An old tweed suit revived

[Frog in Suit]

A houndstooth colour and weave effect is produced with a combination of 4 and 4, or 8 and 8, threads of contrasting colours in the warp crossed with similar wefts and woven in a 2 and 2 twill to form a jagged check. The gunclub is the same except it is a 6 and 6 color combination woven in a 2 x 2 twill.

M Alden

Thank you for your explanation. I apologize for being dense, but what is a 2 x 2 twill? Is there a source of information where I can find the basics so I do not have to ask what must be elementary -- and no doubt boring , to the rest of the forum -- questions? Am I correct, beyond the weaving technique issue, in believing a gunclub to be a "clean", orthogonal pattern, and a hounsdstooth to appear "messy" or jagged, as Michael aptly puts it?

The Donegal tweed as shown in the pics is actually a fairly sophisticated "flat" version and this works very well as does a quiet herringbone tweed with the silk threads. I think the key is a quiet look. The really big window panes in a suit worn in the city look a bit ott. You can get away with them in a sportcoat for casual city wear with flannels or cords at the weekend but that's about it.

Donegal tweed: are you referring to the suit pictures in my opening post, or am I missing something? As far as I know, that is a West of England cloth, not a Donegal. I have a tweed coat in Donegal, and it is a very different, softer, cloth, with what appear to be dots, or tufts, of various colour threads with no visible pattern.

Frog in Suit

[Frog in Suit]

Sorry, I did not look far enough back in the thread .

Frog in Suit


Oops! This belongs in another thread.

Apologies to all.

Frog in Suit

[marcelo]

Thank you both for your comments, which I shall use to good purpose within the (ahem) family circle .

I have seen one or two photographs of Evelyn Waugh wearing suits in the same vein, presumably from Anderson and Sheppard:







Question: Would you describe the cloth of my suit as a gunclub, rather than a houndstooth?

Best,

Frog in Suit

Dear FiS, thanks for the images of your Sherlock suit. It is really beautiful and I hope the other positive comments in this thread will have encouraged you to wear it more often…. I have just read a passage from Evelyn Waugh and could not fail to remember the reference to Waugh in this thread:

“... the English Gentleman was once one of our most valuable invisible exports ... Men’s clothes are an example. London is the centre of the tailoring trade … quite simply because large numbers of foreigners wish to look like English gentleman. The Pasha…, the jewelled Argentine…, the patient Armenian…, each cherishes the innocent belief that the Savile Row label in his breast pocket makes him indistinguishable from a member of the Turf Club.” (Evelyn Waugh, in “What to do with the Upper Class: A Modest Proposal, 1946)

Savile Row label in one’s breast pocket sounds an interesting piece of fiction though…

[Frog in Suit]

Dear FiS, thanks for the images of your Sherlock suit. It is really beautiful and I hope the other positive comments in this thread will have encouraged you to wear it more often…. I have just read a passage from Evelyn Waugh and could not fail to remember the reference to Waugh in this thread:

“... the English Gentleman was once one of our most valuable invisible exports ... Men’s clothes are an example. London is the centre of the tailoring trade … quite simply because large numbers of foreigners wish to look like English gentleman. The Pasha…, the jewelled Argentine…, the patient Armenian…, each cherishes the innocent belief that the Savile Row label in his breast pocket makes him indistinguishable from a member of the Turf Club.” (Evelyn Waugh, in “What to do with the Upper Class: A Modest Proposal, 1946)

Savile Row label in one’s breast pocket sounds an interesting piece of fiction though…

Dear Marcelo,

Thank you very much for your kind compliments and for the Waugh quote. To "the Pasha..., the jewelled Argentine...., the patient Armenian", add the Frivolous Frog ! I am under no illusion that I could ever pass as a member of the Turf Club, however.

A proper tailor's label, as far as I know, is always sewn in the right inner* breast pocket of the coat , inside the left part of the waistcoat back strap, and inside the back of the trousers.

May I extend my best wishes for the Holidays to you and yours?

Frog in Suit


*: Not the outer breast pocket, where the silk handkerchief normally goes, despite what our erudite co-forumist NJS has to say about the impropriety of wearing them in town (History of Men's Fashion, What the Well-Dressed Man is Wearing, by Nicholas Storey, page 30). I fear he is sadly misguided there .

[marcelo]

Dear FiS, thanks for your kind remarks on my previous post. That the Brazilian, or at any rate some frivolous inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro, were not ranked by Mr Waugh along with the Pasha, the jewelled Argentine, the patient Armenian and, for that matter, the Frivolous Frog, is quite inexcusable. Some of my personal acquaintance might even not object being taken for a member of the Turf Club, though it is most unlikely ever to happen.

I was also rather surprised about what our erudite fellow LL member NJS states about the appropriateness, or lack thereof, of silk handkerchief in town. This notwithstanding NJS’s book is one of the best titles on things sartorial I know of.

Bonnes fêtes à toi et à toute ta famille!

A bientôt

Marcelo

[Frog in Suit]

Dear FiS, thanks for your kind remarks on my previous post. That the Brazilian, or at any rate some frivolous inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro, were not ranked by Mr Waugh along with the Pasha, the jewelled Argentine, the patient Armenian and, for that matter, the Frivolous Frog, is quite inexcusable. Some of my personal acquaintance might even not object being taken for a member of the Turf Club, though it is most unlikely ever to happen.

I was also rather surprised about what our erudite fellow LL member NJS states about the appropriateness, or lack thereof, of silk handkerchief in town. This notwithstanding NJS’s book is one of the best titles on things sartorial I know of.

Bonnes fêtes à toi et à toute ta famille!

A bientôt
Marcelo

Cher Marcelo,

Merci et meilleurs Vœux. Un autre francophone!

I think NHS's book is absolutely wonderful and I much admire the research that went into it, but I also like ( ) to quibble with some of his pronouncements (e.g., no pocket handkerchiefs in town, slanted pockets on a DB, and -- horresco referrens -- leaving a DB's lower button undone...

I look forward to an animated discussion, in person, of those and other sartorial and non-sartorial topics, perhaps in 2009??
Best,

Frog in Suit