The London Lounge

While in the course of thinking about commissioning a suit from Joe Centofanti in Philadelphia, I ran across this intriguing nugget from the Robb Report about his favored cut:

"My suits have just a flare on the sides to show the waistline. It’s not much, but it gives that sense of a fitted waist,” says Centofanti, who notes that his shape references the British Walker, a lean cut with broad shoulders made famous on Savile Row. “It’s a style that the English lords initiated in my father’s time,” adds the tailor, who, in addition to being trained by the Aloy school, learned the craft from his father and applies his father’s techniques when outfitting today’s aristocrats.

The article is available here: http://www.robbreport.com/Style-A-Tale- ... ilors.aspx.

There’s virtually nothing available electronically on this “British Walker” cut save for perhaps this essay published here a couple of years ago: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6546.

Do any of you sartorial virtuosi have any morsels of knowledge that you might wish to share regarding the British Walker and, relatedly, Joe Centofanti’s favored silhouette?

I wish I could give you more precise help, J. Cogburn, but I have not had a bespoke jacket from Centofanti, though I probably should have. He has altered an Italian RTW jacket for me--one which started out with fairly wide shoulders for the chest, and some waist suppression, though it needed more to fit my drop. During our discussion, Maestro Centofanti enthusiastically referred to the "British Walker" silhouette as a reference for how he would shape the waist. Indeed the result was as good as humanly possible given the limitations of the original garment--armholes too low and too little cloth across the chest--but the shaping of the waist and cupped skirt are lovely. He knows how to use an iron.

I imagine that in the years of his prime, the conservative clientele of Philadelphia probably meant that most of his suits had less shaping and waist suppression than he would have ideally liked--the samples I've seen in his shop were clearly influenced by mid-century American taste--but he once showed me the model and pattern book he used as a student in Torino in the '30s, and it was full of highly sculpted silhouettes, including several with waist seams (many on hunting and military clothes). I suspect like many Italian tailors of his age he formed his conception of elegance on an idea that combined the waisted body coat (I believe the source of the "walker" designation in his father's generation), the easy cloths of English country life, and a version of the drape cut, seasoned with a lighter shoulder. Probably more of his clients were figured like Walter Annenberg than Fred Astaire, however; so no doubt he appreciates the chance to show what he can do shaping cloth.

I heard similar sentiments just recently from Alex Cooke of Poole when I complimented the latest jacket (after considerable work with Philip Parker and Mr. Cooke and coatmaker Roger Duxbury over three jackets at refining the pattern and fitting)--that even though I was picky, it was rewarding for them to be able to take the time to show what they could do with fit and shaping, rather than the customer being in such haste to get the finished garments that the fitting and feedback were skimped. Such people, he observed, would be just as well off going down the street to Syms (a discount outlet in New York) and saving themselves a lot of money.

Maestro Centofanti showed me a few years ago some some interesting construction techniques he developed for reinforcing the fork of trousers; clearly he's been keen to stay abreast of positive developments in the trade, and has been a president of the CTDA. My only hesitations in commissioning a suit from him have been reluctance to invest the time to perfect a pattern with someone who is now 90, and a workmanlike rather than exquisite quality of buttonhole binding and related finishing. It might be that he could find better finishers now, and I really should commission something from him before it's too late. He can't cut his own cloth any more because the shears are too heavy, and I don't know if he still does his own iron work now. He has a bright and personable young apprentice named Joe Genuardi, so perhaps this is not a drawback, but I hesitate. He is a real treasure, and for those who missed it, here's a link to the trailer of Vicky Vasilopoulos's film Men of the Cloth with some fairly recent footage of Centofanti (along with Nino Corvato and others): http://www.menoftheclothfilm.com/trailer.htm

Thanks Couch. Hopefully, he'll still be around this spring when I ask him to give me a 2B Oxford Grey milled worsted. My plan is to compare that product with another to be commissioned from Alan Flusser and then decide which way to take the rest of my wardrobe. Potential wildcard - Bill Field in DC. He specializes in a standard Saville Row cut akin to that found at Poole. I might commission a suit from him if I'm still uncertain after examining the Flusser and Centofanti commissions.