The London Lounge

Being one who aims to maximise the mileage of one's suits, one of the primary considerations I have for my next suit is that it can be worn in the tropics. Although currently in London, I'm looking to return to Singapore in the not-too-distant future, and wish to continue being able to make use of my suits in spite of the daily average temperatures reaching 30 degrees celsius as well as the high humidity over there.

Are there certain cloths that I should be looking at for these purposes (summer kid mohair seems to keep coming up when I trawl through the different online forums), and are unlined suits a feasible idea as well? Would the insides of the suit look something similar to one of Costi's pictures posted below, and is this typically what is referred to as the 'fresco suit'? I would of course like to avoid linen suits, seeing as I would like to have the option of wearing such a suit in colder climes as well (albeit with added layering).

Apologies in advance if a similar topic has already been discussed previously.

My tailor strongly advised me against unlined coats albeit I can`t remember the detailed reason...

Richard, the reason why you don't remember it is that it was a lie. The true detailed reason is that it is awful lot of extra work for the tailor, who has to make clean every single seam on the inside (tape or turn and handsew the edges), which would otherwise be hidden under the lining.
Sartorialist, make no mistake, all-season suits are like all-season tyres: you don't get performance out of them in summer and traction will be poor on snow in winter. Therefore, my advice is to have summer suits made for summer, winter suits made for winter and wear what you please in-between the extreme seasons. That said, summer suits benefit most from the use of porous cloth tailored in unlined jackets and trousers. Porous weaves (that favour ventilation) are made with thicker yarns and the resulting cloth is heavier, too - which is an added benefit as it will tailor, look and behave better. Look for frescoes (fresco is not a type of suit, but rather a type of cloth) - the light gray example above is an excellent London Lounge Cloth Club special issue called "Brisa" -, linen and, yes, mohair.
Detailed discussions on the choice of cloth, construction etc. for summer suits abound on the LL - if you can't find them using the in-built search function (which only returns posts dated after the LL redesign), you may use good old Google typing "site:www.thelondonlounge.net" before the keywords to search for.

Sartorialist, here are some links to relevant threads:
http://www.thelondonlounge.net/forum/vi ... f=2&t=7873
http://www.thelondonlounge.net/forum/vi ... =36&t=5543
http://www.thelondonlounge.net/gl/forum ... f=2&t=5590
http://www.thelondonlounge.net/gl/forum ... f=2&t=5590
http://www.thelondonlounge.net/forum/vi ... =36&t=6606

They should be fun to read and will answer a lot of questions. And raise others, for which we are here to find the answers together with you

No matter what, avoid super number "fine cloths": they will be expensive, wear hot, drape poorly, tailor badly and wear out in no time. Cloth that is woven with very fine yarns must be woven tightly, which means no air passes through it. In spite of it being very thin, it blocks ventilation and it will wear hot. Cloth woven with thicker yarns can be a bit looser (without being flimsy), allowing air circulation.
As far as the construction of the coat is concerned, the chest canvas may be covered with lining (you may use Bemberg, which is cotton, but avoid pure silk which will be hot) or, better, with self cloth facings (as on the coat above), which gives the coat more substance without blocking ventilation. Sleeves are alwas lined so you may slide in and out of the coat easily, as well as shoulder blades and vents, if any. And do have the trousers made unlined, as well.

Costi,

You're a godsend. Thanks for all that invaluable information which I shall slowly but surely peruse.

On a sidenote, speaking of tailoring lies, one of the tailors I met in Singapore offered a fairly ludicrous rationale for offering only fused and not canvassed suits: "the added weight of a canvas, together with the potential of the hairs to prick you, makes for an uncomfortable experience". I'm sure we could start a new thread on this topic altogether, but just couldn't resist mentioning it.

the potential of the hairs to prick you, makes for an uncomfortable experience

I have had a couple of suits which did indeed feel uncomfortable in the chest or shoulder area because of hair (?) coming through the lining. That's not to endorse this particular tailor's claim, mind you. I simply took the suit back to my tailor who had the problem fixed.

The_Sartorialist wrote:Costi,

You're a godsend. Thanks for all that invaluable information which I shall slowly but surely peruse.

On a sidenote, speaking of tailoring lies, one of the tailors I met in Singapore offered a fairly ludicrous rationale for offering only fused and not canvassed suits: "the added weight of a canvas, together with the potential of the hairs to prick you, makes for an uncomfortable experience". I'm sure we could start a new thread on this topic altogether, but just couldn't resist mentioning it.

Hilarious!

Most of my summer coats look very similar to what monsieur Costi is displaying ... The only down side to unlined coats is that they tend to wrinkle easier when you seat on your office chair throughout the day or comfortably on a sofa during the evening.. My tailor use to tell me that lining keeps it a bit more tidy looking but of course he never ever discourage me from having them unlined ...

regards
Vassilis

The true detailed reason is that it is awful lot of extra work for the tailor, who has to make clean every single seam on the inside (tape or turn and handsew the edges), which would otherwise be hidden under the lining.

The unlined coat also requires more fabric.

So a tailor who sells his coat for a fixed price finds himself with additional cost in time and materials that he will have a tough time passing onto a customer who will most likely not understand. The other option is to tell the client that unlined coats are not nice to wear to avoid having to make a coat at a reduced margin. Other tailors may rightfully point out that unlined coats in tweed may be difficult to slide on without lining, and this can be true.

Cheers

M Alden

The_Sartorialist wrote: one of the tailors I met in Singapore offered a fairly ludicrous rationale for offering only fused and not canvassed suits: "the added weight of a canvas, together with the potential of the hairs to prick you, makes for an uncomfortable experience".

And, perhaps, all that needlework just weakens the cloth, while glueing is noninvasive!
These bunglers are really wasted talents - they would make so many small children happy writing fairy tales. That is why we respect and appreciate honest craftsmen.

Hope everyone's had an enjoyable Christmas thus far!

Costi wrote: And, perhaps, all that needlework just weakens the cloth, while glueing is noninvasive!
These bunglers are really wasted talents - they would make so many small children happy writing fairy tales. That is why we respect and appreciate honest craftsmen.

Apparently it was Coca-Cola who had invented Santa Claus, but upon reflection, could it have been a tailor?

Going back to the topic of unlined suits for summer, I wonder if anyone out there (Costi, Alden?) would be able and kind enough to post pictures depicting the internal unlined jacket designs (in addition to the one above) that their tailors had produced? While traipsing around the streets today, I came across a couple of interesting variations from Paul Smith and Canali's Kei jacket, but thought it might raise a few eyebrows if I started snapping pictures of the jacket's insides, and thus refrained from doing so.

Granted, the latter is a very unstructured garment and its design is probably not quite suited (sorry, I couldn't help myself) for the construction of what is intended to be a canvassed unlined summer suit, but it would nevertheless be useful to be armed with sufficient ideas / knowledge, before my attempt to commission one with a new tailor.

Anyone who has any other comments are welcome to pipe up too, I'm all ears...

Having browsed some of the fresco fabrics on offer, the 2 books that have caught my eye are Dugdale's Cape Breeze and H&S's Crispaire. Does anyone have any comments about suits commissioned with either of these fabrics?

Brisa

Reviving an old thread here, but I decided to take a risk and go with Dugdale's Cape Breeze, in the following:



...replete with buggy lining no less, now it's just a matter of waiting...

I have had my eye on that book for a while, the designs and colours are very interesting and Dugdale's prices are quite reasonable. It is a very light fabric, so I would be interested to hear from you about (a) drape and (b) transparency, when your receive your buggy-lined jacket back from your tailor. Good luck!