Shantung silk sources

[rjman]

I'm currently looking for some slubby shantung silk in blue to use as a jacketing. My tailor's not got quite what I want, so I'm wondering if there are reliable places I can source from. I understand that two companies, Bocchese and Basso, may still make shantung silk. Does anyone know how I can obtain some? For information, I've looked at the Scabal and Loro Piana samples my tailor sent and it wasn't quite what I wanted -- a bit too smooth. It's possible Draper's may have some, but I've been unable to find a reference online that would allow me to view a sample.

Obviously, there are hundreds of Chinese/Thai sources out there, but I don't know which ones would supply a good quality material that could be used in a jacket. Any advice would be welcome.

[radicaldog]

I had a Shantung suit made last year. The cloth was from a Drapers book. It's not as slubby as older Shatung, but it's OK. The tailor also had Shantung in another book, but I can't remember what it was -- possibly Zegna.

[tteplitzmd]

Many years ago I had Chipp make a suit of Draper's Dupioni silk. The cloth cost a fortune, and the jacket had to be discarded. I don't know anything about tailoring but the cloth was said to be very difficult to work with. Basically, it was as if the cloth shrunk, and this was done as full bespoke. I am left with the trousers, odd slacks now. The Draper's Dupioni had some slubs, with a beautiful soft feel, compared to a cheaper version from one of the other cloth merchants.
It is only a guess, but perhaps you might want to talk with one of the Hong Kong visiting tailors, with a ladies dept (e.g. WW Chan travels with a superb ladies tailor on their US visits-they have a lot of silk swatches and obvious access to Eastern silks). I don't know if Como even deals with this.

[marcelo]

The slubs appear while two silk-worms spin the same cocoon. But I once read that the slubby effect can also be artificially obtained by employing silk wastes during the weaving. The result is, as a matter of course, bad quality shantung. Is it easy to detect the “authenticity” of the slubs?

[Leon]

Udeshi has silk jackets in his window, in beige and purple(!).

Could ask him his source?

Leon