting for delivery of a good that doesn't exist. I would have preferred a half-dozen fabulous shirts, of course. [Some high school basketball player in New Orleans might well be thrilled today with the samples I passed on to GoodWill.] Still, it is far worse to have someone keep insisting "sure, we can do that" when in fact they cannot. The only cost to me in this adventure was the temporary absence of $300, and a couple of side trips to 57th Street. Could have been a lot worse. The Darren case springs to mind.

If I had believed the press on T&A implicitly, I would be utterly shattered. In case you hadn't gathered, however, I am enough of a cynic to know that most people and institutions fall short a lot of the time, and therefore to be delighted when they don't. My investment in this exercise was intentionally limited, and life is too short to pull a Voldemort every time a purchase doesn't work out.

Your last paragraph does point up the real source of the problem-- as a practical matter, in the US anyway, T&A isn't in the bespoke business. Not the whole way, at any rate.