Style Guide – The Suit Canvas Explained

WHAT IS A SUIT CANVAS?

A traditional method of bespoke suit making, the term canvas refers to the construction of a suit jacket. While the suit canvas itself is hidden from view, it plays a crucial part in giving balance and structure to a suit. It provides more support for the garment and helps to keep its shape.

As you wear a canvassed suit, over time the canvas itself begins to conform to your body’s shape, becoming a better fit the more you wear it. The canvas structure also increases durability of the garment and helps to create curvature in the chest.

The suit canvas is typically a blend of wool and animal hair (mainly horse and camel). The main benefits of wool and animal hair is that as natural fibres they can be manipulated using pressure, heat and humidity to create and retain shape. They are also light in weight and hard wearing.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The chest piece is probably the most important part of the suit jacket. This is also known as the forepart. It is in this part of the jacket that you have the canvas, made up of three layers -horsehair, demette (a soft felt like fabric) & body canvas. The soft felt is applied as a barrier to prevent the hair fibres in the canvas poking through the outer cloth and scratching the wearer.

The canvas is then hand pad stitched to sit between the outer cloth and the inner lining of a suit jacket. This gives beautifully soft and elegant 3d contouring. Hand pad stitching is also applied to the lapels and collars, where the cloth is rolled while stitching to achieve a soft and perfect curve on the lapel and top collar.

HOW DO WE DO IT?

At Cad & the Dandy we use horsehair canvas in all of our bespoke suits. The canvas is applied through the full length of the jackets foreparts, from the top of the shoulder to the hemline, giving the benefit of a longer lifespan and a fit like no other – perfect shape, feel, comfort and silhouette which only improves with wear.

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