The London Lounge

For my next round of shirts, I'm thinking of ordering a couple of casual ones - maybe some linen blends, possibly with square tails so they could be worn untucked, etc.

I saw some of the Loro Piana canvas cloths and they looked great - hardly like Brooks oxfords but with much richer colors.

Has anyone had shirts made from this book? Any comments on the quality?

Thanks,
Cantab

I do -- personally, I think the fabrics are very well made and the colors and designs are quite nice.

Cantabrigian wrote:For my next round of shirts, I'm thinking of ordering a couple of casual ones - maybe some linen blends, possibly with square tails so they could be worn untucked, etc.

I saw some of the Loro Piana canvas cloths and they looked great - hardly like Brooks oxfords but with much richer colors.

Has anyone had shirts made from this book? Any comments on the quality?

Thanks,
Cantab

Please be very careful with Loro Piana shirts. A few months ago I went to look at the new Vicuna range of cloths they brought out, and the salesman was also showing me the swatch books for their MTM shirt service. When I commented unfavourably on the quality (these were S100s perhaps, maybe worse, really unimpressive) he admitted that these were not their own shirtings and that superior fabrics were also offered (at a considerably higher cost). Those better shirtings were adequate. I thought this was one way to capitalise on a brand name and customer ignorance.

The Vicuna fabric is gorgeous, by the by, but pricing is well in the plutocrat league. Also, I would not bet on any degree of durability.

For clarity, LP has five books of shirting fabrics available at all custom shirtmakers in NY. These books are uniformly fabulous. They top out at probably 120s or 140s -- but the contruction of the cloth, the colors and the designs are awesome. The books include a canvas book, a twil book, a poplin book and a linen/cotton book. The fifth book was released later and has new designs that fall into the four categories mentioned above. The weight of all the fabrics is considerably heavier than similar offerings from other fabric sources.

Mr. Smoothjazz, how do the LP linen blends compare, in your opinion, to the Bonfanti linen/cotton (solid colors, limited palette as you know)?

The three linen-cotton blend shirtings I have are LP, Romantina and Bonfanti. The Bonfanti and Romantina fabrics are similar weight and feel. The LP fabrics do not have quite as soft a hand as the other two but are more substantial (as they are heavier) which is great because I have started wearing my linen/cotton blend shirts year round. The colors and designs, as mentioned above, are also quite attractive. Mr. Kabbaz may have a more informed technical perspective to add here.

The range is produced by SIC Tess. A top line producer.

I have a couple of shirts made from LP, and I can vouch that the fabric is excellent. It has the "body" or "heft" that I like as compared to a very soft, limp look.

Even though LP does not make the shirtings I could not imagine it attaching its name to anything except first class goods. I would think that the stripes and plaids are exclusive to them.

LP regularly gets bashed for being overly expensive and underly quality.

I found their clothing appears very well made and though I haven't bought anything major from them, and the Italian tailors have nothing against using their cloth which I found their cloth among the most interesting and fresh, period.

I am sure that their shirting is equally strong. Although again, I am not yet a user.

uppercase wrote:LP regularly gets bashed for being overly expensive and underly quality.

I think this is more their suitings than their shirtings. I have one suit made from their cloth, and I do regret the choice. The design is nice, but the cloth is flimsy.

However, I have the highest respect for their shirtings. I own several of the linen-cottons, and love them. I think they are somewhat overpriced, but I nonetheless prefer them to the other linen-cottons that I have seen, both in terms of weave, color and design.

Is the cloth flimsy and falling apart , or flimsy and not draping nicely?

Some Italian tailors like Caraceni Milano only use English cloth (I think more because of tradition than any other reason) while Caraceni Roma has lots of LP books. Rubinacci also uses LP and actually makes bespoke for the owner.

So I think that the Italian tailors generally like LP for suitings.

As to longevity, I will report back in 6 months. Or less.

On the other hand, I can't recall any shirtmaker, anywhere, using LP shirting although this may be for any number of plausible reasons including marketing exclusivity.

Flimsy and not draping nicely, and it doesn't have a very good hand. It is not falling apart, however, and the suit is now about five years old, I think.

As LP do not seem to weave their own shirtings, one must be very careful what range it is and who supplied it. All I can do is to reiterate my considerable disappointment that shirtings as inadequate as those I was shown by an LP flagship store bore their brand. They had other books that were much better. Still, it is no good to talk about LP, rather one must discuss a specific range or even just a single cloth.

I find this general tendency to slip in some sub-par goods to boost margins by capitalising on the ignorance of the customer disconcerting. I like to deal with people who will not let you leave the shop unless you look good in their product AND unless their product is still going to look good in years to come.

Anything else must ultimately devalue a brand that has cost time and money to build.

Do not confuse the ranges that LP use in the sale of their own MTM program with the range that they market to the trade as part of their textile division. I highly doubt in the MTM range that much of the same quality exists as the MTM prices would be very high. In all probability the range you looked at and bought from was assembled by the outfit who does the MTM. I have found the LP range vastly overpriced but am not quite sure I was being quoted the correct prices. Exclusive or not there are many similar quantities at far better values.