The London Lounge

After a very difficult year, I decided to reward myself with the acquisition of a decidedly unusual cloth. The cloth is an English all cotton variant on the famous woolen 'Solaro' (TM) cloth. I believe Smith Woolens, London, owns the rights to the Solaro trade name. I have always wondered what mill makes it.

That said, Mr. Smoothjazz led me to look into Carnet's (Italy) range of an all cotton version. it comes in 3 different patterns, the plain gabardine-like pattern appealed to me, instead of the two herringbone designs. The cloth is 8-9 ounces Made in England, and the selvage reads: Sun Cloth, see the photos attached.

The tailor received the cloth for a suiting length, but identified what looked like oil stains, at regular intervals. So, another length was requested. The same defect was found. At that point Carnet, identified the entire bolt as having the same defect!

Carnet has no immediate plans to repeat the cloth. A shame.


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A bit of follow up on this cloth: Carnet supplied another 3 meters, and the tailor felt he could make the two piece suit with the total of 6 meters. When I have time I will post photos. The suit is rather heavy, but unless you touch the cloth you cannot distinguish it from the "plain" (gabardine twill) Solaro from Smith's. The cloth has the unmistakable Solaro irridescence, although a bit muted compared to the woolen version. It turned out that the entire run of this cloth that Carnet had was stained repetitively in the same fashion.

Anyone going to Como might want to make them an offer on some of this cloth. It is really unusual.