The London Lounge

This morning I had a first fitting with Desmond Merrion. So far, he seems to be as he portrays himself - fairly diligent and careful in his work with a good attention to fit.

I ordered a three piece suit made from a 11-12 oz [1] Charles Clayton nailhead smoothjazz picked up for me on a LL field trip to Tip Top in Brooklyn. It is a straight up the middle type of cloth. Here are some photos of my pattern layout that Des had sent me [2]:



All three pieces were more or less there for try-on, in what I think is called skeleton-baste form - held together largely by basting threads. The trousers, which are to be button fly, had a zipper tacked on for the try-on and were closed for the try-on with a pin. The waistcoat had only half of its back, etc. As a general matter, I was very impressed with his attention to fitting. I won't bore you with the details of the adjustments to be made, but will note that there is, as advertised, some advantage to having the fitter be able to cut and sew on the spot. Des told me that, as luck would have it, I was his worst fit on this trip and the only one where he had to strip down and open the coat and take a scissors to it. As expected, it was a good thing that he does all that in real time. He marked all the changes he wanted to make, took the coat apart and re-sewed it on the fly so I could try it on again while I was there. He couldn't do that with all the changes he wanted to make, as some changes also required pressing and more elaborate cutting.

It is still very hard to see how things will come out in the end at this stage since the suit is pretty unconstructed. The jacket coat is pretty soft, although that too is difficult to tell for sure.

One thing that I thought was interesting is that he uses a bit of fusing - not on the cloth as is typically done with a fused coat, but on the canvas itself. The open edges of one of the seams on the canvas he used tends to fray (it is the springiness of the mohair in the blend that causes the weave to unravel, he says) so he uses a long half-inch strip of fusing to seal the edges where the seam is pressed open. The cut edges of the canvas are not a concern, but he is worried that the fraying could undermine the seam where the canvas pieces are joined (actually a dart, I think). I am always interested in oddities like that.

I won't comment on shape, since it is pretty early to tell, but I will note that his preference is for a relatively clean fit in the front and across the tops of the rear shoulders but with drape at the base of the shoulder blades. We will see how it comes out and how I like it.

Notes:
[1] In my original post, I wrote that the cloth was 14oz. I noticed at the tryon that the cloth felt light to me and this morning I remembered to check my records --- it was 11-12oz. I corrected the original post.
[2] I fixed my Imageshack problems so I added the photos to the post itself instead of linking to the Photojournal.

Dopey, thanks for the report. I look forward to hearing how the suit turns out.

As I got dressed this morning, I noticed something on my Raphael suit that recalled one of Des's questions for me at the fitting. When I was trying on the waistcoat, he asked me about the shape, saying that he noticed that "American Style" waistcoats are more scooped at the armhole than he cuts them and did I prefer that style instead. I noticed that the arm openings on his waistcoat pattern for me was a bit closer to looking like a shirt with the sleeves ripped off than I remembered my vests normally looking but not much. It looked fine to me, and as a general matter, unless I have very specific and definite preferences, I am happy to let tailors impose their idiosyncratic tastes on me. Rather than having everything made for me be the same, the variety gives each bit of clothing some individual identity, some connection to who made it and more interest to me. This morning, I wore my first Raphael suit and noticed that, indeed, the armholes were much more scooped. I haven't checked, but I expect Dege is somewhere in the middle. I also think my Raphael suit, which Des has seen on me, is where he get the "American Style" nomenclature.

As an aside, I also let Des persuade me to eliminate the backstrap on the braceback trousers as they serve no function. Unlike braceless trousers where the sidestraps do something, on bracebacks, the braces do all the work and the strap does nothing useful (Dege happens to default to sidestraps on braceback trousers). We shall see whether I miss the visual cue of the backstrap (or sidestraps) I also was happy to have the trousers lined, which he has a strong preference for. In contrast, Dege never lines them, except once in the case of very heavy Bedford Cords and then only after a long debate William Skinner had with himself (I stayed out of the discussion). I have one pair of RTW trousers that I wish were lined, but in general, I don't care either way. I could be convinced, however, that lining is needed for flannels or soft cloths like high cashmere-content blends as Raphael has argued to me.

More notes to come as I think of them.

I have never had much satisfaction from having trousers with a back strap, and side straps have never worked well for me, either.

I personally prefer a rather "scooped" armhole for a waistcoat, but am not doctrinaire about them. The vested suits I do have which are more scooped tend not to catch at the coat's armholes, however.

Thanks for the report. I placed an order with Desmond yesterday. Two piece 13 oz. charcoal herringbone, minimally lined, neapolitan shoulder and very light canvassing. One button, peaked lapel, flap pockets.

What I thought was particularly interesting was that Desmond asked a lot more detailed questions regarding style and fit than Tom Mahon did. I guess that comes from Tom having more of a house style and Desmond being open to anything. I rather enjoyed it as it felt like I was truly creating something unique and personal.

Also, I absolutely loved the tweed sportcoat Desmond had with him. While I'm still new to all this, it appeared to be perfectly made for Des' proportions and the way the back was shaped was a thing of beauty. And it hadn't even been pressed either! I plan on ordering one like it at the end of the summer.

Here are some photos of the suitcoat in process. These are between the skeleton baste and the forward fitting and you can see how the lining is now in place:


Des and I discussed whether or not the front quarters should be more opened. In Des's voted no for two reasons - his coat quarters are already cut a bit more open than most and also that since my coat is a bit shorter than normal, they wouldn't look right opened further. I compared the pattern on the table with my Dege coat fronts and was surprised to see that his are, in fact, much more open than I thought. Things look much different on a table. We left them as is.

Something I found interesting is how easy it is at this stage to see some of the shaping ironed and sewn into the coat. Instead of being a uniform flat sheet, there are lots of places where the angles and bumps of a three dimensional object are starting to show.