The London Lounge

One of these days, I shall post pictures of what my wife calls my "Sherlock Holmes" suit, a three piece made in a John G. Hardy Alsport houndstooth, in beige/brown with an orangey overcheck, a lot like this, actually:



A strong , not to say bold, pattern, as I am sure you will agree. It is not quite so vivid in the flesh, however. The cloth reference no longer appears on the J.G. Hardy website. It was either 16 or 19 oz. Has it been discontinued?

It sees very little wear unfortunately, as my Dear Wife seems to have taken a most unreasonable and unjustified dislike of it. My sons will probably cherish it as a heirloom and perhaps wear it as well, as long as they remain single .

Frog in Suit

Dear FiS,
Surely, your sons would need to remain single, since they could not, possibly, both get into the same suit at once?
NJS

storeynicholas wrote:Dear FiS,
Surely, your sons would need to remain single, since they could not, possibly, both get into the same suit at once?
NJS

I shall arrange my testamentary dispositions in such a way that they can (no, they have to) wear it on alternate days . I may call on you, as a lawyer, to make it ironclad, when the time comes.

Frog in Suit

Frog in Suit wrote:One of these days, I shall post pictures of what my wife calls my "Sherlock Holmes" suit...

I am looking forward to this day, FiS. It would be a good opportunity to give your Sherlock Holmes suit a wear. In order to preclude future legal suits, bequeath one of your sons a Dr Watson suit.

storeynicholas wrote:Dear FiS,
Surely, your sons would need to remain single, since they could not, possibly, both get into the same suit at once?
NJS

This one made me chuckle!

I shall arrange my testamentary dispositions in such a way that they can (no, they have to) wear it on alternate days Razz . I may call on you, as a lawyer, to make it ironclad, when the time comes.

Shouldn't you dictate that they wear it on every other day, so as to give the garment a bit of rest?

Mr. Alden, this is a lovely suit, that offers much of its charm by its texture. The scarf is also beautiful. I have a deep desire to acquire some tweed suits, but I have decided to hold off in favour of other purchases, given my sub-tropical surrounds. One day though...

Dear all,

I had promised (or is it threatened?) to share pictures of a tweed suit, so here it is. It is about twenty years old and has seen very little wear. It was altered two (?) years ago because I could not get into it anymore. The work was done by a local alteration tailor, a very conscientious man, but not by any means a specialist of men's suits (He used to work in women's RTW). I don't think he would want to redo the sleeves, which are now much too short. I have tried to stand naturally. The colour of the full pictures is a much better approximation of the close-up of the sleeve, which I include only to show the pattern. The cloth is a John G. Hardy Allsport, reference unknown, possibly a 19 oz., now discontinued I think. If I had to do it again, I would not have slanted pockets. My Dear Wife calls it my "Sherlock Holmes" suit, not a compliment I am afraid.











Best regards,

Frog in Suit

Very fine, Monsieur, very fine indeed. A suit in gunclub can be very chic. BTW, Basil Rathbone (the original Holmes) looked pretty smart in tweeds!

Thanks for the pics

Michael

I don't see why it attracts such opprobrium from your family - after all, do you tell them what to wear? I had a sports' coat made of exactly this pattern around the same time.
NJS

Thank you both for your comments, which I shall use to good purpose within the (ahem) family circle .

I have seen one or two photographs of Evelyn Waugh wearing suits in the same vein, presumably from Anderson and Sheppard:







Question: Would you describe the cloth of my suit as a gunclub, rather than a houndstooth?

Best,

Frog in Suit

Yes, it is a gunclub.

The gunclub and houndstooth are very similar, the former is a 6x6 and the latter a 4x4.

Michael Alden

alden wrote:Yes, it is a gunclub.

The gunclub and houndstooth are very similar, the former is a 6x6 and the latter a 4x4.

Michael Alden

What do the numbers ("6x6" and "4x4") refer to?

The John G. Hardy site refers to this pattern (which seems very similar to mine, except for the colour scheme) as a "dog tooth check":

.

The following (Alsport 9966) is even closer to my suit. It does not appear on the website any longer and must have been discontinued:



Are those two patterns "gunclubs" then?

With apologies for my ignorance
Thank you for enlightening me.

Frog in Suit

The left and right lapels seem to roll down to different levels - is that an artifact of the picture?

JDelage wrote:The left and right lapels seem to roll down to different levels - is that an artifact of the picture?

There is a slight difference (pressing after the alterations were done? I am not even sure that the roll originally went beyond the first button), made worse by the way I stand.

Frog in Suit

alden wrote:Yes, it is a gunclub.

The gunclub and houndstooth are very similar, the former is a 6x6 and the latter a 4x4.

Michael Alden

What would the numbers (6x6 and 4x4) refer to? I thought, mistakenly, that gunclub referred to a pattern made up of plain perpendicular stripes, and houndstooth had those complex shapes with indentations (for lack of a better description) as in the two patterns I illustrated earlier.

Thank you for your explanation.

Frog in Suit

A houndstooth colour and weave effect is produced with a combination of 4 and 4, or 8 and 8, threads of contrasting colours in the warp crossed with similar wefts and woven in a 2 and 2 twill to form a jagged check. The gunclub is the same except it is a 6 and 6 color combination woven in a 2 x 2 twill.

M Alden