The London Lounge

Hi, I hope it is not bad form to flood the forum with questions as a newcomer. I have been browsing for a while but have been motivated to start posting by circumstances. I capriciously decided yesterday morning to make my first bespoke order. This despite the fact that I can pretty much walk to SR from my home in London and am making the aforementioned order while on holiday in my former hometown of Sydney.

I thought that I had it all figured out but when actually presented with the responsibility of determining every detail I realised that I was not as confident on these matters as I thought I was.

Apart from the waistcoat questions (posted separately), I have a few questions to which I would appreciate any thoughts.

By way of background, I am having two suits made. One is a double breasted two-piece in prince of wales check (light grey with mauve) and the other is a navy three-piece with narrowly-spaced royal blue stripes.

I am having braces/high waist on both at the moment but now have two concerns. I am having second thoughts about the DB and think it might be a bit more elegant to just have a daks belt (i.e. waist fastening device, not an actual belt). Any thoughts? Also, is there the same belt-and-braces inelegance about having both a daks belt and braces on the 3-piece?

Secondly, I asked my tailor if he had any other interesting ideas and he said that on a recent trip to Italy he had observed a trend amongst the cognoscenti for having coloured (but reasonably discrete) stitching on the bottom buttonhold on the sleeves. He suggested I might like to have mauve stitching to match the mauve in the cloth on the DB suit. I agreed but am now having second thoughts as this might be a little too showy. I don't want this to look like a "footballer's suit" after all.

Finally, I remember reading something about the placing of pockets on DB suits (6:2, by the way) but couldn't find it. Is there anything I should be asking for here?

My own sense is that unless you are dealing with very light weight fabric, trousers will look a lot better with braces. And under a DB jacket, why not?

The mauve stitching is something that will always mark it as yours and be a nice souvenir of a bespoke experience. Whether you want your souvenirs to be on view every time you wear the suit over the next 10 years is your call. I probably wouldn't.

Sammyo77 wrote:I am having braces/high waist on both at the moment but now have two concerns. I am having second thoughts about the DB and think it might be a bit more elegant to just have a daks belt (i.e. waist fastening device, not an actual belt). Any thoughts? Also, is there the same belt-and-braces inelegance about having both a daks belt and braces on the 3-piece?

Trousers tend to hang and drape better with braces...and in a DB, you would never have to unbutton your coat, so the braces would never be exposed in public...If you are shy to show your braces even amongst company you know - like your office, I would recommend that you order the suit with a vest. I have these on my suits where possible, and can take off my coat in the warmish office without showing my braces.

I am also with Concordia on the mauve stitching...err on the side of tradition rather than fashion.

For the DB, I would suggest you read the materials on DB stance, button positioning andd pocket positioning in the Lounge. Enjoy!

Thank you both.

I chickened out of braces for the DB in the end (though retained them on the SB). It was more the light fabric (both colour and weight - it is a lightish grey, super 120, 9oz from Dormeuil) that convinced me just to have the side tabs and no braces and I'm not really after a vest with a DB just yet.

I also ditched the mauve stitching.

I like all of your final choices.

Sammyo77 wrote:
Secondly, I asked my tailor if he had any other interesting ideas and he said that on a recent trip to Italy he had observed a trend amongst the cognoscenti for having coloured (but reasonably discrete) stitching on the bottom buttonhold on the sleeves. He suggested I might like to have mauve stitching to match the mauve in the cloth on the DB suit. I agreed but am now having second thoughts as this might be a little too showy. I don't want this to look like a "footballer's suit" after all.

Interesting... John Cutler suggested that? It is a surprising for someone Savile Row trained as he.

John told me about some travels to Italy as well, so I assume it is he you refer to.

http://www.cutterandtailor.com/forum

Not Cutler. It was at Zink. But it was Jones's son. When we mentioned it to Jones when I met him the next day he just laughed and said "no, we won't be going for that".

ok, ok, I may feel a need to be different but I have had some things made with stitching matches some stripe in the fabric or something-I have done it with some suits and do it all the time with shirts.
It will date the suit and I wouldn't suggest it to start but if you have a lotttttttttttttttt of suits-why not?

There's nothing wrong with the combination proposed. Many vintage trousers came with both brace buttons and the buttonable version of the adjustible side closures.

But an elastic self-adjustible version of the side closures would defeat one of the purpose of wearing braces; wearing in great comfort a pair of pants with a waistband looser than one's waistline.

As a better alternative, consider commissioning two pairs of pants: one with braces (and without cuffs); and, the other with belt loops and/or simply elastic or buttonable adjustible side closures (a.k.a., the Daks?) (with cuffs).

In fact, nowadays, I would ask for a 5-peice set when I commission my suits - SB jacket with notch lapels, DB jacket with peak lapels, SB waistcoat, braced pants without cuffs, and trousers with cuffs and belt loops, since prices have become so much cheaper. Of course, those are not the only possibilities, but its more feasible than going back later for one of the missing pieces when the tailor's stock is gone.

Sammyo77 wrote: ...<snip>...
I am having braces/high waist on both at the moment but now have two concerns. I am having second thoughts about the DB and think it might be a bit more elegant to just have a daks belt (i.e. waist fastening device, not an actual belt). Any thoughts? Also, is there the same belt-and-braces inelegance about having both a daks belt and braces on the 3-piece?
...<snip>...