The London Lounge

I'd like to include characteristics of the drape cut (as explained by Manton in his new book) in my next bespoke suit project. My bespoke suits now have somewhat narrow shoulders and are quite fitted.

The new coat will have no shoulder padding and have high and small armholes. Here are some questions that I need help with:

- How wide should the shoulders be? Should the coat sleeve head start about a half inch beyond my deltoid bone?

- How high and small should the armhole be? 1" below the underarm? Is there any guidance on the circumference of a small armhole?

- How full is full enough across the chest and back? I need to be more precise than just saying "full" to my tailor.

- Should the jacket be lengthened a bit to give a leaner silhoutte given the wider shoulders and fuller chest and back?

- Are the front panels of the jacket supposed to be slightly longer than the back panel? If so, by how much?

FYI, I am 5'10" and 170lbs. Thanks.

Kolecho, I wish that I could provide more technical answers to your questions. There is an old bespoke-buyer admonition to "buy the house style" because tailores hew to what they know and are often not sucessful at exeperimentaion. This is not a lack of skill or vision, it comes from the fact that the final suit enveloping you body is the product of every small decision. Asking a tailor to really change a style might require him to rethink and approach every task from pattern, to cutting, to construction of the canvassing, etc. This might require them to rework a lifetime's acquired work habits and assumptions.

If you want a drape-cut suit to be sucessful, you need to find a cutter who specializes in this. I believe that you could get a harder tailor to soften a jacket up by reducing canvassing and naturalizing shoulders, but when you try and influence arm-hole and "cut" you have moved into the black arts of tailoring and I do not think verbal instructions will make much difference. Like any other jacket, the drape cut is all about balance and the cutter needs to see this in the pattern and craft and sculpt the jacket from it.

Unless you have a tailor who is wildly enthusiastic about going in a new direction, I'd probably feel more conforable finding a tialor who specializes in the drape cut. From England, consider A&S and their accolytes, Steed, Hitchcock, & Mahon. I'm sure other gentlemen can fill out the list with some US/NYC based tailors.

DDM