If there is one event in the music calendar that is likely to produce fashion faux pas, it is the Grammy awards. Last year’s highlights included Katy Perry in a sequin-encrusted imitation of a fruit bowl; M.I.A’s blue bed quilt dress; and Paula Abdul’s gladiator/bright yellow Big Bird number, to name but a few.

The chances are, however, that as the male musicians take to the stage at this year’s awards on Sunday, they will escape such criticism. Take two of this year’s nominees, Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z, who are likely to dress much as they did for last year’s awards: in a light grey suit, skinny black tie and crisp white shirt (Timberlake), and a slim-cut, single-breasted charcoal grey suit (Jay-Z). Such sartorial sobriety in the bling-bling world of pop may seem initially incongruous, but these male entertainers are following a long and honourable tradition: rock star as frock star.

It began in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the British tailor Edward Sexton, who, along with his business partner Tommy Nutter, Chittleborough and Morgan made suits for Mick Jagger and other rock legends. “The rest of Savile Row was very unhappy when they saw these guys coming out of our shop with their wide lapels and kipper ties,” laughs Sexton. “Mick liked his trousers extremely tight and high-waisted.”

Sexton, Nutter and Chittleborough and Morgan went on to produce the suits for the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover, and Sexton also mentored Sir Paul McCartney’s daughter, fashion designer Stella. Sexton’s clients now include musicians Pete Doherty and David Gray (prices start from £3,000 ($4,800) for a two-piece bespoke suit). He says, “You need to be 100 per cent professional and to not try and be their friend necessarily. But you do need to establish a rapport, as with any customer. We’ll just sit down and talk over a cup of tea without their agent or stylist. I see my job as interpreting their ideas.”

According to James Sleater, of up-and-coming London tailors Cad & the Dandy (who share shop space in Savile Row with Chittleborough & Morgan, suitmaker to Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts), many newer male pop stars are discovering the joys of quality British tailoring. “During the 1990s, and up to a few years ago, you found a lot of artists buying off-the-peg suits by Hugo Boss or Armani that were almost draped over them, but now they’re coming back to structured tailoring and well-fitted suits with shoulders and waists,” he says. “There’s a buzz again about English cloths and tailoring. It’s a reaction to the gangster rap bling.”

Pop star Will Young wears Kilgour suits, and soul singer Lemar is a fan of tailor Marc Wallace, who made him a one-button, single-breasted three-piece suit in petrol blue mohair and wool. “Having a suit made bespoke allows you to express your creativity as an artist – most people who are interested in music are interested in fashion,” says Lemar. “My new single has an ‘old school’ vibe about it, so I wanted to wear a good quality jacket. It’s a classic look.”

Tim Soar, a British DJ and men’s wear designer, says, “With fashion and music, one inspires the other. A collection or an album is a personal statement of creativity.”

Nick Hart, of Savile Row tailors Spencer Hart, says: “I’m not surprised that pop stars have come back to men’s tailoring,” noting that the legendary Miles Davis wore Brooks Brothers suits. “[Music stars] are offered clothes by designers as advertising, and sometimes it’s nasty, bling stuff but they prefer something that is beautifully made and has real quality.” Hart’s made-to-measure suits start at £2,500-£3,500.

Hart’s relationship with singer Robbie Williams goes back at least seven years, and he has made everything for the singer from an unstructured cotton suit for live performances to a cashmere overcoat. For next month’s Brit awards, he has made Williams a three-piece, midnight blue, mohair suit. “Midnight blue photographs better than black,” explains Hart, whose other clients include Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys.

Although there is no set style for the rock star suit, it still requires certain features, according to Savile Row tailor Richard Anderson (prices from £3,560 for a bespoke suit), whose clients include singers George Michael and Bryan Ferry. “We include things such as slightly longer sleeves than normal, so that they’ll look right when the singer is holding a mic, and dress preservers, which are small pads under the arms to absorb perspiration.”

Design details aside, for the male rocker, the Savile Row suit is – along with the Rolls-Royce and the country estate – a sign of success. It’s also a witty way of subverting what is traditionally seen as the preserve of the upper classes. Guests at the opening party for Edward Sexton and Tommy Nutter’s tailoring shop in 1969, for example, included Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney – and the Duke of Bedford.z

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After the measurements and design have been thrashed out between customer and tailor and cloth selected we need to obviously call off the cloth from the fabric supplier. By not holding fabric ourselves like all other major tailors we can free up cash flow and offer far more cloth from more merchants.

In this instance Chris Eubank selected a cloth from a mill in Huddersfield from where it is couriered to us.

Whilst the cloth is making its way down from “up north” we begin work on making the paper pattern.

This paper pattern is the blue print for the suit and is created and held for every customer from which all future orders will be made from. This is strictly drawn up by hand and although more time consuming than chalking straight onto the cloth (skipping the step of pattern making on paper) this is the age old way and long may it continue. It is created by a human for a human. Computer generated pattern making is far more suited for made to measure tailoring.

Once the paper pattern has been made this is then laid out onto the cloth from which each peice of the pattern is cut. The art of tailoring starts here. It is essential that all stripes match where possible and this is no easy task. Laying out the pattern well taking up as little cloth of possible is key to keeping our costs competitive and not seeing huge cloth waste.

Recently we had the honour and “challenge” of being commissioned by the former WBO middleweight and super middleweight champion for a few new suits.

Chris who is known as much through-out the world for his unique style as much as his skills as a boxer has asked us to make seven new suits all incorporating his usual high buttoned jacket positioning and very fitted appearance.

Here at C&D we thought this would be a good opportunity to elaborate on the process Chris and all our London Cut customers go through from start to finished garment.

Stage 1.

The consultation and measurements.

Looking daper in C&D HQ

The consultation forms two parts, firstly the selection of the cloth and styling required. In Chris’ case he opted for one classic pinstripe super 150’s wool and cashmere blend from one of the best mills in Huddersfield. The blue is slightly lighter than navy and will be a perfect spring and summer suit for Chris. The other was a midnight blue barathea in a 12 oz cloth. A midnight blue is a great alternative to black as under artificial light a midnight blue often looks like a true black where as blacks often has a purple shimmer. The weight of cloth is perfect for Chris and will allow us to give the suit a lot of “chest” where we work the suit fabric into creating shaping over the chest area to emphasis and play to his body strengths.

Chris, like many customers, had very clear ideas on the style he wants for his suits, and after being a client of Kilgour for years he certainly knows his stuff! We decided not to venture too far from his existing suits but he asked us to create a more fitted looking jacket, and also to incorporate a roped shoulder (I will explain this in more detail in a later post).

Measurements take about 20 mins to complete and incorporates up to 47 body measurements to ensure the perfect fit.

Next  Stage is calling up the fabric from the merchant and I will write on this in the next post.

C

The White Rose Trophy

Like any football team will tell you, its all about the silverware and with that in mind we have managed to bring “home” two of the biggest awards in Tailoring history. We have currently the White Rose Trophy an award given to the best provincial tailor mounted on our shop wall. Its next stop after us is Kilgour on the Savile Row.

Also a slightly bigger piece of silverware in the shop window is the Dugdales White Rose Trophy. This is the precursor to the Golden Shears and was awarded to to “for excellence in the art of tailoring” Having been won by both “Mr Gieves”  (1950) and “Mr Hawkes” (1958) before their combined entity began as Gieves & Hawkes they are next inline to display the cup in the premises at No1 Savile Row.

Silverware in the shop

Those interested in tailoring history or silverware it is well worth stopping by Castle Court to have a look.

Two things in life everyman wants: An Aston Martin and a Savile Row suit to complete the look.

Now imagine the picture, you get a call from the kind gents making those automobiles and they offer you one at a quarter of the price that Even Mr Bond would pay, surely you would bite their right arm off?

Well over the past 12 months we have been toiling away under a shroud of secrecy, deployed a series of smoke screens and mirrors to fend of the inquisitive.

And although we have failed to convince those chaps to offer the car at a discount we have worked to create a new level of suit that’s hits the stipulations of a true “West-end”suit and also at one quarter of the price.

The suits contains over 5000 hand stitches, a fully floating canvass which helps create a sharper looking suit but also a more comfortable one. Below are the guidelines for of a Savile Row suit and the standards we have tried to achieve with this suit.

1)   Inlays to allow 3” adjustements to the main body seams

2)   All linings to be felled by hand

3)   Hand prick-stitched vent and front edge

4)   Slanting breast pocket with hand stitched border

5)   Top collar hand draw-stitched onto the facing

6)   Hand stitched front buttonholes and left lapel buttonhole with sewn flower loop. Inlay under collar

7)   Cuff with opening slit and hand stitched buttonholes

8)   Armhole lining eased and hand felled

9)   Front and cuff buttons sewn by hand with cross stitch

10)   Hand top-stitching on the front pockets

11)   Linen used to reinforce pockets and gorge

12)   Sleeves to be set in by hand

13)   Hand cut and shaped shoulder pads and canvass

14)   Hand canvassing on jacket foreparts

The hand-stitched suit is available from our shop and fitting days and will soon be launched online.

Tucked away between Cornhill and Lombard Street, the home of the Cad & The Dandy shop, is Castle Court and an incredible maze of little alleys.

At number 3 Castle Court is the George and Vulture, a fine old inn frequented by City workers yet virtually unknown to tourists. The Tavern boasts a history dating back in time to the 12th century. Chaucer is said to have frequented the place and Dick Whittington used to call in for a vessel when he got cheesed off with council meetings. In fact celebrities from all walks of early London life are supposed to have popped in for a swift one, but if we believe the claims of most of the City of London public houses then Johnson was rarely sober and Dickens never had time to go home.  However, the George and Vulture can in all honesty claim to have played host to Dickens who stayed there for a period.

Opposite our shop, fixed to a wall inside the tavern are two boundary markers defining the dividing line between the parishes of St Michael’s, Cornhill and St Edmund the King, Lombard Street. They originate from pre-Great fire days when City churches were so close together that there needed to be some physical means of ascertaining the limits of each parish. The boundary of the two parishes runs right through the bar of the George and Vulture.

Originally, the tavern was merely named the George but when the big blaze of 1666 swept through these alleys it devoured everything in its path and left the George as a shell of charred embers. A wine merchant of George Yard, whose sign was a tethered live vulture, lost his home and his livelihood, and after the tavern was rebuilt he negotiated with the landlord for part use of the George. Unhappy with the idea of having a live bird squawking around the door he agreed to change the name of his house to the George and Vulture.

The rear of Simpson’s Tavern is opposite to the George and Vulture on the north side of the Court, dating from the mid 1700s it is another lunch time dining spot not to be missed. Much like the George and Vulture it really is like stepping back 100 years in time.

At the top of the Court is the Jamaica wine bar which was the original London coffee house and was the location for the founding of Lloyds of London. Wood panelled walls make this a great destination for an after work drink or indeed a pre-suit fitting one.

In the heart of The City tucked between Cornhill and Lombard Street lie some of London’s oldest alleyways and now Cad & The Dandy’s City shop. A tailors for over 150 years, our shop now continues the long tradition of tailoring at the site. Fortunately the shop also sits alongside some of London’s finest establishments, including The Jamaica Wine Bar and George and Vulture. The likes of Chaucer, Whittington and Dickens have frequented the area so pop in to see us any weekday and if we’re not about you’ll now where to find us!

Directions to the shop here.

It’s quite amazing how many of those who purchase high end cameras, additional lenses and expensive accessories, investing not a single minute of their time into practice or examination of composition, then exhibit surprise that their shots are ‘not quite what they hoped they’d be.’ And for those who purchase sets of Global knives, a Kitchenaid and Mauviel pans and scratch their heads in bewilderment when their home made concoctions are little more than slop. One’s equipment is only as good as one’s ability; a mediocre artist with high end tools can only hope for a higher quality of mediocrity.

The same also goes for expensively purchased suits. No matter how avant-garde the design, how finely tailored, how perfectly accessorised; if you don’t wear your suits properly, it all goes to waste. I walked down the Strand recently and caught sight of an odd looking man in a beautiful chalk stripe suit. It was the right cut, the right shape and appeared to be well finished but he had loaded his poor pockets with what were probably important business accessories but may as well have been Bedfordshire bricks. The pockets could no doubt withstand the incredible weight and stress but what was really upsetting was that the whole aesthetic of the suit, the line, had been interrupted by these hideous and entirely avoidable cysts.

Considering the number of pockets that are sewn into suits, it can be rather tempting to drop into them items normally carried in briefcases and back pockets. A well tailored suit won’t fall apart if you do so but it would be so grossly altered in silhouette that the qualities for which it should be noticed would be concealed. I know someone who cares little about suits but still manages to purchase, off the peg, at decent English outfitters. Unfortunately, as he cares little about them, he cares little for them; his jacket becomes a mobile office with multiple Blackberries, pens, MP3 players and wallets bulging from his pockets. Consequently, the suit is utterly altered. It is no longer smart and presentable but merely a garment of depressing utility.

The suit we all know and love was not designed for this briefcase-free age of mobile telephony and portable music. It is of fine craft and fine lines and demands respect.

The other gear grinding issue with those who wear suits is that they often wear them as if they were manufactured by The North Face. In recent showers I noticed gentlemen scuttling around without raincoats or umbrellas, soaking their suits in London’s autumn rain. In my experience, suits are considerably worsened by exposure to rain. Naturally, suits are not, and nor should they be, items requiring precious protection but they are certainly not all-weather items. The worsted suit is no Barbour. A gentleman should wear a raincoat and carry a decent stick umbrella. No matter the suit, walking without these items in the rain makes you look like a vagrant.

Whenever I see a notched lapel these days, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. It’s not that I have anything against the poor old notch but it is simply that its continual deployment, in suits of varying formality and style, is rather excessive. I have duly bemoaned the practice of producing dinner suits, and even white tie tailcoats, with a notched lapel as an act of design laziness. And although some might bite back when I vocalise my disdain with the words ‘What’s wrong with the notched lapel?’ I might easily riposte, ‘Well, what happened to the peak lapel?’

Sartorially blind men cannot, and will not, see the difference between the two. Such a slight distinction would surely go unnoticed, they argue. I would disagree. In actual fact, a peak or a notch can make or break the aesthetics of the suit. It can be the difference between a winner and a clanger. With patterned suits this becomes particularly evident. My rule with checked suits is always to select a peak lapel, unless the suit is a casual three-button one. Check patterns draw the eye to right angles; the notch becomes conspicuous. The purpose of the notch or the peak is not to draw attention to itself. It is there to assist with the ‘flow’ of the suit.

With striped suits this issue becomes less important but I personally consider that striped suits are more formal suits and should, ideally, be made with a matching waistcoat for the colder times of year. A formal suit, and a three-piece one, should be made with a peak lapel. Notches look amateurish. If you need a guide for the lapel/formality issue, have a look at the double-breasted jacket. More formal than its single-breasted cousin, it always has a peak lapel.

Beyond the question of formality, there is the issue of flattery. Peak lapels are an excellent choice for men with narrow shoulders as the peaks themselves ‘point’ outwards to each shoulder, exaggerating their width. With a tailored waist, this flatters the wearer’s torso – wider shoulders and a narrow waist are the ideal.

Naturally, there are jackets for which a peak lapel would be too formal. Three button jackets should always be notched as the lapels are too short to allow the peak to work properly – proper peaks look like razor sharp blades cutting down the face of the suit; the longer the better. Country tweeds are less formal and should have notched lapels. The same goes for linen jackets and casual corduroys, but plain City suits can be either peaked or notched, depending on personal taste and planned usage. If you wish to look like a relaxed, prosciutto chewing Italian the notch is what you need. If however you’re wanting to be seen as a rakish, oyster gulping Brit the peak will help you look the part.

If ever you receive an invitation to an event that reads ‘Black Tie’ and utter a weary groan, it’s probable that you are simply not equipped for the occasion. If you rent your dinner suit, this groan is likely to be accompanied by an overbearing sense of shame and waste; the depressing journey to the renters, the awkward sizes, the regret at paying hard earned cash for a substandard item that will never even be yours. It all adds up to a remarkably unhappy experience.

The most frequently cited reason for a chap not owning a decent dinner suit is that the one-off expense of the purchase is simply not worthwhile. Black tie functions still happen, they contend, but they’re rarer and rarer; an acquaintance informed me they’d only been invited to one in the last three years. Admittedly, a dinner suit gets used far less than any other suit a gentleman might own but that alone should be no bar to making the investment.

The majority of functions to which a gentleman will wear black tie are social functions and a great number, at least in my experience, are occasions I would refer to as ‘social-professional’; in other words, they pertain to the person’s workplace or career. At such occasions, there are considerable opportunities to make the case for progression and promotion. Looking the part can be incredibly important. Most of the people I know who have been promoted quickly, if not prematurely, are people who are confident and convey the sense of natural belonging; if, in addition to meriting such a position, you look like you belong in the boardroom, it probably won’t be too long before you’re there.

My advice would be to get your dinner suit made to measure. Too many off the rack tuxedos look the same, are of dubious quality and, important to mention this, are invariably in need of correction. Many men chuckle about being James Bond when they pull on their dinner suit but how many of these men are wearing suits worthy of the association? And how many are pulling on polyester, satin striped trousers, clip on poly bow ties, enormous shirts and overlong, notched sheen lapel jackets? At a function it is important to suit the drink you are holding. Gentlemen attired so poorly will look utterly lost with their dry martini. The tailored dinner suit may not be worn all that often, but when it is, the effect will be devastating.

My advice would be to get a one button single breasted jacket in black or midnight blue (the latter is preferred) with peaked lapels – this is crucial, notched lapels are too casual – with a ribbed silk, not satin, face. Your shirt should ideally be made to measure also with a turn down collar that is not too cutaway as the bow should always have a little ‘seat.’ Trousers should be, naturally, of the same material and should have double stitch piping, and not a satin stripe, down the leg. The trousers should be pleated (ideally double pleats) and not flat fronted as flat fronted trousers are too informal for this most formal of suits. Buttons on such a suit should not be too showy but they should be slightly better than the standard black plastic. A ribbed silk ‘shank’ button is ideal.

The waistcoat issue is simple; I wear one in winter and not in summer. I would always get one made with a dinner suit, single or double breasted with, importantly, shawl collar lapels. Finally, invest in some patent Oxfords or opera pumps, buy some black silk socks, always wear a matte, silk bow that you tie yourself and when it comes to pocket squares, when in doubt, always fold a square of white cotton.