Our customers on the other side of the pond will be pleased to hear that Cad & The Dandy are now regularly visiting New York City.

Appointments

Book online or call us on (917) 720 3842 until 2pm EST or until 9pm EST during our tours. Alternatively, email us at appointments@cadandthedandy.co.uk .

Location

Our appointments will be held at the New York Barclay InterContinental, which is located on 111 East 48th St between Lexington and Park Avenue.

New York Barclay InterContinental
111 East 48th St
New York 10017
(located between Lexington and Park Avenue)

Current Tour Date

May
Wednesday 23rd to Friday 25th 2012

As winter gradually morphs into spring, then our thoughts turn to what essential looks can the discerning Cad and the Dandy customer hope to see on our streets for spring and summer, this year.

Setting the Tone

After the trend for colour-blocking, the news this year is that tone on tone will be really big.  Shades of the same colour, worn together in a subtle symphony, look great but get it wrong and you’ll strike a discordant note.

Use darker tones for the top layer and add in white as an accent colour to highlight the tones – avoid black as it will kill the contrast.  Be sparing with your layers too – it’s supposed to be dressing for the warmer weather!

Blue will be enormously popular this summer so try a navy cable-knit cardigan over a blue-checked shirt, matched to light-blue trousers.  Team up with a pair of navy (not black or brown) loafers to complete the look.  For a more casual look, go for a cerulean blue with pale blue linen shorts for a sea-side effect.

Neutral Gear

Cream is a softer and easier colour to wear than a harsher white hence its popularity on the catwalks this season.  Creams, beiges and caramels, tethered with a touch of olive green add up to a spring look that is the perfect combination for the countryside.

For this reason, invest in a soft cream jumper for summer – a tricot knit pullover, such as this one by Issey Myake is ideal.  This is ideal for slinging over your shoulders on a cool summer’s evening and will twin up with a pair of light-coloured chinos eg camel or grey-blue for a smart summer look.

Transparency

No, not quite what it means – this does not mean being totally honest about leaving the loo seat up or nicking the last tea bag.

Transparency will (apparently) be big trend in both men’s and women’s wear this summer.  The idea is that the use of muslin or mosquito netting “skilfully uncovers the male muscular torso”. Unfortunately it will also reveal beer bellies and paunches in all their glory.  So, if you don’t want to look like an old fishing net on legs, avoid at all costs.

Fringe Benefits

Spring 2012 will also see the rise of the fringed loafer – the shoe rather than the newest company intern.

Fringed or tasselled loafers add a touch of zest to a spring look, especially if in a blue or neutral suede.  However, steer clear of these stinkers from Prada – a vital combination of golf and bowling shoe, sporting a bigger fringe than Cher in her “I’ve Got You, Babe” days and topped off with a neon green trim.

If you hot-foot it down to any decent shoe store, you should be able to find the perfect pair to complement your spring look.

Many thanks to fashionbeans.com

So, why the sudden resurgence of the long-time unpopular, or certainly under used, waistcoat?  For our wedding customers a three-piece clearly makes a lot of sense: something to add to the occasion and make the groom stand out for the crowd, so naturally the ratio here is high.  For our wedding customers we make a waistcoat for almost 1 in every 2 customers.  This obviously skews the stats, but doesn’t account for the entire trend.  Our City customers are indeed also adopting the trend.  There’s certainly been a push from celebs sporting the waistcoat (take Gary Barlow every Saturday night, or Tom Ford on an afternoon stroll through LA), but from conversations with customers this isn’t what’s swaying them.  It’s more than that.  The fact is that a waistcoat does look good – it’s smart, sharp and masculine, but fell from popularity in recent decades as the work place became more relaxed and casual. The resurgence seems to come from the fact that the work place isn’t so relaxed or casual in London anymore – people are hanging on by their teeth and doing what they can to make sure they’re not the one under the chopping block. The trend is simple: when times are tough, people smarten up.  The simple waistcoat, it appears, is what London’s businessmen are banking on to smarten up their image and make sure that it’s not their seat that is in danger.

Cad & The Dandy are not only committed to making the finest garments but also to making the acquisition of bespoke pieces a great experience for our customers. For a number of our clients, their first introduction to us is a visit to our website, so we have taken the building of this site as seriously as we do the building of our suits. We have a diverse clientele at C&TD, catering for a broad range of both traditional and contemporary styles, as well as for those who like to sport a more individual look, so we felt it was important to have dedicated pages for all the different segments of the tailoring world.

Our whole ethos at C&TD is not only to provide a service of the highest standard, but at the same time create a friendly approachable environment for our clients where they can comfortably discuss what they need, their personal tastes and their sartorial aspirations. We like to think we can meet even the most exacting requirements, and by keeping an eagle eye on the textile and fashion industry, we can also keep our customers up to date on the latest fabrics, trends and looks.

We pride ourselves at being at the cutting edge of bespoke tailoring, in more ways than one, aiming to satisfy even the most discerning customers. We always welcome a challenge if a client requests something exceptional or unique, and had this very much in mind when we developed our branding. We want our customers to know we have something for everybody, as you will see if you take a look through our gallery. We purposely used our customers as models so our products could be seen on real people of all shapes, sizes, personalities and styles, and to show that we deliver a superbly crafted garment to meet all the very different criteria our customers bring to us. Not only do we maintain the very best of what one would expect from a Savile Row tailor, but we always offer the very best value too.

Our company is fast becoming synonymous with Savile Row chic and quality, so make sure you visit the site regularly and keep abreast of our latest products and services.

However, this remarkably proved not to be the case which shows the grip they had on trousers was extremely difficult to shake off.  Braces began to be worn to define a look or style by certain groups of society.

The skin-heads of the Sixties and Seventies wore braces as an integral part of their “street look”, and along with the drainpipe jeans, granddad shirts, Doc Marten this became an outfit of subversive menace.

Red braces became synonymous with the financial sector after the film “Wall Street” was released in 1987.  Michael Douglas, who starred as Gordon Gekko sported a pair to repeat his mantra that “greed was good”.  Red braces were so associated with the banking industry that when Sir Ken Morrison (then Chairman of Morrisons’s supermarkets) went cap in hand to the city in 2004 to raise capital, he decided to pop on a pair.

Red braces, even today, seem to attract a following – here’s the latest squeeze of Kate Winslet, Ned Rocknroll, wearing a thin pair of braces to impress her.

Bright braces took a colourful and childish accent – Robin Williams’ rainbow coloured braces added to the gentle charms of his character Mork in the TV series, Mork and Mindy.

And of course, braces remained a staple of elderly gents’ wardrobes – here’s a pic of my great-grandad (born in the reign of Queen Victoria) who didn’t eschew his braces, even on the beach in 1959.

If you are a fan of braces then the place to go is Albert Thurston, available from their website or other outfitters. They have been supplying braces since 1820 and they have a magnificent range. Check out this pair of Blue Angels and Red Devils (with its traditional black goatskin ends and hand polished brass fittings) and you can literally have the devil on your shoulder!

For the evening, there’s this luxurious pair of white moiré, braid ends and white leather joints which Daniel Craig wore, with dinner jacket, bow tie and dress shirt in Casino Royale.

Yet however fancy the braces are, they still have the practical capabilities of keeping one’s trousers aloft.  This fact was patently forgotten by the Lord Mayor of Leicester, Colin Hall last year.

As His Worship attended an educational event with pupils from three local schools present, he suffered an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction and his trousers slid down to his knees.

As a Leicester City council spokesman succinctly put it; “He was not wearing a belt and his trousers came loose and fell”.

The abashed Councillor Hall perhaps should reflect that a belt and braces attitude is possibly the best way to approach life.

Too Sexy for my Pants.

NBC recently declined to make a full length series of WonderWoman, based on the recent pilot which starred Adrianne Palicki as the heroine.

No wonder when you remember Lynda Carter as the original TV  kick-arse lass, back in the Seventies.  We all loved Lynda for her all-American looks, her steely blue eyes and of course that fantastic figure in that satin bustier and natty little satin shorts bedecked with stars.

Contrast that with the picture here of Adrianne, galloping down the street, ready to lasso some villains, wearing leggings!  Yes, wrinkly old leggings!  And also wearing a PVC bra which is clearly tackier than some sticky-backed plastic from Blue Peter.

Is there any guy on earth who actually prefers leggings to shorts?  Shorts are sexy and teasing – and the clue is they’re called hotpants.  Leggings, on the other hand are, well, pants.

When Lord Flashheart of Black Adder fame, said: “I have an idea and it’s hotter than my pants”,  he was not referring to leggings.  Leggings are for Baldricks and should stay where they belong – preferably in the Dark Ages.

By Miss Dandy

This is a short video from our Autumn 2011 photoshoot and we hope you enjoy it!

Bespoke Tailors Cad & The Dandy Photoshoot

Square Mile is where the City comes to play.

Square Mile delivers high-quality editorial from the very best in the business to the best in banking. The right blend of luxury lifestyle, industry and news all adds up to one thing: engagement with the magazine by its target readers

The steep valleys around Huddersfield and Bradford were home to some of the largest wool textile enterprises in the world during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Generations of craftsmen built up their cloth making skills over these years and these have been handed down to the designers and technicians of today.

In a world of globalisation, its good to know that these rare skills are still found in the heart of Yorkshire to design and make a men’s suiting cloth ideal for 21st century living. The cloth is soft and supple, yet resilient. The cloth is made from a choice super 120′s merino wool worsted and is tightly woven with a traditional two fold weft to ensure quick recovery after wearing. After weaving, the cloth is naturally processed with soft Yorkshire water using the most modern machinery to give a beautiful, permanent finish.

The cloth quintessentially English in character, this new collection offers contemporary classics that are never out of fashion together with more adventurous styles that are never out of place.

One man blew this world apart.  His name was Tommy Nutter and he became known as the Rebel on the Row.

The scene has already been set for Nutter by the time the Swinging Sixties had arrived in London for a whole array of colourful men’s wear shops exploded onto the scene like a psychedelic rainbow.  John Pearson opened up Granny Takes a Trip whilst Mr Fish stocked shirts and ties in every available colour. A new era in men’s clothing had arrived.

Nutter’s own background was that of a sales assistant when he met Edward Sexton, a cutter who had trained with Kilgour, French and Stanbury, one of the great bespoke tailors of Savile Row.  Sexton supplied the genius cutting and Nutter a host of brilliant ideas and thus a memorable partnership began.

Cilla's suit made by Tommy

Whilst Dougie Hayward was beloved by the film industry, Nutter carved out a niche as a tailor to the world of pop and rock. Indeed, when his first shop opened in 1969, Cilla Black and her husband Bobby were one of his financial backers. (Indeed, these this 3 piece suit was made for Cilla in 1972 and she wistfully regrets the fact it no longer fits!)

Nutter’s Savile Row establishment was strikingly different from the start.  Its plate glass front was opened up to the gaze of the public, thus making it accessible to the world.  The interior was a curious mixture of architectural salvage, old and new furniture and mirrored walls.  Savile Row looked on unperturbed and gave the sartorial upstarts six months.

However, Tommy was to prove his critics all wrong. His suits epitomised style, confidence and flamboyance, summed up by Elton John who said, “Tommy completely glamorised Savile Row”.

So what exactly was the Nutter style?  Tommy’s trademark look was to match the trim on the suit lapels to the trim on the patch pockets thus ensuring a unique look and one that gave the jacket an air of homogeneity.  But Tommy’s genius was to adapt his style to the character of his clients, to create a look that captured the essence of their personality.

A typical cream suit by Tommy

For Prince Rajsinh of Rajpipla, (who became an avid customer) he created an exotic brocade jacket for a sophisticated evening look. This dates from the 1970s. The cream suit dates from the same era; both suit trousers are based on a 1930s cut which was baggier than the current normal trend.

This suit for Neil Sedaka picks up on pop flamboyance of the Seventies.  Neil’s patchwork waistcoat is balanced out with a plaid wool jacket and dates from 1975.  Neil had several clothes made by Nutter and he also commissioned Tommy to make an outfit for his little boy.

Neil Sedaka's jacket and waistcoat

Tommy’s order book reads like a roll call of famous rock stars – Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Maurice Gibb, the Beatles, Elton John….

And rock stars had their little quirks. There is a cream double-breasted jacket and trousers, made for Charlie Watts who liked  a narrower cut on his trousers than his fellow Stones member, Mick Jagger.

Maurice Gibb's green velvet suit

Jagger has embraced bright colours in his suits for most of his life – just a few weeks ago, the 68 year old rocker was snapped wearing a bright pink suit. Nutter made green and yellow suits in bright  citrus colours  for him whilst crafting this elegant green suit for Maurice Gibb in 1976.

Elton John loved the Nutter look too and in 1984, he commissioned Tommy to make his stage jumpsuits for his “I’m Still Standing” tour.

In 1976, Tommy left Nutters in Savile Row and the business continued under Sexton, Chittleborough and Morgan.  He moved into ready to wear, producing a collection for Kilgour and in 1988 he opened a new shop in Savile Row where he continued to produce his distinctive suits.  Such was Tommy’s reputation that two talented juniors, Timothy Everest and John Galliano both joined the firm.

By the 1990s, Tommy’s health was in decline and he sadly died in 1992, way before his time.  But his legacy lives on in his suits, which were kept and cherished by his customers and these remain a striking monument to the cutting skills of Savile Row.

Tommy Nutter – the Rebel on the Row exhibition continues at the Fashion and Textile Museum until the 22 October 2011.

Vince Morse – the Code Name for Stupid

Actress Jessie Wallace has had a lucky escape. Just before her impending nuptials, her erstwhile finance´, Vince Morse sent an explicit photo of Jessie to his ex-girlfriend, Karen Short.

According to our Vinnie, it was because he was “drunk and showing off.”

Vince is so stupid he cannot clock you are supposed to send saucy photographs of yourself, not your fiancee´ to any available third-party girlfriend.  Even Ashley Cole managed to get that bit right.

Vince is also stupid because he cannot even tie a bow tie straight.  Girls, never trust a bloke whose bow tie lists off the horizontal.  It’s a sure sign of a cad, a bounder or just a plain loser. Someone whose condition is “as crooked as his carcass,“ to quote the dashing Elizabethan, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

Jessie has cancelled the wedding and has remained holed-up in her house in Surrey, scoffing the wedding cup-cakes and watching her wedding flowers die, in an attempt to alleviate her misery.

Jessie, you deserve better.  Be patient and your Mr Right will come along.  And next time make sure he can tie the knot properly.

By Miss Dandy

Production:

The annual worldwide production of wool is estimated to be around 2.1 million tonnes with Australia providing over a fifth of the worlds total, followed closely by China, Iran, Argentina, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It comes as a surprise to many that almost no Britsh wool is turned in suiting, British wool is too coarse due to our climate for the production of fine grade yarn. It is with imported yarn that Britain has always built its reputation as the worlds best cloth maker.

Properties

• An all purpose fibre
• Combinations of fibres and different weaving methods and techniques means it is possible to obtain as almost infinite variety of wools, differing in texture, weight and durability.
• Absorbs moisture well and has fantastic warming properties
• An incredibly soft fibre
• fineness:generally between 13-40u
• length of fibre: 65-130mm

Practical usage

Wool is at the base of many fabrics and wooven into thick yarn it makes a great summer suit. Conversely when using a lighter weave it makes a great summer cloth. Either way this should always be the default option for a work suit.