The London Lounge

So with a huge thank you to everyone who advised me on this wonderful forum I finally took the plunge and commissioned my first bespoke suit.

After searching high and low and taking everything from reputation, price and personality into consideration, I finally decided to give Graham Browne near St Paul's in the City of London a try. I had read good reviews here and in other blogs and tailor Russell Howarth seemed to tick all the boxes.

Following the advice I had gleaned here I wrote a long list of all the things I felt I wanted in my first bespoke commission and took it with me (See the last post in the 'What do you ask you tailor?' thread). This was very good advice because as a novice my mind completely went blank the moment I entered the shop.

Graham Browne was running a Blog readers pre New Year VAT hike sale and I was able to find the perfect fabric from the books that were part of this promotion. I selected a dark grey 11oz fabric - it did have a specific name but as I said my mind went blank and I neglected to it down (i'll make a note when I'm next in) I went for an 11oz fabric as I don't need to wear a suit everyday and I travel to Los Angeles a great deal so I didn't want anything too heavy. This dark grey fabric was combined with a dark blue lining material - more a dark royal blue rather than a navy and finished off with Graham Browne's own striped sleeve lining fabric for the sleeves and trousers.

I am having a single breasted, two button jacket made for me. The jacket has two side vents and two slanting flapped pockets. I had originally intended to go for straight but changed my mind whilst looking at examples with Russell. I am also getting slighting built up shoulders, I feel they will complement my frame better and balance my large head!

I am having the inside ticket pocket enlarged and with the addition of a button it will become the perfect home for my iphone. Russell did mention that one of his jacket makers when reading that he needed to make a Blackberry pocket called to inquire how big a bunch of blackberries needed to be accommodated...

The trousers will be single pleated with turn-ups. I am having a somewhat high waist with DAKs adjusters, zipped fly (I toyed with buttons but practicality won out) slanted front pockets, the right having an internal coin pocket and two rear pockets - yes I know that you are supposed to only have one but I worked out I really would use both of them.

I must say I throughly enjoyed the entire process. From choosing the fabrics to discussing the style and details. Even the measuring was pleasant despite the fact that I am certainly carrying a few extra seasonal pounds!

I have asked for the suit to be ready for the second week of February and I should get a call for my first fitting in a couple of
weeks.

I'll keep you abreast of my progress and once again many thanks to all the members of the forum whose help and advice has brought me this far.

Great minds think alike - I ordered two suits from Graham Browne at their special offer price. They were not originally my first choice, but they recently started offering handsewn buttonholes and were substantially cheaper than the alternatives with the discount. The final thing that swung the decision in their favour was that I'd seen more successful examples of their work than from any other off-row tailor.

I got two suits, both from the Dugdale Town Classics (14oz) book - 9446 and 9443 with very conservative matching linings. They sound similar to yours - single breasted, double vented, two straight pockets. Double 'English' pleated trousers, braces buttons and side adjusters, two slanted trouser pockets and no rear pockets, plain hem and button fly. One change pocket in the waistband. 1 1/8" handsewn buttoniere.

I wore an old Chester Barrie suit in and asked Russell to work from that - other than that there was very little discussion on the detail of the fit, nothing about shoulder pads. Mind you, I presume a lot of that will occur at the baste fitting. Indeed, I was surprised about how quick the whole process was - a dozen measurements or so and confirmation of the details above and we were done!

Please post photos when you both take delivery. I am particularly interested the DAK adjusted trousers. Thanks.

I certainly will, though after reading this article:

http://permanentstyle.blogspot.com/2010 ... aists.html

I have switched from DAKs adjusters to the adjustable metal tabs.

Two rear pockets is quite normal - there is no rule whatever that one is somehow right and two wrong. I too use both as a matter of course and do not have any trousers with only one.

Cinema, without intending to sway your decision, I feel compelled to offer some countervailing words to Will's polemical characterization of DAKS-top trousers.

I find the DAKs tops much cleaner and less fussy than metal side adjusters, which sit lower on the trouser and create bulk over the hips, especially if the tab is pulled through enough that it begins to flop. In that case, the advantage over belts for maintaining the smooth line of a suit is lost.

The "continuously adjustable" quality of the metal side adjusters is an advantage, but only if you are expecting your waist measurement to fluctuate three-quarters of an inch or more in either direction. In my experience, if DAKS tops are properly sized, they begin just at the point of slight tension on the hidden elastic, such that the trousers will stay comfortably and neatly in place with fluctuations of half an inch in either direction without moving to a different button, and under these conditions there's no noticeable bunching or gapping. It's the elastic that should do the bulk of the adjustment work; the extra buttons are for show and, perhaps, extreme situations. On my examples, the elastic extends only from the midline (side) to about seven inches back from it (on a 30.5" waist). An advantage of spreading the compression over that large area is that, with a reasonably substantial waistband construction, there is no concentration of force at one place, and no visible buckling (and any that theoretically might occur would be concealed by the jacket--as it would on side adjusters). Will talks about the horrors that result when a belt or DAKS tops are "cinched tight"; but when should properly fitting trousers ever need to be "cinched tight"? Though I've seen many DAKS-top trousers in action, I have in fact never observed any that betrayed bunching at all, much less any that looked like "tracksuit bottoms." I have on more than one occasion, on the other hand, observed side-adjusters pulled tight enough to cause bunching.

I've been wearing DAKs tops for several years now, and only once have I ever been tempted to rebutton--when I had temporarily lost about an inch in the waist due to illness. But to take up that much slack with metal side adjusters would certainly have resulted in unsightly bunching of the cloth under them, just as it would on the DAKS pair. In ordinary use I can easily accommodate the result of an indulgent dinner without rebuttoning.

So if one has a reasonably stable waistline, one need not rule out DAKS-top trousers. Under those conditions, the decision should really be based on which style feels best to you and which look you find more congenial. If DAKs-tops were as non-functional as Will implies, they would not have retained their place in the sartorial palette all these years. After all, they were invented to accommodate the flexing of the torso in golf and lawn sports.

If one has a very soft waist and/or experiences regular waistline fluctuations that run to inches, then any system of adjusting will cause bunching and your choice is simply how you prefer to distribute it. Under these circumstances Will's argument is as good as any other.

Russell did mention that one of his jacket makers when reading that he needed to make a Blackberry pocket called to inquire how big a bunch of blackberries needed to be accommodated...

Haha, That's a good one. It's still better than with Apple!
Good luck with your suit and remember to stand naturally when you get fitted.

Just had my baste fitting, short but sweet.

Just tried on the one armed jacket and relaxed as Russell work away with pins and chalk. Already it's feeling like it's moulded rather than just hanging off me.

I made the switch back to the DAKs waist - if they're good enough for Couch, they're good enough for me.

Oh and this photo influenced my decision as well!

cinema wrote:Just had my baste fitting, short but sweet.

Just tried on the one armed jacket and relaxed as Russell work away with pins and chalk.

You must have had your call on Thursday as well then? I'd intended to visit today but I ended up at home looking after my unwell daughter. Monday beckons...